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UCSD Astro

@ucsdastro

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UC San Diego Department of Astronomy & Astrophysics
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The Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888) This cosmic brain-looking object is a broadband image of a star that is slowly dying. At its center is WR 136, a Wolf–Rayet star shedding layers of material through violent stellar winds traveling at thousands of kilometers per second. These winds crash into the slower materials that were expelled during an earlier stage of the star’s evolution, creating the glowing, filamentary brainy shell we see here. In X-rays, observations from space telescope like XMM-Newton have revealed the million-degree plasma within the interior that’s heated by shocks where the stellar winds interact with surrounding gas. Research combining X-ray observations with hydrodynamic models is helping astronomers understand how massive stars inject energy and chemically enriched material into the interstellar medium. I captured this image using the Pad 70 observatory managed by the @sdastronomyassociation. #astronomy #astrophysics #nasa #telescope #photography @skyandtelescopemag @astronomy.magazine @ucsdastro taken in Tierra Del Sol, California by @ucsdastro
6
a day ago
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Julian Gerber is a third year PhD student in the high energy astrophysics lab! His research focuses on both instrumentation and observational astrophysics. On the instrumentation side, he helps with the development of COSI, a new NASA gamma-ray telescope. In his recent observational work, however, he has used data from across the electromagnetic spectrum to identify a new intermediate polar, a type of binary star system that glows in X-rays. Learn more about Julian's research at the link in our bio! by @ucsdastro
2
6 days ago
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Congratulations to A&A Distinguished Professor Pat Diamond on receiving the American Physical Society's 2026 James Clerk Maxwell Prize for Plasma Physics! The Maxwell Prize recognizes outstanding contributions to the field of plasma physics. Prof. Diamond was honored for his theoretical work on the statistical dynamics and self-organization of plasmas, including experimentally confirmed predictions of predator-prey interactions between turbulence and zonal flows near the LH transition, and the ExB staircase in confined magnetized plasmas. Reflecting on the award, Prof. Diamond shared: "I am pleased and honored to receive this award. I'm especially happy to see one of my favorite subjects, namely reduced modelling of drift wave–zonal flow dynamics, cited, and I'm glad to see a newer subject mentioned, namely the ExB staircase. Profuse thanks go to my mentors, co-workers, and colleagues. These are too numerous to name individually, but most definitely are appreciated." We congratulate Prof. Diamond on this well-deserved recognition! by @ucsdastro
1
12 days ago
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Aravind Valluvan is a PhD candidate working in the high energy astrophysics lab! Aravind's work focuses on the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI), an upcoming NASA telescope set to launch in 2027. While operating in space, COSI is susceptible to radiation and cosmic rays which can damage its performance. Aravind is developing methods to combat this damage to ensure COSI operates to the best of its ability. Read more about these ongoing efforts at the link in our bio! by @ucsdastro
2
13 days ago
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Dr. Ryleigh Davis is a postdoctoral researcher studying planetary science in the A&A department! Dr. Davis' research focuses on the icy moons of our solar system. Recently, she's used observations from JWST to study Neptune's small moons and rings for the very first time. These observations have helped unveil how these moons were formed in a catastrophic collision. Read more about Dr. Davis' exciting new discovery at the link in our bio! by @ucsdastro
0
20 days ago
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Dr. Aidan Gibbs is a postdoctoral researcher here in the A&A department studying exoplanets! Dr. Gibbs, along with a team of researchers from across the country, recently discovered a new exoplanet: Beta Pictoris d! This marks the third exoplanet discovered in the famous Beta Pictoris system. They discovered Beta Pictoris d using a novel technique that relied on spectra taken by JWST. The success of this new method demonstrates how scientists can discover exoplanets faster than they have before! Read more about this incredible discovery at the link in our bio! by @ucsdastro
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a month ago
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Vincent Savignac is a fourth-year PhD candidate in the A&A department! He researches the formation of planets, both within and outside of our own solar system. Vincent's recent work has focused on the formation of our very own Earth! He uses rock samples from Iceland and the Galapagos Islands to learn more about the disk of gas and dust that once surrounded the Sun when the Earth was first formed. Read more about Vincent's research at the link in our bio! by @ucsdastro
1
a month ago
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Connecting our community with the cosmos at the Julian Dark Sky Festival! Led by graduate student Charlie Goldberg with the help of several volunteers, UC San Diego Astronomy & Astrophysics recently joined the Julian Dark Sky Festival, engaging several hundred community members in the excitement of astronomy and the importance of protecting our night skies. Julian’s dark skies offer something that is increasingly rare: a clear view of our host galaxy, the Milky Way. Protecting dark skies allows us to enjoy and study our spectacular universe while also safeguarding wildlife from artificial light that can disrupt migration, feeding, and reproduction. Thanks again to Charlie, our volunteers, and the Julian Dark Sky Network for reminding our communities of the joy and wonder of looking up! @juliandarksky #astronomy #astrophysics #scienceoutreach #stem #ucsd taken in Julian, California by @ucsdastro
1
a month ago
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Congratulations to Professor Shelley Wright for receiving the Maria and Eric Muhlmann Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific! Professor Wright was awarded for her leadership in the field of astrophysical instrumentation. Her dedication to developing innovative technologies has enabled exciting new optical and near-infrared observations. Observations that have furthered our understanding of the universe all the way from galaxy evolution to the search for extraterrestrial life. Congratulations, Professor Wright, for this extraordinary achievement! Click the link in our bio to read more about the award and Professor Shelley Wright's career. by @ucsdastro
1
a month ago
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The Iris Nebula (NGC 7023) These towering cosmic clouds are brewing nearly 1,300 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus, forming the beautiful and dramatic Iris nebula. The Iris nebula is a reflection nebula where the central bright blue binary star system (HD 200775) with magnitude +7.4 illuminates the surrounding dust, giving the appearance of the bright blue eye of this churning celestial storm. This nebula is a famous laboratory for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs); These are large carbon-rich molecules that produce prominent infrared emissions when UV light particles excite them. PAHs offer a very interesting window into how simple cosmic chemistry evolves toward the organic building blocks found in planets and potentially life! If you’d like to learn more about PAHs, explore the work of @ucsdastro Professor Karin Sandstrom, who conducts cutting-edge research on these molecules and has published extensively on the subject. This image was captured using the @sdastronomyassociation PAD 70 observatory over three nights and 14.6 hours of exposure. This 6” Astro-Physics refractor at its native focal length is paired with an ASI6300MC OSC camera. #astronomy #telescope #astrophotography #photography #deepsky @nasa @skyandtelescopemag @astrobin_com @astronomy.magazine taken in Tierra Del Sol, California by @ucsdastro
5
a month ago
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We're excited to launch a new IG series featuring "big questions in astronomy!" The work is a collaboration between our amazing graduate and undergraduate students double-majoring in astronomy and arts. We start big with the Hubble Tension! Swipe through the images to learn more about the problem. Content credit to @reagenl28 and image credit to @ananyac.art Some of the recent review and community papers on this topic can be found in the link in bio. by @ucsdastro
14
2 months ago
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WHAT a weekend in Julian. helping kids understand gravity with marbles and our brand-new gravity demo, to a stargazing party where we caught the Ring Nebula, distant galaxies, and globular clusters, to 28+ combined miles running through Cuyamaca State Park, Julian, and Anza-Borrego. Still dreaming ✨ taken in Julian, California by @ucsdastro
3
2 months ago
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