Department News

  • After 15 years, pulsar timing yields evidence of cosmic gravitational wave background

    June 29, 2023

    University of California, Berkeley Astronomy research groups lead by Professor Chung-Pei Ma and Assistant Adjunct Professor Luke Zoltan Kelley have just published papers supporting the widespread conclusion that the universe is full of low frequency gravitational waves. Read More...

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  • UC Berkeley Astronomy Honors the Lives of Two Former Faculty: Leo Blitz and Frank Shu

    May 19, 2023

    In Memoriam Leo Blitz University of California, Berkeley Professor of Astronomy 1981-2022 Leo Blitz passed away on Dec 20, 2022.       Obituary for Leo Blitz Memorial Site for Leo Blitz: https://www.kudoboard.com/boards/wwZyag8O In Memoriam Frank Shu University of California, Berkeley Professor of Astronomy 1973-2002 Frank Shu passed away on April 22, 2023.       Obituary for Frank Shu http://memorial.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/frankshu/msg4news.html Memorial Site for Frank Shu http://memorial.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/frankshu/wall.html

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  • M87 in 3D: New view of galaxy helps pin down mass of the black hole at its core

    April 17, 2023

    A new, highly detailed analysis of the motion of stars in the giant elliptical galaxy M87 has been used to determine the mass of the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's center. Read More...

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  • Bright gamma ray burst confounds models of black hole birth

    March 28, 2023

    Last October, following one of the brightest flashes of gamma rays ever observed in the sky, telescopes around the world captured a wealth of data from an event that is thought to herald the collapse of a massive star and the birth of a black hole. Raffaella Margutti, associate professor of astronomy and of physics at the University of California, Berkeley, notes that the data demonstrated that our models of such events are woefully inadequate. Read More...

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  • Cal scientists star in Webb Telescope exploration

    February 7, 2023

    Cal scientists star in Webb Telescope exploration (OFFSITE LINK)  

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  • Were galaxies much different in the early universe?

    January 24, 2023

    An array of 350 radio telescopes in the Karoo desert of South Africa is getting closer to detecting “cosmic dawn” — the era after the Big Bang when stars first ignited and galaxies began to bloom. Joshua Dillon, a research scientist in the University of California, Berkeley’s Department of Astronomy is lead author on a new paper describing a twofold increase in the sensitivity of  the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA). Read More...

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  • Webb Space Telescope, Keck team up to study Saturn’s moon Titan

    December 1, 2022

    UC Berkeley astronomer Imke de Pater is part of a team that is using combined observations with the Webb Space Telescope and the Keck telescopes to study the weather patterns on Saturn's moon Titan. Read More...

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  • Chrysalis, the lost moon that gave Saturn its rings

    September 23, 2022

    A team including Burkhard Militzer, UC Berkeley professor of earth and planetary science and astronomy, has proposed a detailed theory that explains the origin of the rings of Saturn. Read more...

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  • Webb Telescope images Jupiter-like planet 350 light years away

    September 1, 2022

    UC Berkeley adjunct professor of astronomy Paul Kalas is co-investigator of a team that used the new James Webb Space Telescope to capture images of an exoplanet 350 light years from Earth. Read more...

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  • Surprising details leap out in sharp new James Webb Space Telescope images of Jupiter

    August 23, 2022

    UC Berkeley professor emerita Imke de Pater is one of the leaders of a team that used the new James Webb Space Telescope to observe Jupiter. Read more...

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