News & Events
Your gateway to the latest in astronomical research and exploration.
Recent News
Meet this historian of alien worlds
With equations and simulations, astronomer Ruth Murray-Clay is working to understand how distant planets form, evolve and could offer conditions to support life.
From Space to Soil, Alexie Leauthaud Bridges Cosmology and Environmentalism
UC Santa Cruz astronomer Alexie Leauthaud is bringing her cosmology expertise to climate action through Seed Spoon Science, a community-based gardening program focused on environmental justice and sustainability.
How quiet galaxies stay quiet: cool gas feeds black holes in ‘red geysers’
New paper led by UC Santa Cruz undergraduate suggests that long-dormant galaxies deemed to be dead may actually be stunted by the dynamics of supermassive black holes at their center
In the Media
Featured Research
August 20, 2025
Check out this recent article published by our very own Dr. Alexie Leauthaud!
Department Updates
NSBP-NSHP Conference 2025
Several graduate students and a postdoctoral scholar from the Astronomy and Astrophysics department recently attended the National Society of Black Physicists (NSBP) and the National Society of Hispanic Physicists (NSHP) conference in San Jose, CA. From the graduate student attendees, only two had previously participated in an NSBP conference, so this was an exciting, novel opportunity to network with physicists who look like them. The NSBP-NSHP conference provided a safe, open space for graduate students to present their research, and continue developing their communication skills. They were able to connect with fellow graduate students and postdocs at other institutions on similar science topics, which they otherwise would not have been able to do. They grew their professional research network, and created connections with physicists who are interested in working with UCSC. They also connected with some of the many undergraduate students who attended, where they shared resources on ways to expand their scientific knowledge in the Bay Area, including our LAMAT program!
We had many NSBP-NSHP participants from the department either present a poster or complete an oral presentation, spanning previous projects and current research:
Poster Presentations
- Jordan Diaz: Development of an all-fiber-based nulling interferometer for the detection of
protoplanets - Jordan Forman: Characterizing the Outskirts of Triangulum
- Mayra Gutierrez: Exoplanet Direct Imaging at Keck Observatory with SCALES and next
generation adaptive optics - Naunet Leonhardes-Barboza: The Betelgeusian Engulfment: Lightcurve Predictions and
Binary Evolution Effects on Betelgeuse - Thummim Mekuria: Kinematics of HI envelopes associated with molecular clouds
- Mikayla Wilson: Searching for Transiting Exomoons with JWST
Oral Presentations
- Evan Davis: The Early Evolution of Brown Dwarfs with Sonora VI: Red Diamondback
- Diego Garza: Imprints of Dynamical Dark Energy in the Lyman Alpha Forest
- Isabelle Jones: Variable Accretion in Low Mass Star Formation
- Lordrick Kahinga: Tracing the Invisible: M31’s Halo Revealed by FRB Dispersion
- Caprice Phillips: (Invited Talk) Abundances and Atmospheres: Connecting the Dots in
Benchmark Brown Dwarfs
UCSC third-year Astronomy & Astrophysics PhD student, Diego Garza, received an award for an outstanding oral presentation! Congrats Diego!
Upcoming Events
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