News
Joel Kastner

Universe Today highlights the research led by Joel Kastner, professor in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, on the Southern Ring Nebula's dual-ring formation and the possible role of a second star.

Planetary nebulae have been studied for centuries, but astronomers are getting new looks and a better understanding of the structures and compositions of these gaseous remnants of dying stars thanks to the ability to study objects at multiple wavelengths and dimensions.

Joel Kastner, a professor in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science and School of Physics and Astronomy, and a team of researchers with the European Southern Observatory have discovered new evidence of how planets as massive as Jupiter can form.

Professor Joel Kastner from RIT’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science and School of Physics and Astronomy is part of a team of scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope to study how the changing patterns of shadows cast on the dusty disks orbiting young stars can reveal the presence of newly formed planets.

Scientists have reconstructed what they call “the messy death of a multiple star system” using some of the first images from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, plus existing data from the European Space Agency’s Gaia observatory. RIT scientists contributed to a Nature Astronomy paper outlining how the Southern Ring Nebula received its unique shape.

Numerous Rochester Institute of Technology faculty, professors emeriti, and postdoctoral researchers were recognized as top-cited scientists in their fields, according to a Stanford University study published by Elsevier.

By using radio telescopes to study sun-like stars in their death throes, scientists hope to reveal important information about the origin of life-enabling chemicals in the universe. The NSF is awarding a $339,362 grant to a team led by Professor Joel Kastner to conduct such a study.

Knowable Magazine talks to Joel Kastner, professor in RIT’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science and School of Physics and Astronomy, about planetary nebulae and the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope. (This story is also featured in Ars Technica).

WXXI’s “Connections” program talks to Associate Professor Jeyhan Kartaltepe and Professor Joel Kastner about the first images from the James Webb Space Telescope.

The public will soon get its first glimpse at images from the most powerful observational instrument ever made. NASA will reveal the James Webb Space Telescope’s first images and spectra on July 12. RIT faculty closely involved with JWST will make media appearances to explain the significance of this momentous scientific achievement.

A team of RIT scientists is poring over NASA data for new insights about Earth’s youngest, closest neighbors. Joel Kastner, a professor in RIT’s Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science and School of Physics and Astronomy, received nearly $400,000 for a NASA archival study to advance our understanding of newly formed stars and planets.

The New York Post features a Hubble Space Telescope image created by an RIT team led by Joel Kastner, professor in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science.