Scientists are using advanced telescopes, models and AI to help them look for signs of life beyond Earth, including in distant solar systems

Congratulation to Aritra Ghosh, DiRAC Postdoctoral fellow, on being selected by Research Corporation for Science Advancement in a new cohort of 12 outstanding postdoctoral scholars in the third year of the RCSA Fellows initiative, a multiyear program to advance faculty excellence in the physical sciences in the United States and Canada by supporting early career researchers as they prepare to apply to, interview […]

Using preliminary data from the Simonyi Survey Telescope at the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, scientists led by Prof. Mario Jurić and the Rubin solar system team at the University of Washington have discovered over 11,000 new asteroids in our solar system. The findings include hundreds of distant worlds beyond Neptune as well as 33 previously unknown […]

On Feb. 24, astronomers’ computers around the world lit up with a deluge of cosmic notifications — 800,000 alerts about new asteroids in our solar system, exploding stars across the galaxy and other noteworthy changes in the night sky. 

Last night’s planetarium event was celebration of curiosity, community, and the wonder of the night sky.  With a full house and a great atmosphere, we were thrilled to welcome so many of you for a journey across Chilean night sky, exploring some of the fascinating observatories that are shaping our understanding of the universe. As […]

A team led by University of Washington astronomers has discovered the fastest-ever spinning asteroid with a diameter over half a kilometer. The asteroid — found while analyzing data from the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory and dubbed 2025 MN45 — is 0.4 miles in diameter and completes a full rotation every 1.88 minutes.

Astronomer Meredith Rawls is working to explore and protect the universe.

First peer-reviewed paper using LSST Camera data identifies an asteroid, nearly the size of eight football fields, rotating every two minutes. The study was led by Sarah Greenstreet, NSF NOIRLab assistant astronomer and lead of Rubin Observatory’s Solar System Science Collaboration’s Near-Earth Objects and Interstellar Objects working group. The team presents their results in a paper appearing […]