UA Science
A quasar is a galactic object with a supermassive black hole in the center. International Gemini Observatory/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld, CC BY-NC-SA

Powerful black holes might grow up in bustling galactic neighborhoods

Dr. Jaclyn Champagne, our JASPER post-doc researcher in the UA Astronomy Department, is hard at work using James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) data to map out rapidly forming galaxy neighborhoods—protoclusters—and to understand if these cosmic cities are the birthplace of extraordinarily luminous quasars. The wide-field slitless spectrograph aboard JWST has revolutionized the search for these galactic neighborhoods in the early universe, where astronomers are observing “colliding galaxies, growing black holes and great swarms of gas that will eventually become the next generation of stars.” Learn about Jackie’s work in her latest article for The Conversation, ...

GUSTO Balloon Observatory Mission Ships Out in Preparation for Antarctic Launch

On July 3, the integrated gondola and payload for NASA’s Galactic/Extragalactic ULDB Spectroscopic Terahertz Observatory (GUSTO) was shipped from the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, on a long route to Antarctica.

GUSTO is an observatory that will fly on a Long-Duration Balloon (LDB) to around 120,000 feet in the air to study the interstellar medium — the matter between the stars — using far infrared detectors. This mission represents a joint effort between NASA, the University of Arizona and Johns Hopkins APL. Read more

For the public
For Public

Public events include our Monday Night Lecture Series, world-reknowned Astronomy Camp and Mt Lemmon Sky Center.

For Students

A good place to start if you want to become an undergrad major or grad student, or need to find our schedule of classes.

 

For Scientists
For Scientists

Find telescopes and instruments, telescope time applications, staff and mountain contacts, and faculty and staff scientific interests.