2025 was an incredibly productive year for AUI, marked by significant advances across astronomy, energy, advanced therapeutics, and STEM education and workforce development.
Recent News
ALMA Reveals Teenage Years of New Worlds
The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS), using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), has produced the sharpest images ever of 24 debris disks, the dusty belts left after planets finish forming. These disks are the cosmic equivalent of the teenage years for planetary systems—somewhat more mature than newborn, planet-forming disks, but not yet settled into adulthood.
The NSF Very Large Array Helps Reveal Record-Breaking Stream of Super-Heated Gas from Nearby Galaxy
New radio images from the the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array trace a pair of powerful plasma jets launched by galaxy VV 340a’s central supermassive black hole, which appear to be driving hot coronal gas out of the galaxy and shutting down future star formation.
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.
Recent News
Making Scientific Breakthroughs Possible in 2025
2025 was an incredibly productive year for AUI, marked by significant advances across astronomy, energy, advanced therapeutics, and STEM education and workforce development.
ALMA Reveals Teenage Years of New Worlds
The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt Substructures (ARKS), using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), has produced the sharpest images ever of 24 debris disks, the dusty belts left after planets finish forming. These disks are the cosmic equivalent of the teenage years for planetary systems—somewhat more mature than newborn, planet-forming disks, but not yet settled into adulthood.
The NSF Very Large Array Helps Reveal Record-Breaking Stream of Super-Heated Gas from Nearby Galaxy
New radio images from the the U.S. National Science Foundation Very Large Array trace a pair of powerful plasma jets launched by galaxy VV 340a’s central supermassive black hole, which appear to be driving hot coronal gas out of the galaxy and shutting down future star formation.