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

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

Science Magazine wrote a biographical article on Avi Loeb. From Cosmic Dawn To Milkomeda, And Beyond: The thoughts of Harvard theorist Avi Loeb traverse the universe, past and future—and he urges young researchers to be just as daring (pdf)

“The nearest Earth-like planet is probably 13 light-years away; astronomically speaking, that’s just a stroll across the park,” said Courtney Dressing (right), a doctoral student in Harvard’s Astronomy Department. At the press conference Dressing was joined by Professor David Charbonneau (center) and John Johnson, an assistant professor of astronomy at the California Institute of Technology.

Read More in this Harvard Gazette Article:  Astronomically close CfA scientists say Earth-like...

GSAS Interviews Avi Loeb about the Astronomy Department, his new book, The First Galaxies in the Universe, and Astronomy.

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