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!
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By the numbers
102
Merged Physics/Astro Majors56
Astronomy Majors17
Astronomy Minors26
Undergraduate Researchers27
Phd StudentsResearch spotlight
News
For a complete listing of all news articles, please visit our news page.
NAU Scientists Map Hidden Water Ice On Mars | KNAU Arizona Public Radio
Scientists at Northern Arizona University mapped frozen water hidden just below the surface of Mars, with the goal of finding the best spots for future astronauts to visit. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny reports. Mars Credit NASA/JPL-Caltech/USGS Buried water ice influences the temperature of a planet’s surface. The team used heat-sensing instruments on two orbiting spacecraft to map fluctuations in temperature during different seasons on Mars. They crunched the data in Northern Arizona University’s supercomputer to make…
Tip of the ICEBERG: NAU planetary scientists developing large-scale ‘imagery-computing superhighway’ – NAU News
Scientists are creating ways to compile and interpret an abundance of high-resolution satellite images on a continental scale to better understand Antarctica, Arizona and the world. The same sophisticated satellite imaging techniques being developed to map and identify the size and composition of uncharted land in Antarctica soon may help scientists produce finely detailed geologic maps of the Lower Colorado River Corridor and better understand its geologic history. Mark Salvatore, an assistant professor in Northern Arizona University’s Department of Astronomy…
One step closer to living on Mars: NAU scientists contribute to NASA’s ‘treasure map’ of widespread water ice near planet’s surface – NAU News
In anticipation of sending humans to Mars by 2033, NASA scientists are searching for suitable locations to land on the Red Planet. Ideally, these potential landing sites would have high scientific value for exploration while offering natural resources to sustain human life. In the last 20 years, the community studying Mars has made significant progress mapping and characterizing reservoirs of ice. In a new study published in Geophysical Research Letters, a team of scientists, including assistant professor Christopher Edwards and…
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…
Events
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