Izzy Flores Receives Distinguished Undergraduate Student Award
IU Astronomy student Izzy Flores is receiving the 2024 Distinguished Undergraduate Student award from the Latino Faculty and Staff Council.
IU Astronomy student Izzy Flores is receiving the 2024 Distinguished Undergraduate Student award from the Latino Faculty and Staff Council.
Please join us for our annual F. K. Edmondson Astronomy Public Lecture on Thursday April 18th 6:00 PM Rawles Hall Room 100. Dr. Konstantin Batygin from the California Institute of Technology will be presenting this years lecture: "The Hunt for Planet 9"
Dust is an important constituent of the interstellar medium, representing the building block of planets and affecting the light of stellar populations. Dust grains are born in asymptotic giant branch stars and supernova ejecta, but they can also be destroyed by supernova shocks.
Each year, the Department of Astronomy participates in the College’s Science Fest event, offering hands on activities, tours of Kirkwood Observatory, and a glimpse of the universe beyond Earth. Science Fest brings thousands of kids and families to campus to enjoy a day of science.
We are looking at other galaxies through the dust from the disk of our own galaxy, diminishing it and making it look redder. This dust extinction is easily noticed when looking towards the plane of the galaxy, but a smaller effect exists even when looking towards the high Galactic latitudes.
The spectral energy distribution (SED) modeling and fitting is the principal technique for the determination of fundamental galaxy parameters, such as its stellar mass and star formation rate (SFR).However, the accuracy of the derived parameters is sensitive to the models being used and the assumed Bayesian priors.
The NOIRLab’s Gemini Observatory recently released a new image of the galaxy NGC4753 observed with the Gemini South Telescope. The galaxy’s twisty dust lanes were the topic of a paper (link to https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1992AJ....104.1339S/abstract ) in 1992 by IU astronomers Tom Steiman-Cameron and Richard Durisen, along with collaborator John Kormendy.
In an engaging showcase of interdisciplinary collaboration, Professor Songhu Wang from the Astronomy Department, Megan Young, Lecturer and Digital Art Area Head at the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design, and Ji Yeon Kim, Associate Professor of Music in Guitar at the Jacobs School of Music, have merged their expertise to create a distinctive experience that blends music, digital art, and astrophysics.
Graduate Student Kristin Brady has been awarded time on NASA’s Infra-Red Telescope Facility (IRTF) in support of her research. The IRTF is a 3.2-meter telescope on Mauna Kea dedicated to observations of the Universe in infrared light.
A paper by graduate student Armaan Goyal, titled “Enhanced Size Uniformity for Near-Resonant Planets”, has recently been accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal!
Graduate students Anika Goel, Robert Howard, Brooke Kimsey-Miller, Dan Ornelas, Sarah Popp, and Tash Sandford, along with postdoctoral associate Xian-Yu Wang are attending the 243rd meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans this month.
Research Scientist Tom Steiman-Cameron reports the publication of his latest paper on protoplanetary disks in the Astrophysical Journal. Its six authors span three generations of IU faculty and students.
Congratulations to Jongsuk Hong for receiving the Young Astronomer Award by the Korean Astronomical Society for his outstanding contributions to the advancement of astronomy in South Korea.
Exoplanets with high masses that orbit close to their host star are some of the most readily observed planets, but there's still a lot of uncertainty as to how they form. These planets are known as hot and warm Jupiters, depending on exactly how close they are to their host star. In order to determine how they came to be, it's important to learn as many details about their systems as possible.
Congratulations to undergraduate Astronomy and Astrophysics major Jace Rusznak on his election to the Phi Beta Kappa honorary society. Students elected to Phi Beta Kappa meet rigorous standards for academic excellence, ranking in the top 10% of their academic class. Well done, Jace!
Despite clouds and even a little rain, the Eclipse Watch for the partial eclipse on Saturday, Oct. 14, was a big success. A constant stream of visitors came to learn about the eclipse, tour the Observatory, and take part in activities. Even the clouds parted briefly to let the Sun through, so visitors got a quick glimpse of the eclipse itself. All of our graduate and undergraduate student volunteers were well prepared, enthusiastic, and welcoming.
The Department of Astronomy welcomes Dr. Caleb Choban, our inaugural Sullivan Prize Postdoctoral Fellow. Caleb comes to us from the University of California at San Diego, where he earned his Ph.D. in Physics studying the life cycle and evolution of interstellar dust within galaxies and its effects on and interactions with the interstellar medium.
Graduate student Kristin Brady’s research on the chemical composition of unusual stars in the old open stat cluster Messier 67 has been published in the Astronomical Journal. Congratulations, Kristin!
Recent graduate Chandler Osborne along with Professor Samir Salim, have been awarded a Hubble Space Telescope Archival Grant to produce an HST/SDSS Atlas and Morphological Catalog of 7000 SDSS galaxies serendipitously imaged by HST and study a subset of 2000 galaxies at z<0.3 to elucidate the morphological transformation associated with star formation quenching.
IU Astronomy graduate student Laura Congreve Hunter passes her dissertation defense and completes all degree requirements for her PhD.
IU Astronomy graduate student Chandler Osborne passes his dissertation defense and completes all degree requirements for his PhD.
IU Astronomy graduate student Brandon Radzom participated in the 2023 NASA Planetary Science Summer School, a 3-month summer program for doctoral students, post-docs, and early faculty who are interested in science-driven robotic space exploration.
Recent PhD graduate Laura Congreve Hunter, Prof. Liese van Zee and collaborators (Prof Kristen B.W. Mc Quinn and Dr. Roger Cohn of Rutgers University) have been awarded 6 orbits of time with the Huble Space Telescope to observe nearby, low-mass, star forming galaxies in Cycle 31.
IU Astronomy graduate student Bobby Butler passes his dissertation defense and completes all degree requirements for his PhD.
IU Astronomy graduate student Alex Livernois passes his dissertation defense and completes all degree requirements for his PhD.
IU Astronomy / Physics graduate student Brendan Reed passes his dissertation defense and completes all degree requirements for his PhD.
IU Undergrad Isaac da Silva has just been awarded a TEAM-UP Together Scholarship by the Society of Physics Students, an organization of the American Institute of Physics. TEAM-UP partners include the American Astronomical Society and are sponsored by the Simons Foundation. Scholarships recognize students’ potential, intention, and commitment to continued academic development toward a bachelor’s degree in astronomy or physics. TEAM-UP’s goal is to double the number of Black bachelor’s degree earners in physics and astronomy by 2030.
IU astronomy faculty and students were well represented at this summer’s AAS meeting in Albuquerque.
Graduate students Armaan Goyal and Jessica Ranshaw, along with postdoctoral researcher Xian-Yu Wang from the IU Astronomy Department, were among the active participants at this year's Emerging Researchers in Exoplanet Science (ERES) conference.
Dr. Xian-Yu Wang has been honored as an Outstanding Graduate Student by the National Astronomical Observatory of China (NAOC) and Beijing Municipal Commission of Education.
Assistant Professor Songhu Wang's research is highlighted in an IU News Article.
Saturn’s rings are much younger than scientists once thought, according to new research from Indiana University Professor Emeritus of Astronomy Richard Durisen — and they are not here to stay.
This summer the Astronomy Department has inaugurated a new undergraduate research program, thanks to a generous gift from Russ and Marcia Palma. The Alice Palma Undergraduate Research Program is hosting five IU undergraduate students for the summer.
Two Astronomy graduate students, Lexi Gault and Brooke Kimsey-Miller have been awarded 2023 fellowships by the Indiana Space Grant Consortium (INSGC), funded by NASA.
IU students, postdocs, and faculty were well represented at the annual meeting of the Division of Dynamical Astronomy (DDA) at Michigan State University during the week of May 8, 2023.
IU Astronomy graduate student Brandon Radzom has just been selected to participate in the 2023 NASA Planetary Science Summer School, a 3-month summer program for doctoral students, post-docs, and early faculty who are interested in science-driven robotic space exploration.
Congratulations to IU Astronomy major Rachael Weir and IU Physics Professor John Carini their successful observation of the April, 2023, total eclipse of the Sun in Exmouth, Australia.
Congratulations to Michele Scalco on his paper 'First observational evidence of a relation between globular clusters’ internal rotation and stellar masses' accepted for publication on Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters.
Congratulations to Alex Livernois on his paper 'Evolution of binary stars in the early evolutionary phases of ultra-faint dwarf galaxies' accepted for publication on Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Helen Link's Daffodil Gardens will be open to the public.
Congratulations to graduate student Brooke Kimsey-Miller, who is receiving a McCormick Science Grant from the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University. The award provides support while she carries out research with Professor John Salzer.
“Hot Jupiter” exoplanets are among the easiest to find around other stars, but also are the rarest type of exoplanet found in our galaxy. Hot Jupiters have masses comparable or even larger than our own Jupiter but orbit very close to their host stars, often even closer to their stars than Mercury orbits our sun.
Graduate student Laurin Gray’s paper “Catching Tidal Dwarf Galaxies at a Later Evolutionary Stage with ALFALFA” has just been accepted for publication in The Astronomical Journal.
In a paper "A New Physical Picture for Active Galactic Nuclei Lacking Optical Emission Lines" published in the Astrophysical Journal, recent IU graduate Chris Agostino and collaborators assembled the largest sample (~500) so far of low-redshift AGN that were detected in X-rays, but also had optical spectra available.
Graduate student Armaan Goyal, working with Songhu Wang, is exploring the architectures of exoplanet systems. Planets orbiting a given star are often strikingly similar in size and mass, and their distances from the host star are also spaced evenly.
IU Astronomy graduate students hosted a "Python for Astronomers" Crash Course on February 8 for undergraduates interested in astronomy or adjacent sciences.
NASA’s ExoExplorers program focuses on the professional development of graduate student and postdoc researchers at US and international[1] institutions.
A great photo of some of our 241st AAS Meeting attendees representing IU.
A number of our students are headed to this years Astronomical Society Meeting being held in Seattle Washington January 8-12 and we got word that one of our students has already made news headlines.
IU Astronomy graduate student Chris Macias passes his dissertation defense and complete all degree requirements for his PhD.
Recent graduate John Miller Jr, who worked with Professor Salzer during his tenor at IU has published an e-print paper in collaboration with Profesor Salzer.
IU Astronomy students studying with Professor SongHu Wang participated in the 2022 Great Lakes Exoplanet Area Meeting