Department of Astronomy

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!

If there’s a hidden world in the solar system, a new telescope should find it. Mario Jurić, an astronomer at UW, and Pedro Bernardinelli, an astronomer at the Institute for Data Intensive Research in Astrophysics and Cosmology at UW, are quoted.

If theres a hidden world in the solar system, a new telescope should find it. Mario Juri, professor of astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

Since 2018 the Zwicky Transient Facility, an international astronomical collaboration based at the Palomar Observatory in California, has scanned the entire sky every two to three nights. As part of this mission, the ZTF's Bright Transient Survey has been counting and cataloging supernovae — flashes of light in the sky that are the telltale signs of stars dying in spectacular explosions.

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The Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s 8.4-meter Simonyi Survey Telescope in Chile has now been equipped with all three of its mirrors, plus a camera for good measure. James Davenport, research assistant professor of astronomy at the UW, is quoted. The UW's Željko Ivezić and Mario Jurić, both professors of astronomy, are mentioned.

Thousands of satellites in low-Earth orbit are still lighting up the sky, frustrating astronomers. Meredith Rawls, a research scientist of astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

When an orca hunts salmon, it clicks and buzzes. It sends a beam of sounds from its nasal passages into the murky depths in hopes that the sound waves will bounce back and reveal the location of its next nutritious meal. Those hopes are often dashed when noise from passing vessels drowns out orcas’ sonar signals. Jennifer Tennessen, senior research scientist at the UW Center for Ecosystem Sentinels, is quoted.

Using machine learning, UW scientists managed to confirm that galaxies in denser regions of the universe can be as much as 25% larger than galaxies with a similar mass and shape in less dense regions. Aritra Ghosh, a postdoctoral researcher in astronomy at the UW, is quoted.

NASAâs upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will look for âfossilsâ of galaxy formation by conducting high-resolution imaging studies. Through a grant from NASA, astronomers are designing a set of possible observations called RINGS â the Roman Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey â that would collect these images, and the team is producing publicly available tools that the astronomy community can use once Roman launches and starts collecting data.

New research shows that galaxies in denser parts of the universe are usually larger than those that are more isolated. Aritra Ghosh, a postdoctoral researcher in astronomy at the UW, is quoted.