Caltech Astronomy

Dark skies, the Milky Way, and a few thousand people exploring the Universe together. We had a great weekend at the Great Basin Astronomy Festival, sharing telescopes, science talks, and astronomy with visitors from across the country. Thanks to Great Basin National Park for having us! See you next year!

Timelapse footage by Mike Kelzenberg.

Residents of the Eastern Sierra: Caltech's Owens Valley Radio Observatory is hosting a series of free public astronomy lectures in Bishop this fall!

Join astronomers to hear about black holes, cosmic rays, explosions on the Sun, and mysterious radio bursts from across the Universe. Talks will be held monthly at Cerro Coso Community College in Bishop from 6–7pm and are free and open to everyone.

The next lecture is October 15, with additional talks in November and December. We hope to see you there!

How have ground-based telescopes transformed our view of the Universe? How have we gone from the early telescopes used by Galileo to the enormous observatories astronomers use today? We recently hosted Caltech astronomer Kaitlyn Shin to discuss the history and science of ground-based telescopes at Astronomy on Tap. It was our biggest event so far, with 500+ attendees, and one lucky trivia winner even went home with a telescope! Kaitlyn's presentation is now up on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HAsvDZ-0JA

Photos by Robb Rosenfeld.

We brought a group of scientists to help out with the Sequoia Dark Sky Festival earlier this month. Over the course of the weekend, we brought telescopes to the public star party (including a radio telescope to detect hydrogen in our Milky Way!), hosted an Astrophysicist Q&A Panel, and gave public science presentations on cosmology, asteroids, and supernovae.

Great trees, great skies, and great crowds. See you next year, everyone!

Exciting news for astronomy in Pasadena! NASA has selected PRIMA, the PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics, to move forward as the first space telescope mission in NASA's new Probe Explorers program.

PRIMA will open a new window on the universe in far-infrared light, helping astronomers study everything from the formation of planets and stars to the growth of galaxies and black holes. Congratulations to the entire PRIMA team, including our colleagues at NASA JPL and IPAC here in Pasadena!

https://www.caltech.edu/about/news/nasa-confirms-prima-mission-key-roles-for-caltech-jpl-and-ipac

What secrets are hidden beneath the clouds of Venus? What can our neighboring planet teach us about the evolution of Earth-like worlds?

Last week, NASA JPL scientist Amy Hofmann joined us to discuss DAVINCI, an upcoming NASA mission that will plunge through the thick atmosphere of Venus to study the planet's composition, history, and evolution. Her presentation is now up on our YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1algocTiwFg