Department of Astronomy

With support from NASA, a UW team of astronomers may one day announce our planet’s twin around a distant star.

"Origins: Life and the Universe,” will pair live performances of new compositions with video and slideshow scenes depicting cosmic events like the Big Bang.

Earth-like exoplanets may have magnetic fields capable of protecting life according to researchers at the Virtual Planetary Laboratory based at the UW.

Astronomers from the Virtual Planetary Laboratory have created a way to rank exoplanets to help prioritize which of the thousands discovered warrant close inspection in the search for life.

A benefit concert for the Astrobiology Program and Astronomy Department combines original symphonic music with spectacular imagery from space.

The Department of Astronomy celebrates its 50th anniversary with lectures, a concert, and—just maybe—an exploding star.

Analysis of thousands of photographs of the Andromeda galaxy taken by the Hubble Space Telescope could help explain how stars were born in our own galaxy.

A survey of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope images offers new similarities between the neighboring Andromeda galaxy and our own galaxy.

Observations of nitrogen in Earth’s atmosphere by a NASA spacecraft 17 million miles away are giving astronomers fresh clues on faraway planets.

UW astronomers and friends come together for one of the most ambitious research endeavors.

The University of Washington Astronomy Department has compiled a list of their favorite places to watch meteors.

A puzzling stellar phenomenon may not be what other astronomers had reported.

The capital retrofit project has drastically reduced ventilation system waste in the iconic campus building

UW astronomers and their partners have started plans to launch a sort of supersize version of the Hubble Space Telescope that will look for life beyond Earth.

A team of UW astronomers propose a new type of mission to crack some of the universe’s most intriguing mysteries and search for life on distant worlds.