Finding Cannibalized Stars

Scientists working with the powerful telescopes at the CHARA Array have completed a survey of a group of stars suspected to have devoured most of the gas from orbiting companion stars. These sensitive measurements have directly detected the feeble glow of the cannibalized stars.

 

A Colossal Star Erupts: Examining One of the Largest Stars in the Milky Way As It Fades From View

Astronomers from Georgia State University’s CHARA Array have captured the first close-up images of a massive star known as RW Cephei that recently experienced a strange fading event.

 

Special Session for Optical Long Baseline Interferometry at AAS 243 in New Orleans

Astronomers going to the meeting of the American Astronomical Society in New Orleans will want to attend a special session organized by CHARA that highlights recent science news and a special birthday!

"Optical Long Baseline Interferometry: Your Next Essential Research Tool"
Wednesday, January 10, 2024 | 10:00 AM CT - 11:30 AM CT

 

Georgia State Professor Granted $5M to Identify and Characterize Objects in Space

Georgia State Professor of Physics & Astronomy Stuart Jefferies has been awarded a $5 million, multi-institutional grant by the U.S. Air Force to develop techniques to detect, map and image faint objects in space.

 

Saving Mt. Wilson Observatory

Inside the long battle to maintain the spot where we found our place in the universe.

 

Georgia State Announces Ignite Award Winners

The CHARA Array and its staff were awarded the Research Impact Award a part of Georgia State University's 2023 Ignite Awards.

 

Georgia State’s CHARA Array sees “first fringe” with new beam combiner Silmaril and SPICA

The CHARA Array celebrates first fringes with the Silmaril beam combiner and a new milestone of recording data simultaneously in three wavelength bands using SPICA, MIRC-X, and MYSTIC.

 

Dancing with the (Six) Stars: A 200-Year Story of the Castor System

Astronomers study the orbits of a sextuple system — a complex arrangement of six stars in orbit around one another.

 

Young Planets Around Old Stars? Astronomers Believe Unseen Planets Exist in Empty Space at Center of Dust Disk

Astronomers using the CHARA Array have mapped the orbit of a pair of distant old stars surrounded by a vast disk of gas and dust. Could recently created planets have formed in the disk?

 

Navigating the Cosmos with Georgia State’s CHARA Array

Plans are underway to add new instruments and a seventh movable telescope to the CHARA Array.

 

Winter Storm Hits Mount Wilson

A winter storm blanketed Mount Wilson Observatory under 4 feet of snow, delaying the start of the observing season at the CHARA Array.

 

Georgia State’s CHARA Array Detects Elusive, Dusty Inner Region of Distant Galaxy

An international team of astronomers used the CHARA Array to resolve the dusty ring around the supermassive blackhole in the center of a distant galaxy.

 

Astronomy Professor Who Followed Dream Named One of Georgia State's Distinguished Alumni

Dr. Deepak Raghavan has been recognized as a 2022 Georgia State Distinguished Alumni Award honoree.

 

The CHARA Array Marks Decadal Milestones

Major recent or in-progress developments include higher-performance visible and infrared beam combiners, and adaptive optics on all telescopes. 

 

Dr. Theo ten Brummelaar receives the 2022 Fizeau Lifetime Achievement Award

The Joint Fizeau-Michelson Prize Committee awarded the 2022 Fizeau Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Theo ten Brummelaar for his leadership and long-term role in the optical, computational, and scientific development of the CHARA Array.

 

The best studied terrestrial planet outside the Solar System

An international scientific team has measured the mass and radius of an Earth-like exoplanet with unprecedented accuracy, allowing them to make predictions about the structure and composition of its interior and atmosphere.

 

Job Announcement: Visitor Support Scientist at the CHARA Array

The CHARA Array is seeking to hire a Visitor Support Scientist.

 

Georgia State Astronomers Offer Theory About Mysterious Location of Massive Stars

Astronomers from Georgia State University have found an explanation for the strange occurrence of massive stars located far from their birthplace in the disk of our Milky Way Galaxy

 

Georgia State Astronomer receives honor from the American Astronomical Society

Regents' Professor Emeritus Hal McAlister of Georgia State University was recently named as a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society for 2022.

 

Searching for Earth 2.0? Zoom in on a star

Astronomers searching for Earth-like planets in other solar systems have made a breakthrough by taking a closer look at the surface of stars.

 

Searching for Spots with Interferometry

Imaging statspots on the giant star λ Andromedae.

 

Two Instrument Scientist Positions Available at the CHARA Array

The CHARA Array is seeking applicants for an Optical Laboratory Scientist and a Telescope Systems Scientist.

 

Astronomers at Embry-Riddle Help Unravel Key Mysteries of Rare Stars

The first dynamical mass of a nitrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet star is measured using the CHARA Array to map its visual orbit.

 

WSB-TV2 Coverage of the Wildfire Impact on Mount Wilson

WSB Atlanta reports how California's historic wildfires in the fall impacted a Georgia State University research center used by scientists all over the world.

 

A Tribute to VEGA

December 19, 2020 (UT) marked the last night on sky with the VEGA instrument at the CHARA Array.

 

Betelgeuse Centenary Celebration

Join us for an on-line event to mark the 100th anniversary of the first measurement made of the angular diameter of the red supergiant star Betelgeuse.

 

Instrument Scientist Position at the CHARA Array - Mobile Telescope Project

The CHARA Array is seeking applicants for a Postdoctoral Research Associate to work on adding a seventh mobile telescope to the Array.

 

Postdoctoral Associate Position at the CHARA Array - Mobile Telescope Project

The CHARA Array is seeking applicants for a Postdoctoral Research Associate to work on adding a seventh mobile telescope to the Array.

 

A New Chapter on Mount Wilson

After narrowly surviving a massive wildfire, the CHARA Array will soon be an even more powerful instrument for observing the stars.

 

Bobcat Fire Burning in the Angeles National Forest

Evacuations orders are issued for Mount Wilson Observatory as a result of the Bobcat Fire.

 

Dr. Theo ten Brummelaar Receives Award for Global Engagement

Dr. Theo ten Brummelaar, director of the CHARA Array, receives the 2020 Staff Award for Global Engagement at Georgia State University. The award honors and recognizes outstanding accomplishments and contributions to international education.

 

Astronomers Discover a Warped Planet-Forming Disk Torn Apart by Stars

Pioneering new research from an international team of scientists has revealed the first direct evidence that groups of stars can tear apart their planet-forming disk, leaving it warped and with tilted rings.

 

CHARA Array Receives $7.1 Million to Fund Telescope, Open-Access Program for Scientists

Georgia State University’s Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) in Mount Wilson, Calif., expects to receive funding from the National Science Foundation to build a new mobile telescope for the Array and to expand its open access program for guest observers.

 

Important Message about COVID-19

Recent news about the impact of COVID-19 at the CHARA Array.

 

Recent Ph.D. graduate Ryan Norris accepts faculty position at NMT

Recent graduate Dr. Ryan Norris accepts a position as an Assistant Professor of Astronomy at New Mexico Tech.

 

Postdoctoral Associate Position in Astronomical Instrumentation at the CHARA Array

The Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) at Georgia State University is seeking applicants for a Postdoctoral Research Associate.

 

Dr. Fabien Baron Promoted to Associate Professor at GSU

We are happy to announce that Dr. Fabien Baron has been recommended for promotion to Associate Professor with tenure in the GSU Department of Physics and Astronomy.

 

Pioneering Imager At Georgia State’s CHARA Array Gives Sharpest View Of Stars And Planet-Forming Disks

A pioneering new instrument that can produce the sharpest images of young stars is now available for use by scientists worldwide.

 

Professor John Monnier Receives the Joseph Weber Award for Astronomical Instrumentation.

The American Astronomical Society awarded the 2019 Weber Prize to John Monnier (University of Michigan) for his pioneering work in high-angular-resolution imaging with long-baseline optical interferometry.

 

Professor Emeritus Hal McAlister Receives Prestigious Michelson Award

Astronomers and scientists gathered at the recent biennial meeting of the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers lauded the announcement that Professor Emeritus Harold (Hal) McAlister of Georgia State was named the winner of the 2018 Michelson Lifetime Achievement Award.

 

Dr. Fabien Baron to Receive the Dean’s Early Career Award

Dr. Fabien Baron has been selected to receive the Dean’s Early Career Award in the College of Arts and Sciences.

 

Astronomers Study Variability In Seven Sisters Star Cluster

An international team of astronomers has used a new algorithm to enhance observations from the NASA Kepler Space Telescope in its K2 Mission and perform the most detailed study yet of the variability of the Seven Sisters star cluster.

 

NOAO Press Release

CHARA Array Awarded $3.9 Million To Provide Telescope Access To Scientists Across The Nation

 

WSB-TV2 Space Weather TV spot

The CHARA Array recently featured along with Georgia State University Astronomers and Solar Physicists in a news piece on WSB Atlanta about space weather, how it can affect us on Earth and how studying other stars with the CHARA Array may help further human understanding of the sun's behavior and the space weather it creates.

 

ALPAO Press Release

Georgia State University and ALPAO Sign Agreement for Adaptive Optics Upgrade on Telescopes at CHARA.

 

'Starspot' Images Give Insights into Early Sun

ANN ARBOR—Astronomers at the University of Michigan have taken close-up pictures of a nearby star that show starspots—sunspots outside our solar system.

 

Astronomers Image the Exploding Fireball Stage of a Nova

MOUNT WILSON, Calif.–Astronomers at Georgia State University’s Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) have observed the expanding thermonuclear fireball from a nova that erupted in the constellation Delphinus in 2013 with unprecedented clarity.

 

Astronomers Capture a Rare Stellar Eclipse in Opening Scene of Year-long Show

For the first time, a team of astronomers has imaged the eclipse of the star Epsilon Aurigae by its mysterious, less luminous companion star.

 

Gazing up at the Man in the Star? Researchers take picture of the face of Altair, a first for a star like our own

Using a suite of four telescopes, astronomers have captured an image of Altair, one of the closest stars to our own and a fixture in the summer sky.

 

MIRC images of Two Red Supergiants in the OB1 Cluster

MIRC imaged two red supergiants in the Per OB1 association and detected a hotspot on the surface of T Per.

 

Improved Orbits for ω And, HD 178911, and ξ Cephei

Researchers at CHARA have published improved orbits for ω And, HD 178911, and ξ Cephei.