University of Florida News

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A bit of serendipity has given astronomers a surprise view of a never-before-observed event in the birth of a galaxy.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A University of Florida-led sky survey that may double the number of known planets outside the solar system is part of a major new survey program announced today at the American Astronomical Society’s annual meeting in Austin, Texas.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — With powerful instruments scouring the heavens, astronomers have found more than 240 planets in the past two decades, none likely to support Earth-like life.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The world’s largest telescope will take its first peek into the heavens this week, ushering the University of Florida into the top ranks of the “big observers,” as one astronomy professor put it.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — An experiment called “shining light through walls” would seem hard to improve upon.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Astronomers have discovered two new planets outside our solar system, both extremely close to their stars and thus among the hottest ever found.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Dark matter and normal matter have been wrenched apart by the tremendous collision of two large clusters of galaxies, providing the strongest support yet for the existence of dark matter — the mysterious stuff said to comprise most of the universe yet only so far inferred based on its gravitational effect.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Astronomers from Spain, Mexico and the United States will gather in Miami next week to plan for the first observations of the world’s largest telescope – a $160 million behemoth under development for the past six years on Spain’s Canary Islands.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Astronomers have found the largest number of the most distant, youngest galaxy clusters yet, a feat that will help them observe the developing universe when it was less than half its current age and still in its formative stages.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Perhaps edging closer to finding planets that harbor life, astronomers have discovered the smallest planet yet identified outside our solar system.