News
Astrophysical Sciences and Technology Ph.D.

  • January 27, 2021

    Butterfly Nebula in deep space.

    Forbes features work by Joel Kastner, professor in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science and program faculty in the astrophysical sciences and technology graduate program, in its 10 most important Hubble photos from 2020.

  • January 15, 2021

    side-by-side images of the Jewel Bug Nebula using different colors to highlight different areas.

    Astronomers dissect the anatomy of planetary nebulae using Hubble Space Telescope images

    Images of two iconic planetary nebulae taken by the Hubble Space Telescope are revealing new information about how they develop their dramatic features. Researchers from RIT and Green Bank Observatory presented new findings about the Butterfly Nebula and the Jewel Bug Nebula at the 237th meeting of the American Astronomical Society on Friday, Jan. 15.

  • October 29, 2020

    chart showing masses of black holes in the 50 gravitational wave events detected to date.

    LIGO and Virgo announce 39 new gravitational wave discoveries during first half of third observing run

    The LIGO Scientific Collaboration and Virgo Collaboration released a catalog of results from the first half of its third observing run (O3a), and scientists have detected more than three times as many gravitational waves than the first two runs combined. Several researchers from RIT’s Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation were heavily involved in analyzing the gravitational waves and understanding their significance.

  • June 18, 2020

    x-ray flare from a very young star.

    NASA mentions Joel Kastner, professor in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science and School of Physics and Astronomy, and alumnus David Principe '10 Ph.D. (astrophysical science and technology) for being part of a team that observed an X-ray flare from a very young star using NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.

  • June 18, 2020

    Hubble image of gas and dust ejected from a star.

    NASA features Joel Kastner, a professor in RIT’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science and School of Physics and Astronomy, and astrophysical science and technology Ph.D. students Jesse Bublitz and Paula Moraga on their latest Hubble telescope observations.

  • February 10, 2020

    Artist's conception of a massive planet orbiting a cool, young star.

    RIT scientists discover the nearest-known ‘baby giant planet’

    Scientists from RIT have discovered a newborn massive planet closer to Earth than any other of similarly young age found to date. The baby giant planet lies only about 330 light years from our solar system. The discovery, published in the Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society, provides researchers an exciting new way to study how gas giants form.

  • December 12, 2019

    large and small satellite dishes.

    RIT and IAR observe pulsars for the first time from South America

    A team from RIT and the Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía (IAR) upgraded two radio telescopes in Argentina that lay dormant for 15 years in order to study pulsars, rapidly rotating neutron stars with intense magnetic fields that emit notably in radio wavelengths. The project is outlined in a new paper published in Astronomy and Astrophysics.