News: Cosmology, Theoretical Physics and Gravity
Read the latest news from the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin
Texas Astronomers Revive Idea for ‘Ultimately Large Telescope’ on the Moon
A group of astronomers from The University of Texas at Austin has found that a telescope idea shelved by NASA a decade ago can solve...
![A cylinder-shaped telescope on the surface of the moon](/sites/default/files/uploads/images/default/llmt_731x593.jpeg)
Faculty Members Named to Professorships and Endowed Chairs
Several College of Natural Sciences faculty members have been newly appointed to special professorships and endowed chairs at The University of Texas at Austin.
![Seal of the University of Texas at Austin with a burnt orange filter on the image](/sites/default/files/uploads/images/default/seal_1400.jpeg)
UT News
Three UT Austin Faculty Elected to National Academy of Sciences
Astrophysicist Katherine Freese, astronomer John Kormendy and evolutionary biologist Mark Kirkpatrick of The University of Texas at Austin have been elected to the National Academy...
![Head shots show three smiling scientists, two men and a woman](/sites/default/files/uploads/images/default/everyone-1200x800-c-default.jpg)
Lilienfeld Prize Winner Katherine Freese Researches Dark Matter
The winner of the 2019 Lilienfeld Prize, given annually by the American Physical Society for outstanding contributions in physics, develops theories about dark matter and what...
![Portrait of a woman](/sites/default/files/uploads/images/default/freese2400x1600.jpg)
A Love Letter from Texas Scientists to the Periodic Table
We're celebrating the 150th anniversary of the periodic table. Join us as we tour the cosmos, from the microscopic to the telescopic, with four scientists studying...
![A series of cupcakes arranged to look like the periodic table](/sites/default/files/uploads/images/default/periodic-cupcakes2400x1350.jpg)
UT News
Newly Identified Gravitational Waves Help Pinpoint Black Hole
The scientists looking for gravitational waves reported that last year they observed four additional ripples in space-time. During about a nine-month period, scientists including UT...
![Artists rendition of two black holes about to collide in space](/sites/default/files/uploads/images/default/black-holes-merging830-1066.67x710.67-c-default.jpg)
Visualizing Science 2017: Finding the Hidden Beauty in College Research
Five years ago the College of Natural Sciences began an annual tradition called Visualizing Science with the intent of finding the inherent beauty hidden within...
![This image shows the turbulent gas structures in a three-dimensional, multi-physics supercomputer simulation during the formation of such massive clusters, with the red-to-violet rainbow spectrum representing gas at high-to-low densities.](/sites/default/files/uploads/images/default/vissci2017-01-1st_tsang.jpg)
Eyewitness to a Cosmic Car Wreck
What is the sound of two neutron stars colliding over 1 billion light years away?
![Illustration of large explosion in space](/sites/default/files/uploads/images/default/neutron-star-collision2400x1350.png)
Testing General Relativity
Scientists from UT Austin once traveled to the Sahara Desert to observe a rare eclipse and used computers to model ripples in space and time...
![A man stands on a ladder outside a white hut in the desert](/sites/default/files/uploads/images/default/mauritania-observatory2400x1350.jpg)
Can General Relativity, at 100, Withstand Some Holes?
Answering some of the biggest questions in astrophysics—for example, about black holes and the origin of the universe—might require overhauling general relativity.
![Illustration of a black hole](/sites/default/files/uploads/images/default/black-hole-outflows2400x1350.jpg)