News
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International Expert Explains Asteroids ‘Real’ Threat to Earth
Join our very own Prof. Humberto Campins at the Orlando Science Center on Saturday, Dec. 1 for a hands-on program that delivers the real story when it comes to asteroids that threaten Earth. Find out more details about the event at UCFToday.
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UCF Experiment Wins Free trip to the International Space Station
A University of Central Florida experiment that could help explain how planets formed in our solar system has won a free ride to the International Space Station in 2013. Physics professor Joshua Colwell’s experiment is one of eight winners of the Space Florida International Space Station Research Competition sponsored by Space Florida and NanoRacks. Read…
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Whizzing Asteroid Turns Rocket Scientists’ Heads
International leaders in asteroid and comet research are gathering at the University of Central Florida in Orlando Friday, Feb. 15, for a special “viewing party” that will climax with asteroid 2012 DA14 zipping between Earth and orbiting communication satellites (within 14,000 miles of Earth). The asteroid, the size of a city block, will squeeze by…
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UCF Discovers Two Nearby Sub-Earth-Sized Exoplanet Candidates
The UCF Exoplanets Group is pleased to announce the discovery of two new transiting planet candidates (UCF-1.01 and UCF-1.02) orbiting the red-dwarf star GJ 436. The objects are 2/3 the diameter of Earth, making them the closest rocky exoplanets and the only ones within 100 light years. They were found by UCF Graduate Student Kevin Stevenson while he…
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Bake Sale in Support of Solar System Exploration
Several students and faculty in the Planetary Sciences Group participated in an event designed to raise awareness about NASA’s budget for planetary exploration. The event was picked up by media outlets in Orlando and all over the country (for example).
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Transit of Venus Event
On June 5, Venus will pass directly between Earth and the Sun. This alignment is fairly rare — this is the last time it will happen until 2117! What we’ll see from Earth is a little black spot of Venus slowly make its way across the Sun’s face. Robinson Observatory and the Astronomy Society will…
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Successful Ph.D. Dissertation Defense: Kevin Stevenson
Congratulations to Kevin Stevenson on the successful defense of his Ph.D. Dissertation. His dissertation on “DETECTING AND CHARACTERIZING EXOPLANETS: THE GJ 436 AND HD 149026 SYSTEMS” included analyses of over two dozen eclipses and transits of exoplanets in two separate planetary systems, all measured by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Kevin discovered two planet candidates as…
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Successful Ph.D. Dissertation Defense: Kévin Baillié
Congratulations to Kévin Baillié on the successful defense of his Ph.D. Dissertation on July 7, 2011. His dissertation on “Fine-Scale Structures in Saturn’s Rings: Waves, Wakes and Ghosts” included an analysis of stellar occultation data from Cassini and the discovery of more than a dozen new density waves. Kévin is the first recipient of a…
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PhD Dissertation Defense: Robert J. Macke, SJ
The dissertation defense of Robert J. Macke, SJ, takes place in MAP 318 at 10:00 am. The defense is open to the public and begins with a 45-minute presentation of the work. The thesis is entitled Survey of Meteorite Physical Properties: Density, Porosity and Magnetic Susceptibility and includes measurements of over 1200 meteorites from collections…
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