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Peering Back in Galactic Time
December 9, 2016
The astonishing beauty of galaxies visible from Earth has enchanted humanity ever since our ancestors first gazed into the twinkling night and wondrously beheld them. Some galaxies look like elegant whirling spirals or cosmic frisbees, while others look like elliptical blobs or lumpy irregular clumps smeared across the sky. The variety of galactic shapes prompts questions as old as astronomy: why do galaxies form these characteristic shapes? Can elliptical galaxies become spirals, or vice versa?
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Breakthrough Listen and Tabby’s Star
October 27, 2016
UC Berkeley's Breakthrough Listen project to spend several exciting nights observing Tabby's star from the Green Bank Telescope, located in West Virginia.
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Tracking of Eruptions on Juptier’s moon Io
October 21, 2016
Long-term, hi-res tracking of eruptions on Juptier's moon Io.
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HERA project receives nearly $10 million in funding from NSF
September 15, 2016
An experiment, lead by Astronomy's Professor Aaron Parsons, to explore the aftermath of cosmic dawn, when stars and galaxies first lit up the universe, has received nearly $10 million in funding from the National Science Foundation to expand its detector array in South Africa.
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Recent Faculty Discoveries Include Learning What’s Under Jupiter’s Clouds and the Most Precise Measurement of Universal Expansion to Date
June 6, 2016
Professors Imke de Pater and Alex Filippenko have each released information pertaining to findings regarding their respective research last Friday.
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Department Climate Update
February 10, 2016
A message from the Chair.
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Galaxy hunter Hyron Spinrad dies at 81
January 4, 2016
Remembering Galactic researcher, Berkeley alumni, and Department of Astronomy Professor Emeritus Dr. Hyron "Hy" Spinrad.
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Methane Enshrouds Nearby Jupiter-like Exoplanet
August 24, 2015
From article by Robert Sanders: "The Gemini Planet Imager has discovered and photographed its first planet, a methane-enshrouded gas giant much like Jupiter that may hold the key to understanding how large planets form in the swirling accretion disks around stars. The GPI instrument, which is mounted on the 8-meter Gemini South telescope in Chile, is the size of a small car and was designed, built and optimized for imaging and analyzing the atmospheres of faint Jupiter-like planets next to bright stars, thanks to a device that masks the star’s glare. “This is exactly the kind of planet we envisioned…
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Leuschner Observatory Garners New Attention
August 5, 2015
The Leuschner Observatory, part of the Astronomy department’s arsenal of research and teaching equipment, continues to receive attention from its hidden home in the hills above Lafayette, CA. As the department works to review and map out much needed upgrades and repairs to the observatory’s infrastructure, Leuschner is seeing increased interest: In January, architect Carol Reif received an award for photography after submitting a picture she snapped of the observatory dome to the “Day in the Life” contest through the Lafayette Friends of the Library. A feature article in the Lamorinda Weekly followed in July, introducing this wonderful little gem…
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Investor Yuri Milner joins with Berkeley in $100 million search for extraterrestrial intelligence
July 21, 2015
On Monday July 20th, the Breakthrough Prize Foundation and it's founder, famed internet investor Yuri Milner, announced a contract with UC Berkeley that will provide a massive boost of funding towards the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. The foundation has pledged $100 million dollars over the next 10 years to UC Berkeley and other additional institutions as part of the Breakthrough Listen project, a project aimed at creating and building new instruments to better analyze information collected by two telescopes that have been contracted through the project: the 100-meter Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and the 64-meter Parkes Telescope…
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