Department of Astronomy

The circumstances need to be right, but modeling suggests finding biosignatures in the atmospheres of planets orbiting nearby stars will be well within the Extremely Large Telescopes capacity. The UW's Victoria Meadows, professor of astronomy, and Miles Currie, a doctoral student of astronomy, are mentioned.

Recent recognition of the University of Washington includes the Best Paper Award at NeurIPS Pluralistic Alignment Workshop, Scialog: Early Science with the LSST Collaborative Innovation Award and 2024 AVS Thin Film Young Investigator Award. Professor wins ‘best paper’ at NeurIPS Pluralistic Alignment Workshop Max Kleiman-Weiner, assistant professor in the UW Foster School of Business, received...

Admitted students and families can engage with the College of Arts and Sciences through several department and program specific events over the next few weeks.

The full image includes some 2.5 billion pixels compiled from observations spanning more than 1,000 orbits around Earth. Ben Williams, research associate professor of astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

Astronomers announced last week that they had completed a decade-long, meticulous effort to assemble a full portrait of our neighboring galaxy, Andromeda. The result is a stunning panoramic view that provides the most detailed image yet of the entire galaxy; its science-packed features could revolutionize our understanding of how spiral galaxies across the universe form and evolve. The UW's Zhuo Chen, a postdoctoral scholar of astronomy, and Ben Williams, research associate professor of astronomy, are quoted.

I can be part of this journey that humankind is on," recalls University of Washington astronomer James Davenport. "It was amazing." Now an astronomy professor at the University of Washington, Davenport is still enthralled by the search.

At the turn of the century, 3.8 million people banded together in a real-time search for aliens with screensavers. The project was called SETI@home. The hope was that with the power of millions of computers, researchers could comb through radio signals hitting Earth from outer space to find a hint of something unusual. James Davenport, research assistant professor of astronomy at the UW, is interviewed.

The Hubble Space Telescope has generated the most comprehensive survey yet of the Andromeda galaxy, the nearest galactic neighbor to the Milky Way. The new mosaic of about 2.5 billion pixels yields new clues to the galaxy's history. UW astronomers presented the findings Jan. 16 at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

New research suggests that most of the atoms within the human body likely spent part of their lives drifting beyond the Milky Way on a cosmic "conveyor belt," before eventually returning to our galaxy. The UW's Samantha Garza, a doctoral student of astronomy, and Jessica Werk, professor and chair of astronomy, are quoted.

The College of Arts & Sciences is home to many distinguished researchers, faculty, and students. Their work and contributions have been featured in media outside of the UW and across the country. Take a look at some ArtSci features from this past Autumn Quarter. With everything from AI to Orca whales, ArtSci people and research in the media has something for everyone.

The materials that make up your body are intergalactic voyagers that have existed beyond the limits of the Milky Way. The UW's Samantha Garza, a doctoral student of astronomy, and Jessica Werk, professor and chair of astronomy, are quoted.

The carbon on the Earth and therefore, in us probably spent some time outside the Milky Way galaxy before forming our planet, according to a new study. The UW's Samantha Garza, a doctoral student of astronomy, and Jessica Werk, professor and chair of astronomy, are quoted.

The carbon that is a key component of the human body and all other lifeforms on Earth may have traveled outside the galaxy after being created before returning on a cosmic "conveyor belt," an author of a new study has suggested. Samantha Garza, a doctoral student of astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

Every atom of carbon in your body has an incredible story to tell. Before becoming part of you, the carbon atom likely spent time not just in other living things, but also floating in the vast spaces between stars. Samantha Garza, a doctoral student of astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

University of Washington scientists recently discovered that the giant 'conveyor belt' currents that push star-forged material out of our galaxy and pull it back in can also transport carbon atoms. That means that a good deal of the carbon here on Earth, including the carbon in our bodies, likely left the galaxy at some point!