all Department of Astronomy stories

Invisible matters

404132862 — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 11:44:50 -0400

A new study seeking to answer the question of why some galaxies are extremely dark compared with others may eventually help to explain the formation of all galaxies, according to researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA).

Building a stellar time machine

50443248 — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:47:38 -0400

Harvard researchers are building a celestial time machine that lets astronomers look back at hundreds of thousands of objects in the Earth’s skies over the past century.

The effort aims to digitize 525,000 glass photographic plates taken at observing sites around the world between the 1880s and the 1980s. The collection, the largest such in the world, contains a treasure trove of largely unexamined data, according to Paine Professor of Practical Astronomy Jonathan Grindlay, who is leading the digitizing effort.

Peculiar, junior-sized supernova discovered by New York teen

50443248 — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:20:44 -0400

In November 2008, Caroline Moore, a 14-year-old student from upstate New York, discovered a supernova in a nearby galaxy, making her the youngest person ever to do so. Additional observations determined that the object, called SN 2008ha, is a new type of stellar explosion, 1,000 times more powerful than a nova but 1,000 times less powerful than a supernova. Astronomers say that it may be the weakest supernova ever seen.

Kepler starts search for other Earths

50443248 — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:04:05 -0400

As NASA’s Kepler space telescope this week begins scanning the Milky Way for planets that might harbor life, scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) are keeping their fingers crossed and waiting for the data to start flowing.

Life in the universe? Almost certainly. Intelligence? Maybe not

50443248 — Tue, 12 May 2009 13:56:00 -0400

We are likely not alone in the universe, though it may feel like it, since life on other planets is probably dominated by microbes or other nonspeaking creatures, according to scientists who gave their take on extraterrestrial life at Harvard recently.

Speakers reviewed how life on Earth arose and the many, sometimes improbable steps it took to create intelligence here. Radio astronomer Gerrit Verschuur said he believes that though there is very likely life out there — perhaps a lot of it — it is very unlikely to be both intelligent and able to communicate with us.

Taking a stride toward synthetic life

50443248 — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 19:29:28 -0500

Harvard scientists have cleared a key hurdle in the creation of synthetic life, assembling a cell’s critical protein-making machinery in an advance with both practical, industrial applications and that advances the basic understanding of life’s workings.

Charbonneau gets prestigious ‘young researcher’ award

50443248 — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 12:59:36 -0500

David Charbonneau, the 34-year-old Thomas D. Cabot Associate Professor of Astronomy, has been named the recipient of the National Science Foundation’s 2009 Alan T. Waterman Award, and will receive $500,000 over a three-year period for scientific research or advanced study in his field.

Transit search finds super-Neptune

404132862 — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:46:32 -0500

Astronomers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics have
discovered a planet somewhat larger and more massive than Neptune
orbiting a star 120 light-years from Earth. While Neptune has a diameter
3.8 times that of Earth and a mass 17 times Earth's, the new world
(named HAT-P-11b) is 4.7 times the size of Earth and has 25 Earth
masses.

Nature moves into 3D publishing

404132862 — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:44:24 -0500

New visualization techniques yield star formation insights

404132862 — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:38:42 -0500

New computer visualization technology developed by the Harvard Initiative in Innovative Computing has helped astrophysicists understand that gravity plays a larger role than previously thought in deep space’s vast, star-forming molecular clouds.

Astronomy Department dedicates new telescope

404132862 — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 12:53:55 -0500

A small knot of a dozen people gathered on the Science Center roof today to officially dedicate Harvard’s latest teaching telescope, a 16-inch cassegrain telescope built by DFM Engineering in Colorado.

The telescope, which will be used to teach about 100 astronomy students a year, was installed in one of the Science Center’s observatory domes during the summer of 2007 and has been in use for the past year. Friday’s event was an official dedication and unveiling of a plaque in honor of donor Landon Clay, who financed the new instrument.

The new telescope replaces an aging, similar-sized Meade telescope that will be moved to the Center for Astrophysics and used for public observing.

Solar evidence points to human causes of climate change

404132862 — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 18:24:15 -0500

It’s getting harder and harder to blame the sun for causing the gradual increase in global temperatures that are now being seen in the climate record, scientists said today.

In a symposium today on the potential role of solar variability — increases in heat coming from the sun — held in Boston at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, experts in solar science, climate modeling, and atmospheric science explored the issues surrounding who or what is to blame for the rapid rate of change.

Mystery comet explodes into brightness

404132862 — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:37:19 -0400

A once-faint comet has made a sudden leap from obscurity to
center stage.

Comet 17P Holmes, now visible to northern hemisphere
residents, increased its brightness by a factor of one million this week,
going from magnitude 17 to 2. This makes it visible to the unaided eye as
well as binoculars and telescopes, offering a unique viewing opportunity for
sky watchers.

AAAS to induct 13 Harvard faculty to 227th class of fellows

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:12:17 -0400

Thirteen Harvard University faculty members will be inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences at a ceremony on Saturday (Oct. 6). Celebrated for their scholarship, artistic triumphs, and service to society, the 227th class of fellows includes the following Harvard affiliates:

David G. Blackbourn, Archibald Carey Coolidge Professor of History; David Cutler, dean for the Social Sciences in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and Otto Eckstein Professor of Applied Economics; Leopold Damrosch Jr., Ernest Bernbaum Professor of English Literature; Lars Hernquist, professor of astronomy; Rem Koolhaas, professor in practice of architecture and urban design; Thomas W. Lentz, Elizabeth and John Moors Cabot Director; N. Gregory Mankiw, Robert M.

Harvard astronomers share dark prize

50443248 — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 10:02:27 -0400

Two teams who upset everyone's ideas about how the universe works and its future will share the $500,000 Gruber Cosmology Prize for discovering that 70 percent of the universe is nothing but a strange form of energy.

In 1998, a group called the High-z Supernova Search Team published irresistible evidence that the universe is expanding at a rate that may never slow down. Eleven of the 19 members of the High-z team are or were affiliated with Harvard University. Months later, a second team, the Supernova Cosmology Project, independently confirmed the startling finding. That team was lead by Saul Perlmutter of the University of California, Berkeley.