Astronomy


‘Share the Universe’: Harvard Astronomy Club Holds Rare Comet Viewing

Dozens of students gathered at Harvard’s Loomis-Michael Observatory on Thursday and Friday for a rare viewing of Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS, a “naked-eye visible comet” that researchers say is unlikely to return for at least 80,000 years.


David Charbonneau, Professor in Search of Planets in Outer Space, Wins $1 Million Kavli Prize

Harvard Astrophysics professor David Charbonneau won the 2024 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics in June, sharing a $1 million prize with MIT professor Sara Seager for their discoveries of exoplanets — planets located outside Earth’s solar system.


Harvard Center for Astrophysics Facing Financial Strain Following NASA Budget Cuts

The Center for Astrophysics — a collaboration with the Smithsonian Museum and one of Harvard’s top research centers — is facing a declining budget following NASA’s proposal to reduce The Chandra X-ray Observatory’s fiscal year 2025 budget.


‘More Important Than School’: Harvard Affiliates Skip Class and Town To View Solar Eclipse

Harvard students seemed to be everywhere but the classroom on Monday, as undergraduates admired the total solar eclipse. Some gathered on campus to view the rare celestial event, but others traveled further — to Vermont, Arkansas, and Texas — to enjoy the eclipse from the path of totality.


Harvard Center for Astrophysics to Close Wolbach Library Due to ‘Financial Considerations’

The John G. Wolbach Library — which carries one of the world’s largest astronomical collections — will shutter its doors on Friday, in a move that was “driven primarily by financial considerations,” according to an email from Harvard Center for Astrophysics Director Lisa Kewley.


Harvard Astronomer Avi Loeb, Team Find Spherules of ‘Likely Extrasolar Composition’

Harvard Astronomy professor Abraham “Avi” Loeb and his research team have found metallic spherules of “likely extrasolar composition,” according to an Aug. 29 preprint posted to the online paper repository arXiv.


Astronomer Owen Gingerich, Defender of Pluto and Scientist With Spirituality, Dies at 93

Upon his retirement in 2000 after a 40 year-long career, Harvard professor Owen J. Gingerich had, with astronomer David W. Latham, taught the longest-running Harvard course under continuous leadership. He died on May 28, 2023 at the age of 93.


Harvard and MIT Researchers Find Limitations in Current Models of Exoplanet Atmospheres

A team of Harvard and MIT researchers have discovered accuracy limitations in climate models used to describe the properties of exoplanets — planets outside the solar system — given an influx of cosmic data from the newly launched James Webb Space Telescope.


Student Astronomers at Harvard-Radcliffe

The Loomis-Michael Observatory is lit up red as the telescope captures the Orion Nebula. The observatory, located on the 10th floor of the Science Center, is run by Student Astronomers at Harvard-Radcliffe.


Harvard Prof. Loeb Launches ‘Galileo Project,’ Systematic Hunt for Signs of Extraterrestrial Life

In a move that some of his peers consider risky but rewarding, Harvard professor and astrophysicist Abraham “Avi” Loeb last month launched a systematic search for artifacts or active technology created by extraterrestrial beings, called the “Galileo Project.”


Chicxulub Impactor that Killed the Dinosaurs Was A Comet Fragment, Not An Asteroid, Harvard Researchers Theorize

Harvard astrophysicists proposed a new model showing that the Chicxulub impactor — the celestial body responsible for the mass extinction of the dinosaurs — could have been of cometary, rather than asteroidal origin, in a study published in Scientific Reports on Monday.


Harvard Researchers Confirm First Earth-Sized Exoplanet in Habitable Zone

Researchers at Harvard, MIT, and other institutions used a new telescope to confirm the existence of the first Earth-sized planet outside our solar system in a habitable zone, a step toward understanding how life formed on Earth and could form in other solar systems.


Harvard Scientists Reconsider the Possibility of Life on Venus

Researchers at Harvard, the Paris Observatory, and MIT, among other institutions, have found that Venus’s atmosphere may not contain phosphine gas, a possible indicator of life, contradicting the results of a study published last month.


Harvard Visualization Scientist Helps Translate Space Images Into Music

A scientist from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the SYSTEM Sounds team created a new technique that turns cosmic images into music.


Center for Astrophysics Collaborates to Study Star’s Spaghettification: Death By Black Hole

Scientists at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics collaborated to publish a paper on a star’s spaghettification, the process in which a star is ripped apart by a black hole, last Monday.


Graphic Novel Creators Talk Power of Science Comics at Center for Astrophysics Observatory Night

Writer Jim Ottaviani and writer and illustrator Maris Wicks spoke about how science comics can be a powerful tool for storytelling at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics’s final 2020 Observatory Night on Thursday.


Astronomers Preview Giant Magellan Telescope, Discuss Extraterrestrial Life at DRCLAS Event

Astronomers from across the globe previewed the Giant Magellan Telescope, which is currently under construction at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, at Harvard’s David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies Wednesday evening.


Earth-Skimming Meteor May Have Brought Life to Venus, Harvard Researchers Say

Meteors that grazed Earth’s atmosphere could have brought microbial life from Earth to Venus, Harvard professor Avi Loeb and student Amir Siraj '22 hypothesized in a new study.


Harvard Researchers Discover Wobbling Shadow of Supermassive Black Hole

Harvard astrophysicists have discovered that the crescent-like shadow of the Messier 87 (M87*) black hole appears to be wobbling.


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