News

“A successful deflection becomes more difficult to execute as warning time decreases,” said Megan Bruck Syal, a planetary defense researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. “For the shortest warning times, robust disruption and dispersal of the fragments may be the only viable option to prevent the impact.” https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/science/asteroids-nuclear-weapons.html… Continue reading »

Brendan Rosseau ‘19 has been chosen as the winner of the Global Space Congress Competition 2019, which is relevant to his senior thesis on space policy. As part of the prize, he will attend the Global Space Congress (March 19-21) in Abu Dhabi. https://www.globalspacecongress.com/events/global-space-congress-2019/event-summary-ae6d3a25a75a4cb88ea19b02560959fa.aspx… Continue reading »

http://www.kdnk.org/post/radio-physics-kevin-flaherty-studies-star-formation… Continue reading »

An article on the effect of a total solar eclipse on the terrestrial atmosphere, by visiting scholar Prof. Marcos Peñaloza-Murillo (from Venezuela) and Prof. Jay Pasachoff has been accepted by the Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres.  Ross Yu ’19 is writing his senior thesis on similar effects from the 2017 total… Continue reading »

Astronomers in Williamstown: Jay Pasachoff (standing) Kevin Flaherty, Jay White, Steve Souza, Marek Demianski, Marcos Penaloza-Murillo, Barron Koralesky… Continue reading »

The Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy has welcomed the Keck consortium as an institutional member.  AURA, a consortium of US institutions and international affiliates, operates world-class astronomical observatories in Arizona, Hawaii and Chile on behalf of NASA and the NSF.  Many KNAC faculty, including astronomers at Williams, have… Continue reading »

We are delighted to announce the appointment of two new faculty members: Dr. Anne Jaskot, ‘08, as Assistant Professor of Astronomy; and Dr. Kevin Flaherty as Lecturer and Observatory Supervisor. Dr. Flaherty will join us this coming summer, while Dr. Jaskot will complete her Hubble Fellowship at U Mass, before… Continue reading »

Kerry Hensley ’14, a 4th-year graduate student in astronomy at Boston University, has been selected by the American Astronomical Society as the first ever “AAS Media Fellow.” Her responsibilities include helping to run press conferences at AAS meetings and writing for AAS print and online publications. Congratulations, Kerry!… Continue reading »

Though far from the band of totality, our rooftop observatory was host to a crowd of excited eclipse watchers. More than 150 people turned out to view the sun as it was 65% covered by the moon on August 21. Steve Souza, Observatory Supervisor, set up several telescopes, including a… Continue reading »