Department of Astronomy

Woody Sullivan is the UW astronomy professor known as "Mr. Sundial" for making Seattle the unlikely sundial capital of North America. Now he's recreated a Renaissance ceiling sundial in his home office.

It's not move-in ready, but an Earth-like planet was recently discovered by a UW astronomer using the Kepler Space Telescope. The planet, Kepler 62f, is outside the solar system.

University of Washington astronomy students will offer residents a closer look into the sky with a their mobile planetarium -- a fully functional planetarium that offers many of the same images as the high-tech version at the UW.

UW astronomer Sarah Ballard is using Earth's interstellar neighbors to learn the nature of certain stars too far away to be directly measured or observed, and the planets they may host.

A team of astronomers announced that they've identified two earth-like planets orbiting a star not too unlike our own. Eric Agol, associate professor of astronomy, is one of the paper's authors.

A University of Washington astronomer has discovered perhaps the most Earth-like planet yet found outside the solar system by the Kepler Space Telescope.

The astronomy department is readying a traveling planetarium to take to schools for outreach and collaboration in Seattle and beyond.

In partnership with Microsoft, the Department of Astronomy has updated its planetarium with digital technology. The result is an experience—and educational resource—that is truly out of this world.

Is anybody else out there? Are there other planets that resemble Earth? Scientists in the Virtual Planetary Laboratory are looking for clues by creating virtual planets through computer modeling. 

A feature-length film was the focus of a new DXARTS "Digital Production Studio" course. Most students arrived with little or no experience, but they quickly proved they had the talent and determination to make a film. 

Astronaut Michael Anderson, who perished in the space shuttle Columbia, earned his B.S. from the UW College of Arts and Sciences in physics and astronomy. 

A childhood interest in astronomy, renewed in adulthood, led David Brooks to support postdoctoral fellowships in the Department of Astronomy. 

Five A&S alumni who have been astronauts talk about their experiences.

Scientists once thought that post-starburst galaxies scattered all of their gas and dust — the fuel required for creating new stars — in violent bursts of energy, and with extraordinary speed. Now, a team led by University of Washington postdoctoral researcher Adam Smercina reports that these galaxies don’t scatter all of their star-forming fuel after all. Instead, data from the Chile-based Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, reveals a more complex process at work.

Julianne Dalcanton, professor emeritus of astronomy, explains the dramatic deep space collision of two galaxies.