Astronomy Archive

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Sea level stargazing: Astronomers make key sighting with Fla. telescope

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — This summer, University of Florida astronomers inaugurated the world’s largest optical telescope on a nearly 8,000-foot mountaintop 3,480 miles away.
But it was a far more modest observatory, located just above sea level in rural Levy County and just down the road from the UF campus, that proved key to a new discovery [...]

Filed under Astronomy, Research, Sciences on Monday, September 28, 2009.

Sophisticated telescope camera debuts with peek at nest of black holes

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Less than two months after they inaugurated the world’s largest telescope, University of Florida astronomers have used one of the world’s most advanced telescopic instruments to gather images of the heavens.

Filed under Astronomy, Research, Sciences on Tuesday, September 15, 2009.

Gravitational Wave Observatory listens for echoes of universe’s birth

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — An investigation by a major scientific group headed by a University of Florida professor has advanced understanding of the early evolution of the universe.

Filed under Astronomy, Research, Sciences on Wednesday, August 19, 2009.

Astronomers, royalty, rock stars to inaugurate world’s largest telescope

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Four hundred years after Galileo first turned his handmade telescope toward the heavens, the world’s largest, most technologically advanced telescope is set to make its formal debut.

Filed under Astronomy, Research, Sciences on Monday, July 13, 2009.

UF astronomy team among first to use massive new telescope

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A team of University of Florida astronomers is among the first in the world to make scientific-quality observations of the heavens using the newly completed Gran Telescopio Canarias, the world’s largest optical telescope.

Filed under Astronomy, Research, Sciences on Thursday, June 18, 2009.

Serendipitous observations reveal rare event in life of distant quasar

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A bit of serendipity has given astronomers a surprise view of a never-before-observed event in the birth of a galaxy.

Filed under Astronomy, Research, Sciences on Tuesday, October 21, 2008.

UF-led search for new planets part of ambitious new sky survey

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A University of Florida-led sky survey that may double the number of known planets outside the solar system is part of a major new survey program announced today at the American Astronomical Society’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas.

Filed under Astronomy, Research, Sciences on Thursday, January 10, 2008.

To curious aliens, Earth would stand out as living planet

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — With powerful instruments scouring the heavens, astronomers have found more than 240 planets in the past two decades, none likely to support Earth-like life.

Filed under Astronomy, Research, Sciences on Thursday, December 20, 2007.

World’s largest telescope to make first observations Friday

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The world’s largest telescope will take its first peek into the heavens this week, ushering the University of Florida into the top ranks of the “big observers,” as one astronomy professor put it.

Filed under Astronomy, Engineering, Research on Monday, July 9, 2007.

Revamped experiment could detect elusive particle, physicists say

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — An experiment called “shining light through walls” would seem hard to improve upon.

Filed under Astronomy, Research, Sciences on Tuesday, April 24, 2007.