News

Jamey Szalay, Research Scholar, Leads Paper on Oxygen Production on the Jovian moon Europa
March 7, 2024

A team including Jamey Szalay, a Research Scholar in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences recently published a paper discussing the amount of oxygen that has been found on Jupiter’s moon Europa.  Using data from the Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instrument on the Juno mission, the team determined that Europa “generates…

Four Princeton University Students Receive Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Awards
Feb. 2, 2024

The American Astronomical Society has announced that three Princeton students are among the six graduate student recipients of the Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Awards. Third year graduate student Jiaxuan Li and first year graduate students Miguel Montalvo, and Ronan Hix will receive that award, “given to recognize exemplary research…

Emeritus Professor Jim Stone Awarded the James Craig Watson Medal
Jan. 22, 2024

Jim Stone, Emeritus Professor of Astrophysical Sciences, Emeritus Lyman Spitzer, Jr., Professor of Theoretical Astrophysics at Princeton, and currently Professor in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study, has just been awarded the…

Professor Neta Bahcall Awarded the American Astronomical Society’s Highest Honor
Jan. 12, 2024

Neta Bahcall, Princeton’s Eugene Higgins Professor of Astronomy has been awarded the American Astronomical Society’s highest honor, The Henry Norris Russell Lectureship!  The award is given for “a lifetime of eminence in astronomical research.”

Bahcall received this award “For her central contributions to determining the average…

Department Members Featured in Research at Princeton Magazine
Dec. 28, 2023

The latest issue of Discovery, the yearly magazine from the Dean of Research at Princeton University, features two articles about astrophysics and members of the Astrophysical Sciences department.  The first is a feature about Wolf Cukier, a senior in the department, titled: Bright Mind: Wolf…

Guðmundur Stefánsson and Collaborators Discover the first Neptune-mass Planet in a close-in orbit around a Very Low Mass Star
Nov. 30, 2023

Guðmundur Stefánsson, NASA Sagan Fellow, and a team including Professor Joshua Winn have discovered the first Neptune-mass planet known to orbit a very low mass star—a star barely massive enough to be considered to be a star. Stefánsson explains: "The planet is surprisingly massive, given the small size of its host star. Its high mass is…

Eliot Quataert and Collaborators Provide New Insights into How Black Holes Lose Energy
Nov. 20, 2023

Eliot Quataert, Princeton’s Charles A. Young Professor of Astronomy, and a team including other current and former Princetonians have provided new evidence for energy leaving the region close to the event horizon of the black hole M87* observed by the Event Horizon Telescope.   Quataert explains: A black hole “ can rotate, and just like a…

Andy Goulding and International Team Discover the Most Distant Supermassive Black Hole Ever Found
Nov. 15, 2023

Using the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, Research Scholar Andy Goulding worked with an international team of astrophysicists to find an active galaxy powered by a supermassive black hole 10 to 100 million times more massive than our sun.  The black hole lies in the distant galaxy UZ-1 with a redshift…

Miguel Montalvo, a first-year graduate student, featured in video for Hispanic Heritage Month
Nov. 9, 2023

Miguel Montalvo, a first-year graduate student, was featured in a video created by the Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley, NBC Bay Area, and Telemundo 48 for Hispanic Heritage Month.  Watch the video here. Congrats, Miguel!

Tea Temim Takes Stunning Photo of Crab Nebula with JWST
Nov. 6, 2023

A team led by Tea Temim, Research Astronomer in Princeton’s Department of Astrophysical Sciences has taken a stunning image of the Crab Nebula supernova remnant with JWST.  This image, covering six filters from 1.6 to 21 microns with the NIRCam and MIRI cameras, highlights emission from dust and from synchrotron emission from relativistic…