11/15
Astronomy
Takeaways: The new mini moon
Takeaways: The new mini moon
Last month Earth welcomed a visitor known as 2024 PT5. To learn more about this celestial guest, Penn Today caught up with two astronomers in the School of Arts & Sciences, Gary Bernstein and Bhuvnesh Jain.
What’s That? The Rittenhouse Orrery
What’s That? The Rittenhouse Orrery
The Rittenhouse Orrery is a nearly intact 18th-century mechanical model of the solar system, demonstrating the motions of the planets and their satellites around the sun, built by astronomer David Rittenhouse.
Researchers upend theory about the formation of the Milky Way Galaxy
Researchers upend theory about the formation of the Milky Way Galaxy
New findings by Robyn Sanderson and collaborators suggest galaxy’s last major collision was billions of years later than previously thought.
Total solar eclipse
Total solar eclipse
Gary Bernstein and Bhuvnesh Jain speak with Penn Today about the significance of the coming total eclipse.
Once a spy satellite, now a telescope with an eye on the cosmos
Once a spy satellite, now a telescope with an eye on the cosmos
Researchers from Penn’s School of Arts & Sciences are part of a collaboration to develop Hubble’s wide-eyed cousin, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
Dark Energy Survey uncovers clues to universe’s complexity
Dark Energy Survey uncovers clues to universe’s complexity
The decade-long effort reveals findings consistent with standard cosmological models, but open to more complex interpretations.
Could the age of the universe be twice as old as current estimates suggest?
Could the age of the universe be twice as old as current estimates suggest?
Penn Professors Vijay Balasubramanian and Mark Devlin offer a broader understanding of a recent paper’s claim that the universe could be 26.7 billion years old.
Euclid Space Telescope launches exciting new possibilities
Euclid Space Telescope launches exciting new possibilities
Professors of physics and astronomy Bhuvnesh Jain, Mark Trodden, and Gary Bernstein discuss the coming research findings from the European Space Agency’s Euclid Space Telescope.
A grant to upgrade Simons Observatory
A grant to upgrade Simons Observatory
Mark Devlin and colleagues have been awarded an NSF grant to upgrade the prominent observatory in the high Atacama Desert in Northern Chile.
New findings reveal the most detailed mass map of dark matter
New findings reveal the most detailed mass map of dark matter
Research led by the Atacama Cosmology Telescope collaboration maps the universe’s cosmic growth supporting Einstein's theory of general relativity.
In the News
The Wall Street Journal
Russia aims to restore prestige in race to moon’s south pole
Benjamin L. Schmitt of the School of Arts & Sciences and the Weitzman School of Design says that sentiment in the scientific and astronaut communities has begun to shift toward a future in which NASA and Roscosmos are no longer close partners.
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Scientific American
Audio astronomy unlocks a universe of sound
College of Arts and Sciences fourth-year Sarah Kane discusses her use of data analysis and machine learning to circumvent her blindness in studying astronomy.
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The Guardian
UK joins international effort to uncover first moments of the universe
In a statement for the Simons Observatory, Mark Devlin of the School of Arts & Sciences says that new telescopes and researchers from the UK will make a significant addition to their efforts to examine the origins of the universe.
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Space
The ‘megacomet’ Bernardinelli-Bernstein is the find of a decade. Here’s the discovery explained
Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein of the School of Arts & Sciences comment on being an unlikely pair to have discovered the largest icy-bodied comet which is named in their honor.
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USA Today
Fact check: 62-mile-wide mega comet unlikely to hit Earth, will just pass by it in 2031
Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein of the School of Arts & Sciences spoke about the giant comet they recently discovered. “There is no possibility of this thing getting any closer to Earth than Saturn gets,” said Bernstein.
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USA Today
The largest comet ever discovered in modern times is zooming toward the sun
Gary Bernstein of the School of Arts & Sciences spoke about the giant comet he and Ph.D. candidate Pedro Bernardinelli discovered. "We have the privilege of having discovered perhaps the largest comet ever seen—or at least larger than any well-studied one—and caught it early enough for people to watch it evolve as it approaches and warms up," Bernstein said.
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