Chemistry and biochemistry professors Shaowei Chen and Yat Li, former chemistry graduate student Yichuan Ling, and astronomy and astrophysics scientists Jonathan Fortney, Garth Illingworth, and Rychard Bouwens were among the most cited researchers of 2021.
The Decadal Survey on Astronomy and Astrophysics identifies the most compelling science goals and provides recommendations for funding agencies
Observations with multiple telescopes yield new insights into the final stages in the evolution of a massive star before it exploded in a core-collapse supernova
Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, has been selected to receive the American Physical Society’s 2021 Dwight Nicholson Medal
Simulations of supernova explosions of massive stars paired with neutron stars can explain puzzling results from gravitational wave observatories
Researchers can now hold stellar nurseries in their hands thanks to 3D printing, revealing features often obscured in traditional renderings and animations
The Ophiuchus star-forming complex offers an analog for the formation of the solar system, including the sources of elements found in primitive meteorites
Natalie Batalha, professor of astronomy & astrophysics and director of the Astrobiology Initiative, has received the UCSC Presidential Chair appointment to support her work to unite the sciences, humanities, and arts in a search for evidence of life on earth.
Olivia Ross, a recent graduate from UC Santa Cruz, has received the Steck Award for her project, “Searching for Primordial Black Holes.” The Steck Award is given once a year to one UC Santa Cruz undergraduate and their mentor, and recognizes the most outstanding research out of the fifteen Chancellor’s Awardees.
Undergraduate physics major Elizabeth Yunerman is the 2021 recipient of the Kenneth & Ann Thimann Scholarship. For student achievement week, we asked her about her time at UC Santa Cruz, her research, and her advise for incoming students.
A new study led by astronomers at UC Santa Cruz has traced the locations of five brief, powerful radio blasts to the spiral arms of five distant galaxies. Called fast radio bursts (FRBs), these extraordinary events generate as much energy in a thousandth of a second as the sun does in a year.
A curiously yellow star has caused astrophysicists to reevaluate the possible pathways that can lead to the explosion of a massive star as a supernova.
The gases released from meteorite samples heated in a high-temperature furnace can tell scientists about the initial composition of the atmospheres of rocky exoplanets.
Original story from UCSC Newscenter.
UC Santa Cruz alumna Kirsten Howley is an astrophysicist working as part of a planetary defense team that has been tasked with preventing a real-life ‘Armageddon’
Understanding the origins of life on this planet could offer hints about where to search for life elsewhere, says Natalie Batalha, an astrophysicist at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “It has very significant implications for the future of space exploration.”
Original story from Science News.
New TDE observations led by astronomers at UC Santa Cruz now provide clear evidence that debris from the star forms a rotating disk, called an accretion disk, around the black hole. Theorists have been debating whether an accretion disk can form efficiently during a tidal disruption event, and the new findings should help resolve that question.
Diana Powell, an astrophysics graduate student at UC Santa Cruz, was among 132 outstanding scholars awarded fellowships in the 2020 Ford Foundation Fellowship Programs administered by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
Original story from UCSC Newscenter.
A new analysis of white dwarf stars supports their role as a key source of carbon, an element crucial to all life, in the Milky Way and other galaxies.
Original story from UCSC Newscenter.
A vast wheel of gas in the primordial cosmos is forcing astronomers to rethink how some of the universe’s largest structures may have formed.
Original story from The New York Times.
UCSC researchers developed a deep-learning framework called Morpheus to perform pixel-level morphological classifications of objects in astronomical images.
Original story from UCSC Newscenter.
Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious honorary societies.
Original story from UCSC Newscenter.
A computational approach inspired by the growth patterns of a bright yellow slime mold has enabled a team of astronomers and computer scientists at UC Santa Cruz to trace the filaments of the cosmic web that connects galaxies throughout the universe.
Original story from UCSC Newscenter.
The American Astronomical Society (AAS), the major organization of professional astronomers in North America, has established a new accolade, Fellow of the AAS, to honor members for extraordinary achievement and service.
The Royal Astronomical Society has awarded its Gold Medal in Astronomy to Sandra Faber, professor emerita of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz.
Original story from UCSC Newscenter.
UC Santa Cruz has received a gift of $1 million to establish the William Wallace Campbell Director’s Fund for Lick Observatory in the University of California Observatories (UCO).
Original story from UCSC Newscenter.
Journey through the cosmic history of the universe as Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz explains how supernovas forged the elements of life to create everything from the air you breathe to the very atoms that make you.
Original story from TED.com
Analysis of radio pulses that passed through a galactic halo reveals a surprisingly quiescent halo with very low density and weak magnetic field.
Original story from UCSC Newscenter.
“The signal from the fast radio burst exposed the nature of the magnetic field around the galaxy and the structure of the halo gas. The study proves a new and transformative technique for exploring the nature of galaxy halos,” said J. Xavier Prochaska, professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz and lead author of a paper on the new findings published online September 26 in Science.
Quanta Magazine — The object might be as massive as 100 suns—if it even exists.
UCSC Newscenter — Ken and Gloria Levy provided a rare fellowship opportunity to Astronomy graduate Enia Xhakaj for her work on dark matter halos—dark matter that envelopes galaxies.
UCSC Newsroom — Alumna Natalie Batalha, who made Time magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people on Earth, has discovered approximately 4,000 new planets—some of which may turn out to be capable of supporting life.
