Astronomy and astrophysics

An image of an ultra pure tellurium crystal.

An element that's rare on Earth is found far, far away

Tellurium detected for the first time in ancient stars.

February 17, 2012

Cutting the ribbon to 'inaugurate' the Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) are, from left to right, Eric Evans, director of MIT Lincoln Laboratory; General William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command; and Dr. Regina Dugan, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which sponsored the development of the SST. At the podium is Grant Stokes, head of the Aerospace Division, wh...

Lincoln Laboratory helps celebrate the official unveiling of the Space Surveillance Telescope

The laboratory developed enabling technologies for the telescope

January 20, 2012

At the center of this infrared image is a massive red galaxy, 9.8 billion light-years from Earth, which acts like a cosmic magnifying glass, distorting the light from an even more distant galaxy. The observations were made with the 10-meter Keck-11 Telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

Astronomers find a dark matter galaxy far, far away

Discovery could offer clues on the nature of dark matter.

January 19, 2012

Two new exoplanets, Kepler 20e and 20f, are part of a five-planet system orbiting a sun-like star, similar to the artist’s rendering above. Researchers have found the new planets are likely scorching hot, circling their star at a much closer distance than Mercury orbits the Sun.

Two new Earth-sized exoplanets discovered

Some 950 light-years away, team finds smallest exoplanets yet detected.

December 21, 2011

Adam Riess ’92, professor of astronomy and physics at Johns Hopkins University

Adam Riess ’92 wins Nobel Prize for physics

MIT alum cited for studying the universe’s expansion.

October 4, 2011

A rendering of the silhouette of 55 Cancri e transiting its parent star, compared to the Earth and Jupiter transiting our sun.

Stellar eclipse gives glimpse of exoplanet

New data reveals a ‘super-Earth’ next door, astronomically speaking

July 19, 2011

3 Questions: Richard Binzel on near-Earth asteroids

'2011 MD,' found by a Lincoln Lab team, will pass close to the planet on Monday.

June 27, 2011

David Mindell, right, the Frances and David Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing, speaks about the history of exploration. Stephen J. Pyne, Regents’ professor at Arizona State University, and Rosalind Williams, Bern Dibner Professor of the History of Science and Technology, look on.

Exploring exploration

From deep space to deep sea, two-day symposium examined MIT’s impacts and innovations.

April 29, 2011

One of the thousands of fragments recovered from the Allende meteorite, which fell in Mexico in 1969. The black area is a fusion crust, produced from the heat of slamming into Earth's atmosphere. New studies of one such fragment provided evidence that the object the meteorite originated from had a magnetic field.

Cold asteroids may have a soft heart

Partially molten small bodies may be abundant in space, and may have given the Earth its oceans.

April 8, 2011

EAPS, physics professor James Elliot dies at 67

Led team that discovered the rings of Uranus in 1977.

March 5, 2011

Kepler-11 is a sun-like star around which six planets orbit. At times, two or more planets pass in front of the star at once, as shown in this artist's conception of a simultaneous transit of three planets observed by NASA's Kepler.

3 Questions: Sara Seager on discovering a trove of new planets

NASA’s Kepler orbiting telescope has found hundreds of new possible planets, including 54 in the so-called 'habitable zone.'

February 3, 2011

$A transiting planet obscures just a tiny fraction of the light from its parent star, allowing astronomers to detect its presence.$

Explained: Transiting exoplanets

How astronomers learn whether a planet is habitable by observing slight changes in light emanating from its parent star.

January 27, 2011

Close up of the EDGES antenna. The four panels are made from aluminum sheet metal and supported by PVC legs. The white bag under the antenna encloses analog amplifiers and calibration circuits.

And then there was light

Astronomers probe ancient radio waves for clues about the universe’s first light.

January 13, 2011

For the past 15 years, Sara Seager, the Ellen Swallow Richards Professor of Planetary Science in MIT’s Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences and professor in MIT’s Department of Physics, has been studying exoplanet atmospheres and interiors.

The final frontier

Now that an Earthlike planet has been discovered, the key to confirming that it can host life will be to study its atmosphere in detail

December 16, 2010

Joshua Winn, an assistant professor in MIT’s Department of Physics and a researcher for the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, has been studying “hot Jupiters” for six years.

Learning from hot Jupiters

By studying how massive planets may have formed, MIT astrophysicist sets the stage for studying smaller, more Earthlike planets.

December 15, 2010

MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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