A University of Iowa researcher has won a NASA award to design and prototype a smaller, more efficient X-ray telescope to aid in space navigation. The telescope being developed by Jacob Payne, a graduate research assistant in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, will focus on observing millisecond pulsars, which are small stars that spin rapidly and flash beams of radiation.

The National Science Foundation has awarded Prof. John Goree in the University of Iowa Department of Physics and Astronomy a $405,000 grant to study how to mitigate dust contamination in semiconductor manufacturing.

University of Iowa alumnus Jacob Isbell, a postdoctoral researcher in the University of Arizona Department of Astronomy, has been awarded nearly $1 million from the National Science Foundation to lead the development of a breakthrough optical instrument for the Large Binocular Telescope.

Sixteen undergraduate students from across the country gathered for the 2025 Edge of Space Academy, an immersive, hands-on research experience focused on space-based instrumentation for observing Earth and space.

Dozens of scientists from the University of Iowa traveled to Lompoc, California, to joyfully witness the successful rocket launch associated with TRACERS — the NASA-funded mission to study the mysterious, powerful interactions between the magnetic fields of the sun and Earth.

NASA’s newest mission, TRACERS, soon will begin studying how Earth’s magnetic shield protects our planet from the effects of space weather. Short for Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites, the twin TRACERS spacecraft lifted off July 23 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex 4 East at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

Wednesday, July 23 marked the reward of years of work for University of Iowa researchers as their twin satellites launched into space. The University held a watch party for its contributors and the public to see SpaceX launch the TRACERS satellites. Dozens of university students, professors, and researchers had a hand in building TRACERS, one of the largest research projects in university history.

The UI Department of Physics and Astronomy is inviting you to join us for a live viewing event celebrating the launch of NASA’s TRACERS mission. The live viewing event has been postponed until Wednesday, July 23 in Lecture Room One, Van Allen Hall, from 12 to 3 p.m.

NASA’s new TRACERS (Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamics Reconnaissance Satellites) mission will study magnetic reconnection, answering key questions about how it shapes the impacts of the Sun and space weather on our daily lives.

With the TRACERS launch imminent, take a trip through the timeline of the university’s largest externally funded research project, which will examine the powerful interactions between the magnetic fields of the sun and Earth.