Tag: astronomy

U-M Joins MOSAIC Build Team to Power Next Generation of Astronomers

Posted on by U-M Space Institute
MOSAIC
A new partnership between the University of Michigan and an intergovernmental research organization will expand the scope of possibilities for astronomers studying the universe’s first stars and galaxies and how dark matter and dark energy have evolved to the present day. Using the world’s largest telescope and its most complex instrument, U-M scientists will be able to study how the Milky Way gained its mass and shape, how other galaxies were formed, how matter is distributed in the universe and how all of these things have changed over time.

“Astronomers Discover Dozens of Stellar Streams in the Milky Way”

Posted on by U-M Space Institute

In an article for earth.com, Yingtian Chen, a graduate student at the University of Michigan Department of Astronomy, discusses his study on stellar streams and how they help astronomers reconstruct the Milky Way’s past and understand the galaxy’s gravitational structure. He was interviewed in the article “Astronomers discover dozens of stellar streams in the Continue Reading »

“U-M Department of Astronomy’s First Satellite Launch Could Pave the Way for Exoplanet Discoveries”

Posted on by U-M Space Institute

In an article for The Michigan Daily, Dr. John Monnier, a professor at the University of Michigan Department of Astronomy, talks about the STARI Mission and how interferometers in space could allow scientists to study exoplanets in greater detail than they are currently able with existing technology. He was interviewed in the article “U-M Continue Reading »

U-M Astronomy Will Lead Its First Satellite Mission With NASA Grant

Posted on by U-M Space Institute
STARI
The first space mission led by the University of Michigan Department of Astronomy is scheduled to launch in 2029 with the support of a NASA grant worth $10 million. The mission is called STARI—STarlight Acquisition and Reflection toward Interferometry—and will showcase the viability of a new technique for studying exoplanets, or planets outside of our solar system.

First Data from XRISM Space Mission Provides New Perspective on Supermassive Black Holes

Posted on by U-M Space Institute
black hole
Some of the first data from an international space mission is confirming decades worth of speculation about the galactic neighborhoods of supermassive black holes. More exciting than the data, though, is the fact that the long-awaited satellite behind it—the X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission or XRISM—is just getting started providing such unparalleled insights.

In Six New Rogue Worlds, Webb Telescope Finds More Star Birth Clues

Posted on by U-M Space Institute
stars
An international collaboration that included the University of Michigan has spotted six likely rogue worlds—objects with planetlike masses but untethered from any star’s gravity—using the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST. The discovery includes the lightest rogue planet candidate ever identified with a dusty disk around it. The elusive objects offer new evidence that the same cosmic processes that give birth to stars may also play a common role in making objects only slightly bigger than Jupiter.

“One Giant Leap” Still Resonates Today

Posted on by U-M Space Institute
moon landing
July 20, 1969, just before 11 p.m. EDT, Neil Armstrong stepped foot on the Moon. That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. On Earth, families huddled around the television, glued to the grainy image that transcended life as they knew it. Joel Bregman, H.D. Curtis Professor of Astronomy at LSA, was 17. “Everyone had been focused on the space race for years. They’d stop school and stream video or audio of every milestone,” he says. “Landing on the Moon seemed like out of science fiction. We didn’t know if it could be done. That night, I watched with my family, including my grandmother, who was born in Ukraine in the last 1800s—she’d witnessed the first car, first airplane, and now the first Moon landing. It was absolutely astonishing. Like a dream.”

U-M Part of Consortium to Design, Construct Powerful New Instrument to Unlock Universe’s Secrets

Posted on by U-M Space Institute
ANDES
The University of Michigan Department of Astronomy is part of an international consortium of institutions that will take part in the design and construction of ANDES, a powerful instrument set to be used on the largest visible-infrared telescope in the world. The instrument will reveal the nature of atmospheres of planets around nearby stars, rare elements forged in the interiors of stars, the formation of galaxies and even the evolution of the universe itself, according to University of Michigan astronomer Michael Meyer.