In just over five months, the University of Iowa will be launching its TRACERS mission which currently stands as the largest grant ever awarded to the university.

The twin spacecraft of NASA’s TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) mission were recently completed, in preparation for launch in 2025.

Voyager spacecraft paved the way for our understanding of our solar system, but they are now over 15 billion miles away from Earth. It takes light and radio signals about 23 hours to reach it one way, and it is still changing our understanding of the cosmos. The instruments still onboard and operational were built, and are still operated by, the University of Iowa's Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Thirteen Physics and Astronomy students presented posters at the Fall Undergraduate Research Festival (FURF) on Nov. 6 at the University Capitol Centre. The Office of Undergraduate Research hosts FURF, held in celebration and recognition of undergraduate researchers' contributions to research, scholarly, and creative work at the University of Iowa.

This story from the University of Iowa Graduate College tells how graduate students Connor Feltman (now a postdoctoral research fellow/scholar) and Allison Flores contribute to the TRACERS mission, which seeks to answer long-standing questions about space weather.

Professors Allison Jaynes and David Miles from the University of Iowa’s Department of Physics and Astronomy will provide instrumentation for the LabOratory for the Behavior of the SloT Region (LOBSTR) mission.

NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) has awarded Associate Professor Casey DeRoo a $24,225 grant to evaluate the suitability of commercially available CMOS sensors for small satellite missions. These missions will conduct observations in the X-ray bandwidth to achieve scientific objectives relevant to NASA Astrophysics.

The 2024 TIME 100 Next List includes Maria Drout, a 2010 graduate of the University of Iowa who earned a Bachelor's Degree in Physics and Astronomy.

Three graduate students in the Department of Physics and Astronomy have been awarded scholarships from the University of Iowa Graduate College. Michael Hite and Sarah Choate were awarded the Ballard and Seashore Fellowship, while Dylan Blend was awarded the Graduate College Post-Comprehensive Research Fellowship.

In this Radio Iowa interview, Prof. Allison Jaynes commented on viewing the aurora borealis in Iowa on Oct. 10 and the prospects for seeing it again the next evening.