Theoretically, the merging of two galaxies could result in what is known as a supermassive binary black hole, but so far astronomers have not unequivocally detected one of these events. Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Michael Eracleous is on the forefront of the hunt.
The Hobby-Eberly Telescope.Image: Marty Harris, McDonald Observatory, UT Austin
The universe we see is only the very tip of the vast cosmic iceberg.
The hundreds of billions of galaxies it contains, each of them home to billions of stars, planets and moons as well as massive star-and-planet-forming clouds of gas and dust, and all of the visible light and other energy we can detect in the form of electromagnetic radiation, such as radio waves, gamma rays and X-rays – in short, everything we’ve ever seen with our telescopes – only amounts to about 5% of all the mass and energy in the universe.
IMAGE: Penn State
At a formal naming ceremony held May 12, 1990, in conjunction with spring commencement exercises that year, the college was formally renamed as the Eberly College of Science. It distinguished Penn State as the first public research university in the United States to name its basic science college after a benefactor or philanthropist, according to a survey of institutions belonging to the Association of American Universities.
The generosity of the Eberly family has enabled the college to attract and retain faculty members of worldwide renown, who in turn generate higher levels of funding for research at the cutting edge of their fields and create opportunities for study and research that attract top graduate and undergraduate students. The college boasts four National Medal of Science recipients; 18 members of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; 14 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and 60 members of the American Associ