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Time Magazine names two Astronomy faculty and two alumni amongst 25 most influential space scientists

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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...

Stars align at astronomy reunion: Event draws researchers from around the world

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Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer Stars align at astronomy reunion: Event draws researchers from around the world. Left: Ruth Murray-Clay (from left), David Latham, Sara Seager, David Charbonneau, and moderator Charles Alcock were some of the faculty...

Congratulations to the graduating Astronomy astrophysics concentrators!

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Congratulations to the graduating Astronomy astrophysics concentrators! Our seniors this year are: Bruna Biz, Hannah Burrows, Callie Garcia, Sol Gutierrez-Lara, Amaan Khwaja, Thomas Leeds, Sophie Magaro, Ashini Modi, Mekhi Moore, Jasmine Palma Gomez...

Astronomically close CfA scientists say Earth-like planets are galactic neighbors

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“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...

Astronomy Chairs

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Donald Menzel 1945–1949 Fred Whipple 1949–1956 Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin 1956–1960 William Liller 1960–1964 Charles Whitney 1964–1965 (acting) William Liller 1965–1966 Leo Goldberg 1966–1970 Alexander Dalgarno 1970–1976 Alastair Cameron 1976–1982 William...

Vedant Chandra and Collin Cherubim win 2026 NASA Hubble postdoc fellowships

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Congratulations to Astronomy grad student Vedant Chandra and EPS grad student Collin Cherubim for winning 2026 NASA Hubble postdoc fellowships! Vedant matriculated at Harvard in 2021; his advisor is Charlie Conroy. He will be defending his thesis at...

NASA’s Kepler Spacecraft Announces Two Earth-Size Planets Are Discovered

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Astronomers from NASA’s Kepler spacecraft announced Tuesday that they had discovered a pair of planets the size of Earth orbiting a distant star. The new planets, one about as big as Earth and the other slightly smaller than Venus, are the smallest yet...

2016 Astronomy Honors Colloquium and Picnic

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Dave Charbonneau and Avi Loeb joined forces to announce honors and awards at the annual Honors Colloquium on Monday, May 23. Among the many students cited, two undergraduates received Goldberg Prizes (Tom Leith and Matt Pasquini) and two graduates...

Thesis Topics

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2026 Victoria DiTomasso, "The Discovery of Three Nearby Planetary Systems, and a Population of Ancient Jovians Orbiting Stars in the Galactic Thick Disk" (May 4, 2026) Advisor: David Charbonneau Vedant Chandra, "Mapping the Uncharted Horizons of the Milky...

Congratulations to the Class of 2024!

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The Astronomy Department congratulates the 2024 PhD students! Ana Maria Delgado defended her thesis on “Analyzing cosmological-hydrodynamical simulations in light of future optical surveys.” Her advisor was Lars Hernquist. Michael Foley defended his...

Promoting a better future - Harvard Astronomy Statement on Geoff Marcy

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Dear Astronomy department colleagues, We have all read the distressing reports about Geoff Marcy in Buzzfeed, The Atlantic, AAAS, Forbes, Chronicles of Higher Education and The New York Times. It gives me pride to be a member of a department which played...

Galaxy Quest: Just How Many Earth-Like Planets Are Out There?

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A team of planet hunters estimates that about 22 percent of the Sun-like stars in our galaxy may have planets about the size of Earth that are bathed in similar amounts of sunlight — and potentially habitable. That's the conclusion of a new analysis by...