News
Baked meteorites yield clues to planetary atmospheres
April 15, 2021
The gases released from meteorite samples heated in a high-temperature furnace can tell scientists about the initial composition of the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets.
Study warns of ‘oxygen false positives’ in search for signs of life on other planets
April 13, 2021
Oxygen in the atmosphere may not be an entirely reliable ‘biosignature,’ but there are ways to distinguish false positives from signs of life.
Postdoctoral fellowships support planetary science research
March 31, 2021
Emily Martin and Melodie Kao have won 51 Pegasi b Fellowships to support their research on exoplanets.
Celestial heights and oceanic depths
March 11, 2021
Two of UC Santa Cruz’s most prominent trailblazers in science, astronomer Sandra Faber and alumna and former astronaut Kathryn Sullivan, spoke of risks, discoveries, and sexism in candid “fireside chat” during a Science and Engineering Library floor-naming event.
What Hollywood gets wrong (and right!) about protecting the Earth from asteroids
February 11, 2021
Meet alumna Kirsten Howley, the real-life astrophysicist working to prevent 'Armageddon'.
Astronomer J. Xavier Prochaska honored for top research paper in Science
February 9, 2021
J. Xavier Prochaska, distinguished professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, and his coauthors of a landmark paper describing a fast radio burst from a massive galaxy have been chosen to receive the prestigious AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize.
Two UCSC astronomers elected Fellows of the American Astronomical Society
February 2, 2021
Astronomers Raja GuhaThakurta and Garth Illingworth were honored as 2021 AAS Fellows for their extraordinary achievement and service.
UCSC’s Osterbrock Leadership Program goes national
January 13, 2021
The National Osterbrock Leadership Program provides experiences and opportunities for astronomy graduate students to develop leadership and management skills.
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
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.
