Scientists in radio astronomy and medical imaging find common ground “We are star stuff,” famous astronomer Carl Sagan once said. The atoms of our bodies were forged in the hearts of long dead stars, and so when we look upon the universe we see ourselves. It’s a poetic notion, but when it comes to how we imagine both the universe and ourselves,...
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)...
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....
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...