Department of Astronomy, U.Va.

The First Global Age Map of the Milky Way Galaxy

Astronomers have measured the age of 70,000 stars across the Milky Way using the University of Virginia led APOGEE instrument and put the results into a galactic map.

Read the BBC article

Green Pea Galaxy Provides Insights to Early Universe Evolution

Newly formed dwarf galaxies were likely the reason that the universe heated up about 13 billion years ago, according to new work by an international team of scientists that included University of Virginia astronomer Trinh Thuan. The finding opens an avenue for better understanding the early period of the universe’s 14 billion year history.

Read the UVA Today article

‘Everyday Einstein’ Sabrina Stierwalt Brings Everyday Science to Everybody

Did you know that a UVA Astronomer is your Everyday Einstein? Learn more about Sabrina and her podcast in this article from UVA Today.

Human Computer

Wonderful UVA Virginia Magazine video and article about our friend, Caroyl Beddow Gooch, recalling her work her in the 1940s. Thanks to Molly Minturn for capturing Caroyl's delightful character in this piece.

Dark Skies, Bright Kids receives Packard Foundation Award

The UVA Astronomy outreach program Dark Skies Bright Kids has been given a generous grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation for the next three years to run week long summer astronomy programs designed at reaching more rural communities in southern Virginia.

This cosmic 'dinosaur egg' is about to hatch

Professor Kelsey Johnson's research on the ALMA detection of birthplaces of soon-to-be globular clusters was featured in a press release article in the Washington Post. Check out the article, "This cosmic 'dinosaur egg' is about to hatch" on the Washington Post website.

Sandra Liss was the Departmental Award Winner in this year's Graduate Teaching Awards Competition

Graduate Student Sandra Liss was the Departmental Award Winner in this year's Graduate Teaching Awards Competition for her dedication to teaching in the Department of Astronomy. This award, from the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs, in collaboration with the University's Teaching Resource Center, recognizes the university's best graduate student teachers and carries an honorarium.

The true extent of Saturn's outermost ring

Professors Anne Verbiscer and Michael Skrutskie are co-authors on the recent Nature paper announcing the discovery of the true extent of Saturn's outermost ring. Prof. Verbiscer and Prof. Skrutskie discovered this ring, the so-called Pheobe ring, in 2009 using the Spitzer Space Telescope.

Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE)

Professor Steve Majewski discusses the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment (APOGEE) and the plans for the new Southern hemisphere extension of APOGEE, APOGEE-2, in this recent UVA Magazine Spotlight. Check it out!

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News & Announcements

South Africa's MeerKAT peers deep into the Universe

December 20, 2019

South Africa's MeerKAT peers deep into the Universe - UVA Grad Student Allison Matthews continues to work on this project to learn more about star formation. Learn more about her work here: ... Read»

Building a Cluster of Galaxies - the Shocking Truth!

December 20, 2019

A group of astronomers, including U.Va.'s Craig Sarazin, have observed two groups of galaxies slamming into one another at a speed of about 4 million miles per hour. The colliding groups will... Read»

TED Talk by Professor Kelsey Johnson: 5 Ridiculously Easy Ways to Fix Light Pollution

December 4, 2019

Astronomy Professor Kelsey Johnson recently gave a TED Talk on Light Pollution and 5 ridiculously easy was to fix it! You can watch her talk at... Read»

Events

Tomorrow

Ian Czekala: Disks and Dynamics of Protoplanetary Systems
- Where: NRAO Auditorium
- Start time: 3:30pm
- End time: 4:30pm
- Abstract: The sensitivity and resolution of the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA) have enabled detailed study of protoplanetary disk structure and kinematics. By forward modeling the interferometric measurement sets from ALMA we can infer the disk velocity field, empirically measure stellar masses, and unlock pre-main sequence system architectures. Our observations of protoplanetary disks in binary star systems have provided context needed to understand the circumbinary planet population as probed by the Kepler Mission, an effort that has historically been hampered by the fact that occurrence rate is degenerate with assumptions about the typical misalignment between the binary and planetary orbital planes. Our survey of 20 spatially-resolved circumbinary protoplanetary and debris disks includes several spectroscopic binaries (P < 40 days) whose disks we have resolved with ALMA for the first time and are the only protoplanetary systems comparable in scale to the Kepler circumbinary planet hosts. We use a hierarchical Bayesian model to infer that the mutual inclination distribution of circumbinary disks around spectroscopic binaries is intrinsically low, suggesting that Kepler did not miss a large population of mis-aligned circumbinary planets, and that circumbinary planets occur at a similar rate as those around single stars. Throughout my talk, I will discuss several of the data driven and forward modeling techniques that we developed to probe the planet forming environment with exquisite precision, including template-free spectroscopic disentangling with Gaussian processes and regularized maximum likelihood image reconstruction. Techniques like these will be indispensable for sensing the velocity field with sufficient precision to infer protoplanet properties from their kinematic perturbations.

Friday, January 31st

Katie Bouman: Capturing the First Picture of a Black Hole & Beyond (Joint Colloq with E&CE)
- Where: Thornton Hall E-303
- Start time: 2:00pm
- End time: 3:00pm
- Abstract: This talk will present the methods and procedures used to produce the first image of a black hole from the Event Horizon Telescope, as well as future developments. It had been theorized for decades that a black hole would leave a "shadow" on a background of hot gas. Taking a picture of this black hole shadow would help to address a number of important scientific questions, both on the nature of black holes and the validity of general relativity. Unfortunately, due to its small size, traditional imaging approaches require an Earth-sized radio telescope. In this talk, I discuss techniques the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration has developed to photograph a black hole using the Event Horizon Telescope, a network of telescopes scattered across the globe. Imaging a black hole’s structure with this computational telescope required us to reconstruct images from sparse measurements, heavily corrupted by atmospheric error. This talk will summarize how the data from the 2017 observations were calibrated and imaged, and explain some of the challenges that arise with a heterogeneous telescope array like the EHT. The talk will also discuss how we are developing machine learning methods to help design future telescope arrays.
Katie Bouman: Joint Colloquium with ECE on EHT Imaging
- Where: Thornton Hall E316
- Start time: 2:00pm
- End time: 3:00pm

Thursday, February 6th

Vivian U: The Growth and Merger of Supermassive Black Holes
- Where: NRAO Auditorium
- Start time: 3:30pm
- End time: 4:30pm

Friday, February 7th

McCormick Observatory Public Night
- Where: McCormick Observatory, McCormick Road, Charlottesville, VA, United States
- Start time: 7:00pm
- End time: 9:00pm

Monday, February 10th

Tony Mroczkowski (ESO/ALMA) - TBD
- Where: CV-Aud
- Start time: 12:00pm
- End time: 1:00pm
- Suggested by Brian S. Mason

Thursday, February 13th

Jenny Greene: TBD
- Start time: 3:30pm
- End time: 4:30pm

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December 20, 2019

December 20, 2019

December 4, 2019