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Physics and Astronomy Research

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BYU acoustics capture the sound of NASA’s Artemis I launch

July 25, 2023 04:07 PM
BYU students, professors gather data at the world’s most powerful rocket launch.
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BYU scientists collaborate with astronomers around the world to understand distant galaxy

July 25, 2023 11:04 AM
BYU’s West Mountain Observatory was one of 37 ground-based telescopes throughout the world monitoring the active galaxy that is roughly 1 billion light years away.
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Uncovering Pieces of the Universe Puzzle

June 08, 2017 10:21 AM
Thirty years ago, J. Ward Moody was pondering the existence of dwarf galaxies far, far away.
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Hottest Known Planet Published in Nature

June 07, 2017 10:27 AM
It’s hot. Seriously hot. Not creeping-into-the-90s-crank-up-the-AC hot: nearly-8,000-degrees-Fahrenheit hot.
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A Master, A Teacher, A Leader

May 19, 2017 11:11 AM
Teaching has always had a huge impact on BYU physics professor Duane Merrell—an impact that has both affected his life and guided his career and passion for teaching physics.
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Legos Don’t Stand a Chance Against Time Reversal

April 03, 2017 02:25 PM
A crowd of 29 stands still, positioned as lookouts in various directions. A chirp punctuates the silence before being replaced by a distinct buzz. The buzzing grows louder, then abruptly drops back into silence. Twenty-eight Lego figurines shift slightly — they survive. But one unlucky companion lies on his back, toppled by an invisible force.
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BYU Researchers Help Discover Massive Exoplanet

March 29, 2017 12:30 PM
Clement Gaillard spent three or four nights a week operating BYU’s Orson Pratt Observatory telescope in the summer of 2015. On the night of June 23, the physics undergrad pointed the telescope toward a star more than a thousand light years away, recording meticulous data and hoping. Soon after, physics professor Denise Stephens and a visiting student reduced the data and looked anxiously at the plot points they had gathered. On a six-hour timeline, the dots congregated along a straight line for two hours, dipped down for two, then popped back up through the end.
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Measuring a Quintillion Photons at the Speed of Light

March 20, 2017 12:45 PM
An individual could travel around the world more than seven times in a single second if moving at the speed of light. That’s pretty fast.
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Studying Planets Without Looking Through a Telescope

February 28, 2017 02:09 PM
Darin Ragozzine has always been fascinated with space, planets, and stars—but he rarely looks through a telescope.
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The Science That Enables Other Sciences

February 22, 2017 01:19 PM
Lithography, computer chips, and electron microscopes all need particle accelerators. Accelerators are scientific tools that use beams of charged particles to investigate particle physics. But there is a need for accelerators to be cheaper and brighter, and BYU is exploring how.
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Evolving Stars, Evolving Methods

October 17, 2016 12:26 PM
Almost everyone is fascinated by black holes. Dr. David Neilsen studies black holes, and he is also interested in processes that create black holes — like colliding neutron stars.
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BYU Physics Professor Receives Outstanding Referee Award

July 19, 2016 12:37 PM
Every college professor is part of a professional community. According to BYU physics professor Dr. Justin Peatross, peer reviewing is one way to give back to that community.
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Searching for Alien Comets: BYU Researchers Create Guidebook to Aid in First Discovery

July 07, 2016 12:21 PM
Treasure needs a map, vehicles need a manual, and, as it turns out, interstellar discoveries need a guidebook.
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BYU Produces More Certified Physics Teachers Than Any Other U.S. College

July 07, 2016 12:20 PM
BYU once again received The PhysTEC 5+ Club Award.
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Physics Professor Makes Nanomagnetism Discovery

June 27, 2016 01:24 PM
Dr. Karine Chesnel has always been fascinated with understanding how things work, particularly the secrets of magnetism.
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BYU Professor Honored by Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters

December 21, 2015 12:02 PM
Jean-François Van Huele of the Department of Physics and Astronomy is the recipient of the 2015 Academy Fellow Award from the Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts & Letters (UASAL).
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Physicists Can Be Writers, Too

December 16, 2015 12:06 PM
These days, almost nothing lasts ten years before becoming obsolete, but the advice of two BYU physics professors has stood the test of time.
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