Department of Astronomy

Astronomers at the University of Virginia have identified one of the most iron-poor stars ever observed outside the Milky Way, a discovery that offers rare insight into how the very first stars lived and died.

The University of Virginia’s Department of Astronomy has long punched above its weight. Once a cornerstone of Thomas Jefferson’s vision for a model public-university education, the department today — backed by major new investments from the College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences and energized by ambitious, cross-disciplinary initiatives — is entering what Chair and Vanderbilt Professor of Astronomy Steven Majewski calls a defining era.

The Artemis II mission, scheduled to launch on Wednesday, will send four astronauts on a 10-day journey from Earth around the moon – the first time humans will travel that far into space since 1972. While the crew will not land on the moon, the mission marks a major step toward returning people to the lunar surface.

Astronomers have captured the first radio waves ever detected from a rare class of exploding star, a discovery that has given them an unprecedented look into the final years of a massive star before its death in a powerful stellar explosion called a supernova.