September 8, 2016 - Many are the mysteries that University of Delaware astrophysicist William Matthaeus has explored in our galaxy for the past four decades or so. But the news from NASA this week is not so hard to figure. Planet Earth's foremost space agency has named Matthaeus to direct the Delaware Space Grant (DESG), which marks its 25th anniversary this year. Matthaeus succeeds Dermott Mullan, UD professor of astronomy and physics, who was director from 2005-15.
July 1, 2016 - As NASA’s Juno spacecraft arrives at Jupiter on July 4, UDaily checks in with Sally Dodson-Robinson, an expert on planet formation in the University of Delaware's Department of Physics and Astronomy, for a deeper look at the mysterious world it will explore.
June 13, 2016 - Although astronomers often refer to brown dwarfs as “failed stars,” scientists at the University of Delaware have discovered that at least one of these dim celestial objects can emit powerful flashes of light. A research team led by Prof. Gizis, has discovered an “ultracool” brown dwarf known as 2MASS 0335+23, with a temperature of only 4400°F that can generate flares stronger than the sun’s. Gizis reported on the finding on June 13 at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in San Diego.
June 1, 2016 - Physics Professor Marianna Safronova has been elected vice chair of the Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics of the American Physical Society (DAMOP). The four-year-term position starts with vice chair and progresses to chair elect, chair, and then past chair.
March 30, 2016 - Smaller than an atom and hurtling through space at near the speed of light, neutrinos are high-energy particles that pass right through just about anything in their way — yourself included — at a pace of billions per second.
Dr. Harry Shipman, professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Delaware, will present the Vernon Lecture for 2016 at 7:30PM in Clayton Hall. Pluto inhabits the frigid edges of our solar system far beyond the orbit of Neptune. Because of its distance and small size, we have only blurred glimpses of its surface features and character-istics, even with the best Earth-based telescopes. All that has now changed. New Horizons was launched in January 2006. After a journey of 3 billion miles, it passed within 13,000 miles of Pluto in July 2015.