Astronomy or Astrophysics

Dr. Mayda Velasco: Bringing the Universe Home

Submitted by Sophia Araceli Sánchez-Maes on

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Dr. Mayda Velasco, Puerto Rican physicist at Northwestern University
Puerto Rican physicist Dr. Mayda Velasco (Copyright: Ramon "Tonito" Zayas for El Nuevo Día)

Dr. Mayda Velasco is a world-renowned physicist who thinks big—from understanding the universe’s smallest components to building scientific capacity in Puerto Rico and Latin America.

In a building overlooking the ocean in Old San Juan, an eclectic group of people—young and old, women and men, citizens of many countries—are working to understand the structure and evolution of the universe. They have come together at Colegio de Física Fundamental e Interdisciplinaria de las Américas (College of Fundamental and Interdisciplinary Physics of the Americas).

Marcel Agüeros: The junction of world-class astronomy and passion for diversity

Submitted by Elizabeth Padilla-Crespo on

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El Dr. Marcel Agüeros
Dr. Marcel Agüeros

It’s that time of the year again: the smell of charcoal, children gleefully splashing water at the beach, frozen lemonades, and endless warm nights staring at the mystifying skies… Did you know that some of the stars you see are bigger and brighter than our sun? That some of them don't exist anymore since their light travels millions of years to reach us?  Astronomy, one of the oldest sciences, helps us understand objects and matter outside the Earth's atmosphere—stars, planets, comets, galaxies and black holes—and their physical and chemical properties. 

Dr. Marcel Agüeros has made astronomy his life's work and passion. 

His Astronomical Journey

Buscan estudiantes subgraduados para internados en el Observatorio de Arecibo

Submitted by Giovanna Guerrero-Medina on

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Comprometidos con la educación en las ciencias, el Observatorio de Arecibo ofrece oportunidades de investigación para estudiantes subgraduados en su programa: Research Experience for Undergrads (REU). 

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Listening to the whispers from the stars

Submitted by Wilson Javier Gonzalez-Espada on

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Dr. Wanda Díaz
Dr. Wanda Díaz Merced has created a system that lets her "listen" to the stars (Credit: William Leibman)

Frequently, science teachers ask their students to draw a scientist so that they can get a sense of what students think and imagine about scientists. Thousands and thousands of drawings show the same stereotypical characteristics: a male scientist, white, dressed in a lab coat, usually a chemist mixing liquids and generating explosions, and a person that does not have any physical limitations. 

No student has ever drawn a scientist like Dr. Wanda Díaz Merced.  This young woman from Gurabo embodies the scientific anti-stereotype. Not only is she a woman and Puerto Rican, but also she completed her doctoral work in astrophysics, and without being able to use her sight.

"Channel Earth" is turned off

Submitted on 17 February 2013 - 6:42pm

This article is reproduced by CienciaPR with permission from the original source.

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El Nuevo Día

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The Professional is a member of CienciaPR

Until recently, people where able to experience space the way an astronaut would by watching the Dish Network Earth Channel, a 24 hour, seven days a week feed that broadcast directly from the commercial satellite Echostar 11. The author explains how the images where captured and transimitted to Earth. The camera stopped working recently, but fortunately for space aficionados, videos are still available on Youtube.

The original news story is in Spanish. To read the full text, please click on the "Español" button below or the link at the top right of the page.

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Beyond the Stars... Legacy of the First Puerto Rican Astronomer, Dr. Victor M. Blanco

Submitted by Giovanna Guerrero-Medina on

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Dr. Victor M. Blanco and the Victor Blanco Telescope at Cerro Tololo

The study of the planets, the stars, and the universe, in which we live, is the passion of many scientists.. Since the times of the British astronomer Edmund Halley and the British physicist Isaac Newton, the study field of Astronomy has been essential to understand what distinguishes celestial objects (position, distribution, movement, composition and energy).

Supernovas and X-Rays

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The Puppis A Supernova Remnant. The square shows the Bright Eastern Knot which is the target of the Micro-X rocket.

When we look at the sky during the night it is possible to appreciate stars of different colors and brightnesses. However, although we may think that stars will bright forever, the stars, as all the existence on the Earth and space, also have their life-cycle. There’s a type of stars called the supergiants that emit lots of luminosity. When a supergiant star collapse with itself in a way that they can produce an explosion, it produces what is known as supernova. A supernova is the process that occurs when a star’s life-cycle ends and explodes. In this process, the supernova explosion may produce a huge amount of energy similar to the one emitted by the Sun that is also a star.

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