AUI News  >

AUI Sponsors Student Outreach Event at 232nd AAS Meeting

Recent News

Astronomers Detect Earliest and Most Distant Blazar in the Universe

A groundbreaking discovery has revealed the presence of a blazar—a supermassive black hole with a jet pointed directly at Earth—at an extraordinary redshift of 7.0. The object, designated VLASS J041009.05−013919.88 (J0410−0139), is the most distant blazar ever identified, providing a rare glimpse into the epoch of reionization when the universe was less than 800 million years old.

AUI Sponsors Student Outreach Event at 232nd AAS Meeting

Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) sponsored the American Astronomical Society (AAS) local student outreach event at the AAS 232nd summer meeting held this June in Denver, CO.

As part of AUI’s role in serving as ambassadors of science and encouraging the next generation the next generation of scientists and engineers, the event provides middle and high school students in underserved populations an opportunity to spend a day learning about STEM.

The society welcomes local student groups, STEM program participants, home schooled students, and families for an interactive afternoon of science.
Students had the opportunity to participate in hands-on demonstrations and speak with world famous scientists and engineers at the forefront of astronomy research.

At the 232nd AAS meeting, the students received a welcome talk by Dr. Keivan Guadalupe Stassun, Professor of Astronomy at Vanderbilt University, and were chaperoned into the AAS Exhibit Hall to meet with several exhibitors for exciting hands-on activities covering topics such as discovering exoplanets, building an interferometer, dark matter, infrared cameras, light spectrum, radio astronomy, and more.

As the students departed, they received an AUI backpack full of resource materials from numerous exhibitors to further their exploration. There were more than 150 students in attendance from the Denver area.

AAS Press Release

Recent News

Astronomers Detect Earliest and Most Distant Blazar in the Universe

A groundbreaking discovery has revealed the presence of a blazar—a supermassive black hole with a jet pointed directly at Earth—at an extraordinary redshift of 7.0. The object, designated VLASS J041009.05−013919.88 (J0410−0139), is the most distant blazar ever identified, providing a rare glimpse into the epoch of reionization when the universe was less than 800 million years old.