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This rocky planet around a white dwarf resembles Earth — 8 billion years from now
September 26, 2024
The discovery of an Earth-like planet 4,000 light years away in the Milky Way galaxy provides a preview of one possible fate for our planet billions of years in the future, when the sun has turned into a white dwarf, and a blasted and frozen Earth has migrated beyond the orbit of Mars. This distant planetary system, identified by University of California, Berkeley, astronomers after observations with the Keck 10-meter telescope in Hawaii, looks very similar to expectations for the sun-Earth system: it consists of a white dwarf about half the mass of the sun and an Earth-size companion in…
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Gibor Basri Honored with Walker Award
September 16, 2024
Gibor Basri, Professor Emeritus and former Vice Chancellor for Equity and Inclusion at the University of California, Berkeley will receive the 2024 Arthur B.C. Walker II Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. The Walker award recognizes outstanding achievement in astronomy and education by an African-American scientist. Professor Basri is honored for his contributions to our understanding of the nature and origins of low-mass stars and substellar objects as well as his lifelong commitment to promoting diversity in astronomy and STEM. Congratulations! Read more...
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Berkeley professor helps interpret new images of Jupiter’s moon Io
June 25, 2024
University of California, Berkeley professor emerita Imke de Pater was part of a team that interpreted new images of Jupiter's moon Io taken by the Large Binocular Telescope (LBT) on Mount Graham in Arizona. Read More...
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UC Berkeley will manage $300 million NASA mission to map the UV universe
March 25, 2024
UltraViolet EXplorer (UVEX), led by Caltech and managed by UC Berkeley, is expected to launch in 2030 An orbiting space telescope approved by NASA last month and scheduled for launch in 2030 will conduct the first all-sky survey of ultraviolet (UV) sources in the cosmos, providing valuable information on how galaxies and stars evolve, both today and in the distant past. The $300 million satellite mission, called UVEX (UltraViolet EXplorer), will be managed by the Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) at the University of California, Berkeley. The mission’s principal investigator is Fiona Harrison, a UC Berkeley Ph.D. recipient who is a…
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In Memoriam Jack Welch
March 15, 2024
It is with sadness that we note the death of Professor W.J. (Jack) Welch on March 10, 2024. Jack held appointments in both the Astronomy and Electrical Engineering departments and was a leader in the field of radio astronomy. In the late 1960's Jack and Charles Townes made the first detections of ammonia and water in interstellar space, using a radio telescope at the University of California's Hat Creek Radio Observatory. This seminal discovery triggered the detections of dozens of additional interstellar molecules by astronomers, enabled detailed studies of star formation in interstellar clouds, and launched the field of astrochemistry.…
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Webb telescope discovers intense jet stream in Jupiter’s atmosphere
October 19, 2023
University of California, Berkeley astronomers are part of a team that used NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to discover a fast-moving jet stream in Jupiter’s atmosphere. Read More
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Closest supernova in a decade reveals how exploding stars evolve
August 29, 2023
Several groups of University of California, Berkeley astronomers aimed telescopes at SN 2023ixf to capture data that advances our understanding of how exploding stars evolve. Read More...
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Hundred-year storms? That’s how long they last on Saturn.
August 11, 2023
A new study conducted by astronomers from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, shows that Saturn has long-lasting megastorms with impacts deep in the atmosphere that persist for centuries. Read More...
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James Webb Space Telescope sees Jupiter moons in a new light
July 27, 2023
University of California, Berkeley astronomers used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to reveal new details of Jupiter's moon, Io. Read More...
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When ET calls, can we be sure we’re not being spoofed?
July 24, 2023
University of California, Berkeley scientists are part of a team that has devised a new technique for finding and vetting possible radio signals from other civilizations in our galaxy — a major advance in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) that will significantly boost confidence in any future detection of alien life. Read More...
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