Department of Astronomy

In partnership with Microsoft, the Department of Astronomy has updated its planetarium with digital technology. The result is an experience—and educational resource—that is truly out of this world.

Is anybody else out there? Are there other planets that resemble Earth? Scientists in the Virtual Planetary Laboratory are looking for clues by creating virtual planets through computer modeling. 

A feature-length film was the focus of a new DXARTS "Digital Production Studio" course. Most students arrived with little or no experience, but they quickly proved they had the talent and determination to make a film. 

Astronaut Michael Anderson, who perished in the space shuttle Columbia, earned his B.S. from the UW College of Arts and Sciences in physics and astronomy. 

A childhood interest in astronomy, renewed in adulthood, led David Brooks to support postdoctoral fellowships in the Department of Astronomy. 

Five A&S alumni who have been astronauts talk about their experiences.

Scientists once thought that post-starburst galaxies scattered all of their gas and dust — the fuel required for creating new stars — in violent bursts of energy, and with extraordinary speed. Now, a team led by University of Washington postdoctoral researcher Adam Smercina reports that these galaxies don’t scatter all of their star-forming fuel after all. Instead, data from the Chile-based Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, or ALMA, reveals a more complex process at work.

Julianne Dalcanton, professor emeritus of astronomy, explains the dramatic deep space collision of two galaxies.