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  • Faculty

    Astronomy Department Faculty and
    McDonald Observatory Research Scientists
    work on nearly every area of modern astronomy.

  • McDonald Observatory

    The Astronomy Department is associated with
    McDonald Observatory, one of the premier
    observational facilities in the country.

  • Graduate Students

    UT Astronomy Graduate Students.

  • Simulation by Aaron Smith

    Simulation by grad student Aaron Smith of gas flows
    along filaments of dark matter which collapse to form
    the first galaxies.

  • Grad Students Girl Day

    Astronomy Grad students participate in Girl Day,
    which brings 5,000 K-8 girls to the UT campus.

  • Planet Proxima b

    Artist’s concept of the surface of nearby planet
    Proxima b, discovered by Research Scientist
    Mike Endl and collaborators.

A premier program in Astronomy research and education

The Department of Astronomy works synergistically with McDonald Observatory to advance excellence in research and education. As one of the top-ranked astronomy programs in the nation, we lead frontier research in cosmology, galaxy formation and evolution, stellar evolution and star formation, exoplanetary systems, the Solar system, and instrumentation. We are a major founding partner in the next generation Giant Magellan Telescope.

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