Press Releases

A map of the entire sky in x-ray false color, with a bright blue-green band across the middle corresponding to the plane of the Milky Way

Our deepest view of the X-ray sky

The eROSITA telescope has provided a new, sharp view of hot and energetic processes across the Universe – a view that the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and similar projects will use to enhance our knowledge of the Universe.

Don’t judge a galaxy by its cover: Astronomers develop new tool to find merging galaxies

Don’t judge a book by its cover, and don’t judge a galaxy by its image alone.

An illustration of the MaNGA stellar library. A woman gets a book from a library shelf with colorful spectra. Above her is an H-R diagram.

Science in the library

Want to learn everything there is to know about a subject? Go to the library.

Want to learn everything there is to know about stars? Go to the stellar library.

An astrophoto of the Magellanic Clouds, which look like two wispy clouds with bright centers - along with thousands of stars - above Las Campanas Observatory in the desert of Chile

It’s never too late to get active

Wondering about that New Year’s Resolution to get more exercise?

Good news from the Milky Way’s nearest neighbors, the Magellanic Clouds: it’s never too late to get active.

A photo of an art exhibit showing colored squares (orange, green, red, yellow) with lines superiposed (blue, green, pink) representing spectral lines

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey names its first artist in residence

Art meets science as the Sloan Digital Sky Survey has officially appointed its first artist in residence.

Tim Fitzpatrick, an installation artist from Fife, Scotland, will continue his ongoing work in his new official capacity, bringing his unique perspective to an already-rich collaboration.

A map of the universe as seen by the SDSS

“Wow, what a night” 20 years later: The Sloan Digital Sky Survey celebrates a milestone

The observers’ log said: “Wow, what a night!”

This week marks the twentieth anniversary of “first light” for the telescope behind the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), which has gone on to create by far the largest three-dimensional map of the Universe ever made.

How massive is Supermassive? Astronomers measure more black holes, farther away

Today, astronomers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) announced new measurements of the masses of a large sample of supermassive black holes far beyond the local Universe.

The long and short of it: Iron-rich stars host shorter-period planets

Astronomers with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) have learned that the chemical composition of a star can exert unexpected influence on its planetary system — a discovery made possible by an ongoing SDSS survey of stars seen by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, and one that promises to expand our understanding of how extrasolar planets form and evolve.

Winds of change: Supermassive black holes can overpower even the smallest galaxies

Today, astronomers from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey report a surprising new answer to that important question: feedback from supermassive black holes blocks star formation, even in some of the smallest galaxies.

A century of cepheids: Two astronomers, a hundred years apart, use stars to measure the Universe

How far away is that galaxy? Our entire understanding of the Universe is based on knowing the distances to other galaxies, yet this seemingly-simple question turns out to be fiendishly difficult to answer.