The AAS has released the astronomical obituary of Illinois Emeritus Professor Ed Olson, who passed in 2020. Ed was an expert on eclipsing and mass-transferring binary stellar systems. Read more here.
Astronomy at IllinoisWhy study Astronomy?
Featured StarComa Berenieces
Illinois astronomers help capture first image of Milky Way's black holeCongratulations to Prof. Gammie and his team as part of the international collaboration that just released the first image of the accretion disk surrounding the supermassive Black Hole at the center of our Galaxy. It's a great achievement. Read about it here
100 Gifts for 100 YearsHelp celebrate our centennial by reaching for the stars. In celebration of the department’s centennial, we’re asking for your help to replenish the department’s annual fund. Our goal is 100 gifts for 100 years.
Illinois Graduate Student Detects Signs of Water in a Galaxy Far, Far AwaySreevani Jarugula is among the ALMA scientists who detected signs of water in the Universe.
Grad student Colin Burke decodes the mysteries of black hole accretionAstronomy grad student Colin Burke and Prof. Yue Shen led a new study revealing a relation between the light flickering pattern and the black hole mass in active galactic nuclei, published in the Aug 13 issue of Science. Read more here
A team led by Prof. Tony Wong, and including Prof. Leslie Looney, showed that the star formation at the center of our Milky Way galaxy is still driven by gravity even with all the nearby massive stars providing intense feedback. Read about it here.
Prof. Xin Liu explains “what would happen if two supermassive black holes merged” in this month’s Astronomy Magazine.
More Department News
- Congratulations to Prof. Brian Fields, Prof. Telemachos Mouschovias, and grad student Grant Merz for being named to the List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent By Their Students for Spring 2022.
- We are excited to announce that applications are now open for the 2022 Girls’ Astronomy Summer Camp! This summer camp for high school students will be focused on hands-on astronomy projects. Join this two-day camp to play with real astronomical data and hang with UIUC...
- Congratulations to Prof. Gammie and his team as part of the international collaboration that just released the first image of the accretion disk surrounding the supermassive Black Hole at the center of our Galaxy. It's a great achievement....
- Congratulations to Dr. Paul Sutter, who was just awarded the 2022 Corones Award. Paul is one of our physics alums (worked with Prof. Ricker) and a great science communicator. Read about it here.
Calendar
Astronomy Picture of the Day
ASTR 100Learn the basic concepts of modern astronomy, from the Solar System to the Big Bang.
ASTR 210Survey of modern astronomy for students with background in physics.
ASTR 350Studies the origin, evolution, and eventual fate of the universe, and the scientific tools used to study these issues.
