News: McDonald Observatory
Read the latest news from the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin
McDonald Observatory
Pioneering Instrument Returns to McDonald Observatory
The Immersion Grating Infrared Spectrograph (IGRINS) splits infrared light into more individual wavelengths than a traditional spectrograph.
Frontier Fellows Tackle Humanity’s Biggest Question: Where Do We Come From?
The inaugural class of Cosmic Frontier Center postdoctoral fellows will study black holes in early galaxies and the formation of the first stars.
Giant Magellan Telescope Begins Primary Mirror Support System Testing
The milestone marks the start of a six-month optical testing phase at the University of Arizona.
UT Astronomers Find JWST Data Conflicts with Reionization Models
Observations from the James Webb Space Telescope spawned a new tension around when a major change in the universe happened.
UT News
UT Astronomers Race To Capture Image of Exoplanet Near Star
Brendan Bowler was part of a team to help find the lowest-mass/closest-to-its-host-star distant planet ever found.
Texas Science & Natural History Museum Celebrates Record Attendance in its First Year Since Reopening
The on-campus museum also has opened its newest temporary exhibit, featuring a scale model of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, the largest optical telescope in North America.
New Program to Enhance Accessibility in Astronomy Education
Universo Expansivo, a program of the Giant Magellan Telescope, will increase accessibility for students with vision loss through tactile astronomy kits and lesson plans.
New AI Institute Led by UT Researchers Will Accelerate Cosmic Discovery
Stella Offner and Arya Farahi are among the leads of a new multi-institution institute focused on AI and astronomy.
McDonald Observatory
Early Dark Energy Could Resolve Cosmology’s Two Biggest Puzzles
Michael Boylan-Kolchin and others show “early dark energy” might help solve the Hubble Tension and explain why there are more early galaxies than expected.
Early Galaxies Weren’t Too Big for Their Britches After All
It got called the crisis in cosmology. But now astronomers can explain some surprising recent discoveries.