Sometimes, looking at things in a new way reveals brand-new secrets about it. By scanning the cosmos for light invisible to our eyes, the site of an ancient stellar collision was revealed by a large, mysterious ring in the sky. Its discovery provides us with a rare opportunity to study what happens after two stars collide to form one.

The Blue Ring Nebula, which perplexed scientists for over a decade, appears to be the youngest known example of two stars merged into one.

University of Iowa physicists have won NASA funding to leverage their expertise in fabricating and testing gratings for use in the ultraviolet range in space-based astronomy.