Friday, March 13, 2026

New and exciting activities in the
McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences

Recent Publications by McDonnell Center Fellows

Kane, S. R., Byrne, P. K., Daylan, T., et al. (2026). Imaging Venus-like worlds: spectral, polarimetric, and UV diagnostics for the Habitable Worlds Observatory. Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 138(2), 024404. 

Temelci, A., Esmer, E., et al. (2026). Multiplicity of UZ Lyr revisited: Two-companion model and its dynamical stability. New Astronomy, 125, 102533. 

Thimmappa, R., Nowak, M., et al. (2026). HST study of the proper motion of HST-1 in the jet of M87. The Astrophysical Journal, 999(1), 19. 

Krawczynski, H. (2026). The Role of Faraday Rotation in the Polarization of the X-Rays from Magnetically Powered Black Hole Coronas. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 998(2), L47. 

Abhir, J., Buckley, J.H., Errando, M., Hughes, Z., Rabinowitz, P.L., et al. (2026). Prompt Searches for Very-high-energy γ -Ray Counterparts to IceCube Astrophysical Neutrino Alerts. The Astrophysical Journal, 997(2), 141. 

Alford, M., et al. (2026). Editorial: Strong and weak interactions in compact stars. Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences, 13. 

Earth's Core and Mantle: immiscible(ish) but intertwined

EEPS Colloquium
Stephen Zatman Memorial Lecture
Harriet Lau
Brown University
Thursday, March 19
11:30am, Rudolph 301

Earth Data Challenge

EEPS Brown Bag
EEPS & GRI are hosting this team-based program. Open to undergrads, grads, and postdocs in any field.
Friday, March 20
12:00pm, Rudolph 301

How to Detect & Characterize Exoplanets

St. Louis Astronomical Society
Marc Ollivier
Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale
Friday, March 20
7:30pm, McDonnell 162

2026 McDonnell Distinguished Lecture

Andrea M. Ghez, professor of Physics & Astronomy at UCLA and the Lauren B. Leichtman & Arthur E. Levine chair in Astrophysics, is one of the world’s leading experts in observational astrophysics and is director of UCLA’s Galactic Center Group.

In 2020, she became the fourth woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for her independent discovery of a supermassive compact object, now generally recognized to be a black hole in the Milky Way’s galactic center.

Colloquium - Wednesday, March 25
Our Galactic Center: A Unique Laboratory for the Physics & Astrophysics of Black Holes
4:30pm, Wilson 214
Refreshments will be served at 3:45pm

Public Lecture - Thursday, March 26
From the Possibility to the Certainty of a Supermassive Black Hole
7:00pm, Whitaker 100

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Interim Director: William McKinnon
Associate Director: Michael Nowak
Assistant to the Director: Vickie Gee
Communications Specialist: Alison Verbeck

Compiled and edited by Alison Verbeck. Please send any contributions to alison@wustl.edu.

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