Each year, the MacArthur Foundation names several dozen of the nation's most creative and influential people as MacArthur Fellows which provides funds for two years which the recipients can use toward any purpose. The Class of 2013 awardees includes Harvard alumna Sara Seager.  

... Read more about Astronomy alumna Sara Seager wins prestigious MacArthur Fellowship

Referring to them as "an array of the most brilliant," David Bjerklie and the editors of Time Magazine in a photo-centric supplement entitled The 25 Most Influential People in Space named Avi Loeb, Dave Charbonneau, Adam Reiss and Sara Seager for their contributions to astronomical research. 

The Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning works to advance the quality of undergraduate education by providing Harvard’s teachers with resources, programs and support that promote excellence in teaching.  Each semester it recognizes with a Certificate of Distinction in Teaching those student instructors whose work is exemplary based on peer evaluations. 

... Read more about Harvard Bok Center awards 9 in the Astronomy department for Distinction and Excellence in Teaching

What is dark matter? Well, we know what it's probably not: black holes. Astronomy Chair, Avi Loeb, and several colleagues decided to test the idea whether or not smallish black holes could be the source of the universe's dark matter, and Time Magazine's Michael Lemonick has written an excellent overview of their conclusions.

... Read more about The Mystery of Dark Matter Clarified—a Little

Professor Bob Kirshner celebrates the successful casting of the third of seven mirrors for the Giant Magellan Telescope which the Dean of FAS, Michael Smith, has just approved as a major funding-raising focus for the University.   The casts are made under the University of Arizona football stadium overseen by the Steward Observatory there. 

... Read more about GMT third mirror successfully cast in Arizona

The faculty and post-docs extended their winning streak in a spectacular regulation soccer match (7:3) at the annual ITC picnic on August 11th at Harvard's athletic grounds.  Pictured below, ITC Director Avi Loeb is double-teamed by students Doug Ferrer and Sukrit Ranjan with Fernando Becerra looking on.   Avi was credited with two goals and had two assists.... Read more about Faculty and post-docs prevail over students in annual ITC Soccer Cup match

A group of graduate students, including six from the Harvard Department of Astronomy, developed and organized Communicating Science 2013, or “ComSciCon 2013”, a first-of-its kind workshop on science communication specifically for grad students in the sciences and engineering. ComSciCon brought together graduate students from across the country and from a wide range of scientific disciplines to the Microsoft NERD center in Cambridge on June 13-15. These 50 attendees were selected from a pool of 730 applicants based on their enthusiasm for and achievements in communicating science.

... Read more about Graduate students help organize premier conference on scientific communication

More than 12 billion years ago a star exploded, ripping itself apart and blasting its remains outward in twin jets at nearly the speed of light. At its death it glowed so brightly that it outshone its entire galaxy by a million times.  Associate Professor Edo Berger and Ryan Chornock, a scientist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, were able to gear up quickly to collect data on it's afterglow just hours after it was detected by NASA's Swift spacecraft on June 6th.

... Read more about Gamma-ray burst illuminates invisible galaxy in the "dark ages"

A gamma-ray burst is a flash of high-energy light (gamma rays) from an extremely energetic explosion. Associate Professor of Astronomy Edo Berger, Harvard graduate student Wen-fai Fong and Ryan Chornock recently observed data from a gamma-ray burst GRB 130603B which, at a distance of 3.9 billion light-years from Earth, is one of the nearest bursts seen to date.... Read more about Earth's gold came from colliding neutron stars