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US Public to Name Newly Discovered Exoplanet

US Public to Name Newly Discovered Exoplanet

Astronomers need your help naming a newly discovered planet and the star it orbits. In recent years, astronomers have discovered thousands of planets and planetary systems orbiting around nearby stars. Some are small and rocky, like the Earth, while others are gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn. Although the International Astronomical Union (IAU)...

Image Release: ALMA Shows What’s Inside Jupiter’s Storms

Image Release: ALMA Shows What’s Inside Jupiter’s Storms

Swirling clouds, big colorful belts, giant storms — the beautiful and turbulent atmosphere of Jupiter has been showcased many times. But what is going on below the clouds? What is causing the many storms and eruptions that we see on the ‘surface’ of the planet? To see this, visible light is not enough. We need to study Jupiter using radio waves....

‘Moon-forming’ Circumplanetary Disk Discovered in Distant Star System

‘Moon-forming’ Circumplanetary Disk Discovered in Distant Star System

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have made the first-ever observations of a circumplanetary disk, the planet-girding belt of dust and gas that astronomers strongly theorize controls the formation of planets and gives rise to an entire system of moons, like those found around Jupiter. This never-before-seen...

2019 Jansky Lectureship Awarded to Caltech Professor

2019 Jansky Lectureship Awarded to Caltech Professor

Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) have awarded the 2019 Karl G. Jansky Lectureship to Dr. Anneila Sargent, Ira S. Bowen Professor of Astronomy, Emeritus, at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). The Jansky Lectureship is an honor established by the trustees of AUI to recognize...