U.S. Naval Research Laboratory

Undergraduate devises strategy for defending Earth from cometary impacts

18 November 2016 Astronomy Now

Qicheng Zhang is an undergraduate astrophysics major at UC Santa Barbara. A recipient of a Thomas R. McGetchin Memorial Scholarship from the Universities Space Research Association, Zhang’s award-winning work demonstrates that a comet could be manipulated to mitigate a potential impact with Earth by heating it with a high-powered laser array.

Powerful new radio telescope array searches the entire sky 24/7

12 May 2015 Astronomy Now

A new radio telescope array operating at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory in California has the ability to image the entire sky simultaneously at radio wavelengths with unmatched speed, helping astronomers to search for objects and phenomena that pulse, flicker, flare, or explode.