Space, astronomy and planetary science

Clara Sousa-Silva and Benjamin Rackham will be 51 Pegasi b Fellows at MIT within the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences.

Lighting up exoplanets

The Heising-Simons Foundation selects Clara Sousa-Silva and Benjamin Rackham for 51 Pegasi b Fellowships at MIT.

March 27, 2019

The Apollo astronauts and engineers were joined onstage by some of MIT’s astronaut alumni, including two active astronauts, Mike Fincke and Warren Hoburg (in blue jackets).

MIT celebrates 50th anniversary of historic moon landing

Symposium featuring former astronauts and other Apollo mission luminaries examines the program’s legacy.

March 15, 2019

Danielle Wood (left) and Christine Joseph.

Microgravity research after the International Space Station

Researchers say new facilities in space should be available to scientists from any country.

March 12, 2019

This mosaic image of asteroid Bennu is composed of 12 PolyCam images collected on Dec. 2 by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft from a range of 15 miles (24 km). The image was obtained at a 50 degree phase angle between the spacecraft, asteroid, and the sun.

MIT’s REXIS and Bennu’s watery surface

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx sample-return spacecraft, carrying MIT instrument, arrived at asteroid in December; now begins the science to select a sampling location.

January 29, 2019

The first color image of Ultima Thule, taken at a distance of 85,000 miles (137,000 kilometers) at 4:08 Universal Time on Jan. 1, 2019, highlights its reddish surface. The left image was taken by the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager. At right, color has been overlaid onto the LORRI image.

3Q: On the significance of Ultima Thule

New Horizons Mission Team members Alissa Earle and Richard Binzel discuss the revelations the icy world provides about the formation of our solar system.

January 23, 2019

Robert Simcoe will assume his post as director of MIT Kavli Institute on Jan. 16.

Robert Simcoe named director of MIT Kavli Institute

An expert in instrumentation and early universe observations, Simcoe succeeds Jacqueline Hewitt as head of MIT’s Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research.

January 10, 2019

This artist's impression shows hot gas orbiting in a disk around a rapidly-spinning black hole. The elongated spot depicts an X-ray-bright region in the disk, which allows the spin of the black hole to be estimated.

X-ray pulse detected near event horizon as black hole devours star

Pulse pattern suggests distant black hole must be spinning at least at 50 percent the speed of light.

January 9, 2019

The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is a radio telescope designed to answer major questions in astrophysics and cosmology, including the phenomena of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), fleeting and intense radio bursts with an unknown origin. The telescope is located in the mountains of British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley at the NRC’s Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory.

Revolutionary radio telescope detects bevy of fast radio bursts

Researchers use CHIME telescope to detect fast radio bursts at low frequencies and a second repeating burst.

January 9, 2019

X-ray echoes, mapped by NASA’s Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), revealed changes to the accretion disk and corona of black hole MAXI J1820+070.

Astronomers observe evolution of a black hole as it wolfs down stellar material

Halo of highly energized electrons around the black hole contracts dramatically during feeding frenzy.

January 9, 2019

A new doctoral field offering a computational specialty within MIT's Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences resonates with the Institute’s growing awareness of the advantages provided by education based in computer science and engineering.

MIT adds computational Earth, atmospheric, and planetary sciences to its PhD offerings

New EAPS thesis field is the most recent to join the computational science and engineering doctoral program within the Center for Computational Engineering.

January 9, 2019