News
Friends of Lick Observatory helps fund wildfire recovery efforts
January 5, 2021
The group has designated $75,000 for the emergency support of wildfire relief efforts at Lick Observatory, where telescopes were saved but infrastructure was damaged.
UC Santa Cruz leads interdisciplinary consortium for astrobiology research
November 16, 2020
With funding from NASA, the UCSC-led team will lay the foundation for detecting the signatures of life in the atmospheres of other planets.
Radioactive elements may be crucial to the habitability of rocky planets
November 10, 2020
Earth-size planets can have varying amounts of radioactive elements, which generate internal heat that drives a planet’s geological activity and magnetism.
Anemic star cluster breaks metal-poor record
October 15, 2020
In a surprising discovery, astronomers have found a globular star cluster in the Andromeda galaxy that contains a record-breaking low amount of metals.
Astrophysicist Jonathan Fortney awarded 2020 Farinella Prize
September 22, 2020
Jonathan Fortney has been awarded the 2020 Paolo Farinella Prize from the Europlanet Society for his contributions to the understanding of the structure, evolution, and atmospheric dynamics of giant planets.
New observations of black hole devouring a star reveal rapid disk formation
August 26, 2020
The first clear confirmation of accretion disk formation in a tidal disruption event without x-ray emissions supports theoretical predictions.
UC’s Lick Observatory threatened by fire
August 20, 2020
Residences on Mt. Hamilton sustained some damage, but fire crews have so far been able to protect the observatory’s telescope domes and visitor center.
Calcium-rich supernova examined with x-rays for first time
August 5, 2020
An international team has obtained unprecedented observations of a rare calcium-rich supernova.
How galaxies die: New insights into the quenching of star formation
July 16, 2020
A simple model explains a wide range of observations by describing a contest between galaxy halos and their central black holes that eventually turns off star formation.
Astrophysics graduate student Diana Powell wins 2020 Ford Fellowship
July 15, 2020
Powell won a Ford Foundation Dissertation Fellowship to support her work as she completes her Ph.D. thesis on exoplanets.
White dwarfs reveal new insights into the origin of carbon in the universe
July 6, 2020
A new analysis of white dwarf stars supports their role as a key source of carbon, an element crucial to all life, in the Milky Way and other galaxies.
Black Lives Matter: A statement from our department
June 24, 2020
Physicist Tesla Jeltema wins Mentorship Award from American Physical Society
May 28, 2020
An accomplished astrophysicist, Jeltema is also a champion for diversity and a dedicated supporter of students at all levels.
Universe’s ‘missing matter’ finally found in the space between galaxies
May 27, 2020
An international team of astronomers has solved the decades-old mystery of the ‘missing matter’ long predicted to exist in the universe but never before detected.
Astronomers create cloud atlas for hot, Jupiter-like exoplanets
May 26, 2020
Giant planets in our solar system and circling other stars have exotic clouds unlike anything on Earth, and the gas giants orbiting close to their stars—so called hot Jupiters—boast the most extreme.
Astronomers discover a massive rotating disk galaxy in the early universe
May 20, 2020
The discovery by an international team of astronomers of a massive rotating disk galaxy, seen when the universe was only ten percent of its current age, challenges traditional models of galaxy formation.
Powerful new AI technique detects and classifies galaxies in astronomy image data
May 12, 2020
UCSC researchers developed a deep-learning framework called Morpheus to perform pixel-level morphological classifications of objects in astronomical images.
Watch UCSC participants talk about hope during TEDx Santa Cruz
April 23, 2020
Last December, TEDx Santa Cruz hosted a day-long extravaganza of talks curated around the theme of "The Art of Hope." Those talks, including ones by several UCSC affiliates, are now available for online viewing.
Astronomer Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
April 23, 2020
Other new members of the class of 2020 include singer Joan Baez, former Attorney General Eric Holder, and poet and playwright Claudia Rankine.
New formation theory explains the mysterious interstellar object ‘Oumuamua
April 13, 2020
A new scenario based on computer simulations accounts for all of the observed characteristics of the first known interstellar object to visit our solar system.
Physics undergraduate wins prestigious Goldwater Scholarship
April 2, 2020
Elizabeth Yunerman, a junior studying physics and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, has been named a 2020 Goldwater Scholar by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation.
Powerful new supercomputer supports campus research in physical sciences
October 30, 2019
UCSC faculty are using the new system for research in astrophysics, climate science, materials science, chemistry, and other fields.
