Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics

Where’d all the time go? 😞 🦬

Our BSA REU program has reached its bittersweet conclusion. Over the past nine weeks, these students have worked with mentors at several institutions around Boulder to conduct solar and space physics research. During the final week, the cohort participated in the 2026 Boulder Solar Alliance REU Symposium, where they shared their summer research in a 20-minute presentation and a poster session.

While we’re sad to see the program end, we are looking forward to seeing what this cohort accomplishes with everything that they have learned from the program!

Learn more about what these students have been up to this summer: https://lasp.colorado.edu/2026/07/31/students-celebrate-the-completion-of-the-2026-boulder-solar-alliance-reu-program/

Since we’ve been to every planet and Pluto, we can confirm that this is entirely accurate 😜

On Monday, the LASP ASTRO Academy went on a field trip to Rocky Mountain National Park!

The students learned about the history of glaciers in the Rocky Mountains and how glaciers are influenced by a planet's orbit. Did you know that Mars experiences extreme ice ages (compared to Earth) because of differences in its orbit?

The ASTRO Academy, one of many student programs offered at LASP, strengthens our students’ academic knowledge through real-world experiences like this one!

Learn more about student opportunities at LASP: https://lasp.colorado.edu/information/undergraduates/

☀️ The super science minds of the are gathered this week at Princeton University to share and discuss the first 6 months of data collected about our solar neighborhood and protective cosmic bubble - our - before it is released to the world. It's an exciting time for and ! ☀️

GO IMAP! 👏👏👏

5 upcoming trips to the moon and how CU Boulder scientists are involved Researchers will explore everything from volcanoes on the moon's surface to signals washing through our galaxy from the dawn of the universe.

Happy National Hot Dog Day! Now that is one hot dog! 🌭

Canis Major and Canis Minor are two constellations visible in the night sky. Canis Major contains the brightest star in our night sky, Sirius, AKA the Dog Star.

I bet you didn’t know that Sirius A has a dimmer, tinier sidekick called Sirius B. These two stars are part of a binary system, orbiting the same center of mass. Sirius B is a white dwarf, a star that was once similar to our Sun but has run out of nuclear fuel and is gradually collapsing in on itself.

At LASP, we study the life cycles of these far-away stars to understand the evolution of binary star systems and learn more about the complex development of our cosmos!

So yes, we do study the ‘hot dogs’ of space- but not the kind you’d want to eat. ⭐

📸: NOIRLab, NASA