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04/10/2011

Physicists Discover New Way to Visualize Warped Space and Time

Marcus Woo

When black holes slam into each other, the surrounding space and time surge and undulate like a heaving sea during a storm. This warping of space and time is so complicated that physicists haven't been able to understand the details of what goes on—until now.

04/01/2011

Caltech Math for the Win

Marcus Woo

March has been a good month for Caltech mathematics. Caltech placed first in the Mathematical Association of America's William Lowell Putnam Competition, one of the premier undergraduate mathematics contests. Also this past month, Michael Aschbacher, the Shaler Arthur Hanisch Professor of Mathematics, was awarded the Rolf Schock Prize in Mathematics.

03/29/2011

ACS Honors Zewail

On March 29, the world's largest scientific society will bestow its highest honor on Ahmed H. Zewail, Caltech's Linus Pauling Professor of Chemistry and professor of physics.

03/28/2011

Canadian Universities Join Consortium to Build Telescope in Chile

Lori Oliwenstein

Seven Canadian universities have joined a Caltech and Cornell University-led consortium to build CCAT, a proposed 25-meter aperture telescope. The telescope will be occupy a site 18,400 feet above sea level on Cerro Chajnantor, a mountain in Chile’s Atacama desert.

03/02/2011

TMT Permit Approved

Kathy Svitil

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) got one step closer to realization this week, with the granting of a conservation district use permit by Hawaii’s Department of Land and Natural Resources. The permit gives the University of Hawai'i permission to build and operate TMT on the northern plateau of Mauna Kea; TMT will sublet the land from the University.

02/16/2011

Daraio Awarded Sloan Fellowship

Kathy Svitil

Caltech's Chiara Daraio is among this year's crop of Sloan Research Fellows. Daraio is one of 118 faculty from across the country to receive the two-year, $50,000 fellowship, given to early-career scientists and scholars in recognition of achievement and the potential to contribute substantially to their fields.

01/31/2011

Asteroids Ahoy! Jupiter Scar Likely from Rocky Body

Allison Benter

A hurtling asteroid about the size of the Titanic caused the scar that appeared in Jupiter's atmosphere in July 2009. Data from three infrared telescopes enabled scientists to observe the warm atmospheric temperatures and unique chemical conditions associated with the impact debris. An international team of scientists was able to deduce that the object was more likely a rocky asteroid than an icy comet.

01/20/2011

Plasmonic Metamaterials: From Microscopes to Invisibility Cloaks

Lori Oliwenstein

A new class of artificial materials called metamaterials may one day be used to create ultrapowerful microscopes, advanced sensors, improved solar cells, computers that use light instead of electronic signals to process information, and even an invisibility cloak. In a Perspectives piece in this week's issue of the journal Science, Caltech's Harry Atwater and Purdue University colleague Alexandra Boltasseva describe advances in a particular subtype of these materials—plasmonic metamaterials.

01/14/2011

Ellis Awarded Gold Medal

Marcus Woo

Richard Ellis, the Steele Family Professor of Astronomy, has received the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. Awarded annually since 1824, the Gold Medal is the society's highest honor and one of the premier prizes in astronomy.

01/12/2011

Astronomers Discover Close-knit Pairs of Massive Black Holes

Marcus Woo

Astronomers at Caltech, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and University of Hawaii (UH) have discovered 16 close-knit pairs of supermassive black holes in merging galaxies. These black-hole pairs are about a hundred to a thousand times closer together than most that have been observed before, providing a glimpse into how they and their host galaxies merge—crucial for understanding the evolution of the universe. The discovery is being presented today in Seattle at the meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

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