Head Room: McDonald Observatory
Take a trip out to Fort Davis, under some of the darkest skies in North America, and meet the telescopes that are making astronomical history. Learn more at McDonald Observatory's website. Video by Jeff Mertz.
News
From the College of Natural Sciences
UT Austin to Become Partner in Construction of World’s Largest Telescope
The University of Texas System Board of Regents Friday authorized UT Austin to spend $50 million in research reserves to participate in building the Giant Magellan Telescope, which will be the world’s largest telescope when it’s completed in 2020. The project will give students, researchers and faculty the opportunity to make groundb...
Leading Astronomer Taft Armandroff Appointed Director of UT’s McDonald Observatory
Astronomer Taft Armandroff has been appointed the new director of the College of Natural Sciences McDonald Observatory in Fort Davis, Texas.
Texas Astronomer Discovers Most Distant Known Galaxy
University of Texas at Austin astronomer Steven Finkelstein has led a team that has discovered and measured the distance to the most distant galaxy ever found. The galaxy is seen as it was at a time just 700 million years after the Big Bang.
Texas Astronomers Measure Most Massive, Most Unusual Black Hole Using Hobby-Eberly Telescope
The unusual black hole makes up 14 percent of its galaxy's mass, rather than the usual 0.1 percent, and lies 220 million light-years away in the constellation Perseus.
The White Widow Model: A New Scenario for the Birth of Type Ia Supernovae
Astronomer J. Craig Wheeler has a new idea on the identity of the "parents" of one of the most important types of supernovae in the universe.
Video: The Giant Magellan Telescope
With its role in the construction of the Giant Magellan Telescope, the McDonald Observatory continues to push forward the frontiers of astronomical science.
NASA, Texas Astronomers Find First Multi-Planet System around a Binary Star
The discovery of the Tatooine-like system proves that whole planetary systems can form in a disk around a binary star.
Astronomers Test Einstein in a New Regime Using Pair of Burnt-Out Stars
The white dwarf stars are so close together that they make a complete orbit in less than 13 minutes.
The Art and Science of Making White Dwarfs in the Desert
Astronomer Don Winget is making white dwarf "star stuff" here on Earth.
From Marfa to Mauritania
A brief history of the McDonald Observatory and the National Science Foundation.
Astronomers Probe ‘Evaporating’ Planet Around Nearby Star with Hobby-Eberly Telescope
A Jupiter-size planet in a nearby solar system is dissolving because of interactions with its parent star.
Astronomy Student Wins $20,000 Mitchell Student Grand Prize Award for Academic Excellence
George Miller, astronomy senior and Dean’s Scholar in the College of Natural Sciences, has won the $20,000 grand prize in the University Co-operative Society’s George H. Mitchell Awards for Academic Excellence.
Hubble Study Challenges "Cosmic Fireworks" as Largest Driver of Galaxy Growth
University of Texas at Austin astronomers studied 166 of the most massive galaxies present only a few billion years after the Big Bang.
Astronomer Honored by The Academy of Medicine, Engineering and Science of Texas
Karl Gebhardt will receive the 2012 Edith and Peter O’Donnell Award in Science in recognition of his discoveries regarding the formation of black holes and galaxies.
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