University of Florida News

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — At a time when astronomers are searching for Earth-like planets, the University of Florida has received a grant for $500,000 to lead the pack.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A multinational team led by University of Florida astronomers has won an $8 million grant to build a major new astronomical instrument for the largest optical telescope in the world in Spain’s Canary Islands.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Any driver who’s seen deer silhouetted by the headlights of an oncoming car knows that vital information can be conveyed by the outlines of objects.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A team of three University of Florida astronomers contributed to the Kepler spacecraft’s discovery of two Saturn-sized planets, plus a possible third planet with a radius just one-and-a-half times that of Earth, orbiting a distant star.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Using the world’s largest optical telescope, a team of University of Florida astronomers has pioneered a new method of observing planets outside our solar system. The method suggests that large Earth-based telescopes could play a leading role in rapidly accelerating research on “extrasolar” planets.