The universe is awaiting your exploration
The Department Astronomy & Planetary Science at Northern Arizona University offers various bachelor’s degrees, and a doctoral degree.
The department has a small, family feeling. At NAU, your instructors will know you by name; they are easily accessible, and they genuinely care about student success. Lecture courses are taught almost exclusively by full-time faculty. Both undergraduate and graduate students are routinely and deeply involved in faculty research.
The sense of community I felt while at NAU is something I very much miss.
– recent graduate who is now a PhD candidate
Our Classroom is the Cosmos!
Join us: we’re looking for a few good students!
Explore our degrees
By the numbers
102
Merged Physics/Astro Majors40
Astronomy Majors20
Astronomy Minors26
Undergraduate Researchers27
Phd StudentsResearch spotlight
News
For a complete listing of all news articles, please visit our news page.
NAU planetary scientist Chad Trujillo awarded prestigious international Farinella Prize
Sept. 19, 2019 Chad Trujillo, assistant professor at Northern Arizona University, has been awarded the 2019 Paolo Farinella Prize by the Europlanet Society for his contributions in the field of planetary science concerning “The Trans-Neptunian Population.” Along with collaborator Scott Sheppard from the Carnegie Institution for Science, Trujillo was honored at an award ceremony on Sept. 16 at the European Planetary Science Congress (EPSC) in Geneva, Switzerland. Shepard and Trujillo presented the Farinella Prize Lecture entitled “Completing the Inventory of…
New names, same strengths: The creation of two departments to help advance pioneering work in physics, astronomy fields
Aug. 29. 2019 With new Ph.D. programs, a new research center, a new college and expanded faculty, all in the last three years, new departments weren’t far behind. This summer, the Department of Physics and Astronomy split into the Department of Astronomy and Planetary Sciences (APS) and the Department of Applied Physics and Materials Science (APMS). APMS is in the College of Engineering, Informatics, and Applied Sciences, while APS stays in the College of the Environment, Forestry, and Natural Resources.…
NAU astrophysicist leads international team in ‘unprecedented’ discovery of unique infrared light signature on Neptune’s moon Triton
July 29, 2019 Triton orbits Neptune, the eighth planet from the Sun, some 2.7 billion miles from Earth—at the cold outer fringe of the Solar System’s major planet zone. Surface temperatures hover near absolute zero, so low that common compounds we know as gases on Earth freeze into ices. Triton’s atmosphere, which is 70,000 times less dense than Earth’s, is composed of nitrogen, methane and carbon monoxide. These extreme conditions have led to an extraordinary discovery on Triton. An international…
Keeping Earth safe from impact: NAU astronomer worked with international team to conduct global planetary defense exercise
June 25, 2019 Scientists have discovered nearly all “extinction-scale” near-Earth objects, or NEOs (asteroids larger than one kilometer in diameter) and determined they pose no risk of impact in the near future. But there are still thousands of smaller NEOs that pose a potential danger. NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office (PDCO) coordinates the detection of potentially hazardous objects, characterization of those objects and response planning in the event of an actual impact threat. Michael Kelley, program scientist with PDCO, and…
Events
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