Last week, scientists and engineers across the International GMT Consortium hosted a 1-hour livestream offering insight into the progress and future of one of the world’s most ambitious scientific projects: the Giant Magellan Telescope. Watch it here: bit.ly/41KWDSV
Part of my new book, Second Ascent, is set at the Giant Magellan Telescope, being constructed around the world and assembled in Chile. It's fun to imagine something amazing that doesn't exist but soon will! One of GMT's goals is to find other Earths! Yeah, baby. giantmagellan.org/2025/12/16/t...
"The biggest piece of wisdom I can share from my time as an astronomy student is to not be afraid to test a solution, no matter how unlikely it may seem." Hayden Marchinek graduates this spring -- read his reflections from his time at Steward: bit.ly/4c8QWTG
An unidentified reddish blob spotted by U of A astronomers has officially been confirmed as WISPIT 2c — a newborn giant planet about 10 times the mass of Jupiter and only 5 million years old. It's part of one of the youngest solar systems ever discovered! bit.ly/4ma4N0A
Earlier this month, Prize Fellow Aldana Grichener organized a packed multi-day nuclear physics workshop, designed to push the frontiers of this fast-moving field. Now, tutorials from the sessions are publicly available to explore! Access them here: bit.ly/3NZAtci
Here is watercolorist Thordis Maaske's impression of the Kappa Tucanae A star system, recently discovered by Steward postdoc Thomas Stuber. The discovery gives scientists their first natural "laboratory" for understanding hot exozodiacal dust. Learn more: bit.ly/4lUa24o
Steward Observatory grad student Himansh Rathore has led a new study revealing that the Small Magellanic Cloud was transformed by a direct collision with its neighbor — upending decades of assumptions about how we use it to study the universe. bit.ly/4sV2eSk
Big room, bigger questions! Thanks to Dr. Chris Impey for sparking rich conversation at last week’s SkillSpace workshop in science communication at @azastrobiology.bsky.social !
Steward teams are building instruments for Lazuli — a new space telescope launching by 2029 as part of the Eric & Wendy Schmidt Observatory System. Our adaptive optics will image giant exoplanets nearly a billion times dimmer than their host stars! bit.ly/4dkXYH1
The first University of Arizona Galaxy Slam brought together two of the university's biggest strengths – space science and basketball – in a weeklong celebration. Read Steward astronomers' reflections on the parallels between sports and astronomy: bit.ly/4shJyM5
Pandora is the first satellite of NASA’s Pioneers Program to ascend into space. For many team members, Pandora marks another first: it’s the first spacecraft launch of their careers. Read more in Nature Magazine: bit.ly/4cjGj2a
Supermassive black holes aren't just destroying stars in their own galaxies — they're suppressing star formation in galaxies millions of light-years away. Research led by postdoc Yongda Zhu reveals that quasars act as "cosmic predators:" bit.ly/4s96RYt
Renowned astronomer Chris Impey of @stewardobservatory.bsky.social has been named the 2026 recipient of Rockefeller’s prestigious science writing award, the Lewis Thomas Prize!
Register for the ceremony on March 9 here:
Galaxy Slam Week continues! Join us Monday, Feb 16 at 7:30 PM for our public evening lecture, "Beardown, Look Up: AI on the Cosmic Court." Learn how AI helps us image black holes, transform education, and push the boundaries of discovery: bit.ly/3OETIrt.
Galaxy Slam! Meet Marcia Rieke, Regents Professor of Astronomy at the University of Arizona’s Steward Observatory. As principal investigator for NIRCam on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, she helps reveal the universe’s earliest galaxies using infrared light. www.youtube.com/watch?v=fhxf...
We appreciate the staff at Steward Observatory @stewardobservatory.bsky.social keeping the telescopes accessible! Clearing out snow from a recent storm so we can get back to finding hazardous asteroids!
Congrats to our U of A astronomy students for their @aas.org Chambliss Student Poster Competition wins! Rafael Bertolotto, Olivia Culbert & Kate Gold shined among 480+ entries nationwide. Read more about their stories and their posters: bit.ly/4kcJPx2
@heisingsimonsfdn.bsky.social @rescorp.org
RCSA, @heisingsimonsfdn.bsky.social, the Leinweber Foundation, and Kevin Wells are funding the research of 7 collaborative teams in the 2nd year of #Scialog: Early Science with the #LSST, a 3-year initiative to ignite discovery with the @vrubinobs.bsky.social's Legacy Survey of Space and Time.
Congrats to Dr. Kate Alexander & Dr. Carl Fields on winning 2025 Scialog Awards, for their groundbreaking research with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory to study black holes, stellar explosions & the universe's first massive objects: bit.ly/3ZkGvGJ
Congrats to Rosie Johnson on receiving the CoSSAC Star Award! As Project Manager at Steward Observatory, she supports 140+ faculty, postdocs & students across multiple programs. Her exceptional organizational skills keep UA astronomy thriving. bit.ly/4jtPBtG
Just spent the day doing a thing: www.science.org/content/arti...
Roger Angel and I are Co-PIing the LFAST telescope, which is being built at @stewardobservatory.bsky.social and provides the ground based spectroscopic component of this venture.
@schmidtsciences.bsky.social #AAS247 #Arizona #LFAST
Eric and Wendy Schmidt spearhead 4 next-gen telescopes with U of A astronomers leading the development of the LFAST (Large Format Array for Time-domain Studies) facility and contributing key technology like advanced coronagraphs. Read more bit.ly/3NdBdtA
Calling all Precision Optics Professionals —the Richard F. Caris Mirror Lab is hiring!
· Senior Engineer, Optical Fabrication: tinyurl.com/mr3ucfdv
· Chief Engineer, RFCML Metrology: tinyurl.com/35kwkk3v
We are pleased to celebrate the great news that MIT has joined GMTO as the newest member of our international consortium. Read about this major milestone in the progression of GMTO to completion: bit.ly/3IOpyzv
What if we told you black holes flip the switch on their magnetic fields? Recent images from the EHT show exactly that in M87*. This reshapes what we know about how black holes feed and power their colossal jets. Explore Steward’s role in the discovery: bit.ly/4prwzGV
Last month, U of A’s CatSat mission—built by students—snapped a breathtaking image of Hurricane Erin, the largest Atlantic hurricane since Sandy. What started as an ionospheric mission became a once-in-a-decade weather event captured from space: bit.ly/45W1weT
Looking for life beyond Earth? Steward Observatory's @danielapai.bsky.social is helping redefine what “life” means—a key step in exploring exoplanets & our own solar system. Read more:https://bit.ly/47VYUPh
Using Steward Observatory's MagAO-X, astronomers have captured—for the first time—a baby planet growing inside a disk of dust and gas. The sharp U of A-developed adaptive optics revealed how young worlds plow dark paths through their star’s protoplanetary disks as they form: bit.ly/3Vn0CSo
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has selected CatSat as a finalist for the Rookie Satellite of the Year award! Voting closes on Tuesday, August 12 at 11:59 pm - cast your vote now: bit.ly/4ltscb7
