University of Maryland Department of Astronomy

03/06/2026

So cool!

Astronomy and Geological, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences researchers discovered surprising asteroid behavior after analyzing data from NASA's DART Mission.

By examining images taken by the DART spacecraft before it intentionally collided with asteroid moon Dimorphos in 2022, the team found fan-shaped streaks on the moon's surface—the first direct visual evidence of rocks and dust naturally traveling between two asteroids.

The material, shed from the larger asteroid Didymos, drifted to Dimorphos at less than a walking pace, leaving distinctive deposits the researchers describe as 'cosmic snowballs.'

02/19/2026

AMA Tomorrow (Feb 20), Dr. Alberto Bolatto will be live on Reddit from 12 to 2 p.m. ET—submit your questions now: https://redd.it/1r99m2b

Astronomy's Alberto Bolatto studies how galaxies, including our own Milky Way, came to be. In tomorrow's Reddit Ask-Me-Anything, Alberto will be answering questions about galaxy and star formation, as well as the PRobe Far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) mission.

As co-investigator on the PRIMA mission, Alberto is working to help reveal growing stellar systems with greater precision than ever before. If funded, the PRIMA team will explore how much water is needed for different types of planets to form.

02/02/2026

We love our students!

12/23/2025

University of Maryland astronomers discovered that a blast of space rocks ejected during NASA's DART Mission carried 3X more momentum than the spacecraft itself.

Coming in at #2 on our top stories list, this discovery led to insights for future planetary defense missions.

“If an asteroid [were] tumbling toward us, and we knew we had to move it a specific amount to prevent it from hitting Earth, then all these subtleties become very, very important,” explained Astronomy and Geology Professor Jessica Sunshine. “You can think of it as a cosmic pool game. We might miss the pocket if we don’t consider all the variables.”

10/09/2025

The comets A6 (Lemmon) and R2 (SWAN) are visitors from the chilly fringes of our solar system, and could even be visible at the same time.