October 3, 2023 | UW News | James Urton
A team of scientists has been tracking a bright object in the sky. But it’s not a star. It’s a new type of commercial satellite. Astronomers are trying to understand how its brightness and transmissions will interfere with Earth-based observations of the universe — and what can be done to minimize these effects as more […]
Read More »October 2, 2023 | Space.com
“It is unacceptably bright for many sky observers around the world,” Meredith Rawls (UW, DiRAC) co-author of a paper on the finding and member of the IAU Center for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference (IAU CPS), told Space.com.
Read More »
October 2, 2023 | Newsweek
A new satellite has become one of the brightest objects in the night sky, sparking concerns among scientists for the future of astronomy. Meredith Rawls (UW, DiRAC) is featured.
Read More »
September 3, 2023 | JAMIE SWENSON | UW Magazine
In northern Chile in 2025, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will begin gathering images of the night sky. “First light” (as astronomers call the moment a telescopic eye first opens) will inaugurate the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST)—the most ambitious and comprehensive optical astronomy survey ever undertaken. The UW was one of four […]
Read More »
August 8, 2023 | DiRAC, James Davenport
Thanks to the generous support of the DiRAC Advisory Board, and the local UW Astronomy community, we are proud to introduce our Student Research Prize Winners for Summer 2023! This year we are excited to award 5 summer prizes, including students across a wide range of astronomy and astrophysics research topics…
Read More »
July 31, 2023 | UW News | James Urton
An asteroid discovery algorithm — designed to uncover near-Earth asteroids for theVera C. Rubin Observatory’s upcoming 10-year survey of the night sky — has identifiedits first “potentially hazardous” asteroid, a term for space rocks in Earth’s vicinity thatscientists like to keep an eye on. The roughly 600-foot-long asteroid, designated 2022SF289, was discovered during a test […]
Read More »
June 9, 2023 | SPACE | Jonathan O’Callaghan
If any alien civilisations have spotted the new supernova SN 2023ixf in the Pinwheel galaxy, they may use it to try to make contact.
Read More »
May 30, 2023 | UW Story | James Urton
How UW astronomers, the world’s largest telescope and a revolutionary survey of space will upend what we thought we knew about the universe. Full article is featured on the UW Homepage here.
Read More »
May 23, 2023 | GeekWire | Alan Boyle
I’ve been rounding up the top stories in space on an annual basis for 25 years now (starting with the Mars Pathfinder mission in 1997), and 2022 ranks among the biggest years when it comes to opening up new frontiers on the final frontier. The best thing about these frontier-opening stories — especially the James Webb […]
Read More »April 10, 2023 | UW DiRAC