University of Arizona in the News

A team of astronomers led by Sarah Moran with the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory detected water vapor coming from an exoplanet, or its star, using NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. About 30% larger than Earth and three times as massive, GJ 486 b orbits a red dwarf star once every two Earth days. It is likely tidally locked, with a permanent day side and a permanent night side.

Lake Mead has seen a steady rise in water levels over the past few days after the release of a huge volume of water from Glen Canyon Dam. A video of the action received more than 350,000 views since it was posted Sunday. Before the release, the reservoir reached record-low water levels in recent weeks."Prolonged drought and over-allocation have dramatically reduced the amount of water in the Colorado River and the stored water in Lake Mead and Lake Powell," said Andrea Achilli, an associate professor of chemical and environmental engineering at the University of Arizona.

Seemingly daily, the U.S. receives yet another stark reminder of the pervasiveness of guns in society, with hundreds of millions of firearms in circulation nationwide. In her new book, "Merchants of the Right," University of Arizona associate professor of sociology Jennifer Carlson explores some of the forces behind that saturation and the political culture that goes with it.

The work of University of Arizona Professor Michael Worobey, head of the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, has taken him into dangerous jungles and raging scientific controversies. This profile centers largely on his research into the origins of COVID-19.

Seismic activity could be the source of the mysteriously smooth terrain on several moons circling Jupiter and Saturn, according to a recent study led by Mackenzie Mills, a doctoral student at the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Lab.

A University of Arizona-led forecast predicts an above-average hurricane season this year. Working off a model built by professor of hydrology and atmospheric sciences Xubin Zeng, researchers expect nine named storms to develop, five of them major.

It's been almost a year and a half since the James Webb Space Telescope was launched, and scientists continue to be amazed by the images it's sending back and discoveries they have been able to make. University of Arizona Regents Professor of Astronomy Marcia Rieke, the principal investigator on Webb's Near-Infrared Camera, discusses researchers' remarkable results so far.

The American Institute of Architects and the American Library Association on Tuesday named the University of Arizona Student Success District one of five winners of the 2023 Library Building Awards. The annual award honors "the best in library architecture and design."

University of Arizona associate professor of Judaic studies Gil Ribak discusses the life of Thomas LaRue Jones – "The Black Cantor" – an African American tenor who sang Jewish music in the early decades of the 20th Century.

This story reflects on the contributions to entomology, and science in general, made by University of Arizona researcher Justin Schmidt, known widely as "The King of Sting" for his development of the Schmidt Pain Index, the only scientific rating system classifying the pain inflicted by stinging insects.