WashU McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is expected to discover more than 100,000 strong gravitational lenses, far more than astronomers have ever studied before.

A new program involving WashU researchers will help astronomers identify and characterize these lenses.

“Roman is going to transform strong gravitational lensing from a field where we study remarkable systems one at a time into one where we can study them as a population,” Tansu Daylan said.

Read more about how WashU researchers are preparing to turn Roman’s unprecedented discoveries into a powerful new scientific resource.

https://mcss.washu.edu/news/building-romans-definitive-strong-lens-catalog

🪐 Can planets survive the death of their stars?

MCSS postdoctoral fellow Zifan Lin will lead a NASA Roman Cycle 1 program to search for planets orbiting white dwarfs, the dense remnants left behind after Sun-like stars die. Co-led by MCSS fellow Tansu Daylan, the project will use the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's Galactic Bulge Time Domain Survey to search for these elusive worlds and reveal how planetary systems evolve after their stars reach the ends of their lives.

🔗 Read more: https://mcss.washu.edu/news/washu-team-lead-search-planets-orbiting-white-dwarfs-nasas-roman-space-telescope

🚀 WashU researchers are helping shape the science of NASA's next major space observatory.

Several members of the AstroMusers research group in the Department of Physics and the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences have been selected to play major roles in four inaugural Cycle 1 General Investigator programs for NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.

Assistant Professor Tansu Daylan is involved in all four programs, which span some of astronomy's biggest questions, from searching for planets orbiting white dwarf stars to studying dark matter, dark energy, black holes, and the expansion of the universe.

Roman is scheduled to launch no earlier than August 30.

Read more : https://mcss.washu.edu/news/washu-astronomers-selected-four-nasa-roman-cycle-1-programs

🔴 MCSS research featured by NASA!

Congratulations to MCSS fellow Scott VanBommel and his collaborators, whose research on the discovery of native sulfur on Mars has been featured as NASA's Image of the Day.

The image, captured by NASA's Curiosity rover, highlights the first-ever close-up view of native sulfur crystals discovered on Mars, providing new insights into the planet's geologic history.

See NASA's featured image and learn more: https://www.nasa.gov/image-article/curiosity-sees-martian-sulfur-up-close/

Curiosity Sees Martian Sulfur Up Close - NASA This close-up view shows fragments of sulfur crystals — the first ever seen on the Red Planet. The crystals were found after NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover

Happy Fourth of July! 🎉

We hope you have the chance to enjoy time with family and friends, and perhaps spend a few moments looking up at the night sky.

Wishing you a safe and happy holiday from the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences.

How can science help communities recover after a natural disaster?

MCSS fellow Jeff Catalano is part of an expanded partnership between WashU and the City of St. Louis through the CLEAN STL project. The initiative is increasing soil testing, expanding air-quality monitoring, and developing practical strategies to help residents safely recover from last year's devastating tornado.

Read more:
https://source.washu.edu/2026/06/washu-partners-with-st-louis-to-expand-clean-stl-tornado-recovery-project/

What can physics teach us about life?

MCSS fellow Trevor GrandPre applies the tools of theoretical physics to questions in biology, studying how living systems organize themselves, adapt, and function. His interdisciplinary research spans biomolecular condensates, gene regulation, adaptive immune systems, and machine learning, with implications for understanding life on Earth and the potential for life beyond our planet.

Learn more about Trevor's research:
https://mcss.washu.edu/news/trevor-grandpre

🕳️ Can black holes help test Einstein's theory of gravity?

New research supported by the McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences and led by graduate student Shravan Menon, Professor Henric Krawczynski, and postdoc Kun Hu from WashU Physics identifies a new way to test Einstein's theory of gravity near rapidly spinning black holes. Their work shows how future X-ray observations could reveal the effects of extreme gravity and provide a new way to test Einstein's theory under some of the most extreme conditions in the universe.

Read more:
https://mcss.washu.edu/news/using-black-holes-test-einsteins-theory-gravity

🎥 Ever wondered what it's like to study an active glacier up close?

MCSS graduate student Zoe Schlossnagle is featured in the new PBS NOVA episode "Live from Alaska - Taku Glacier", which follows scientists as they investigate the Taku Glacier in Alaska. She answered questions about icequakes, hidden flow patterns, and how their team is using seismometers on this glacier to collect data. This data helps researchers learn more about how glaciers behave which can lead to better predictions around global sea level rise.

Watch the episode and learn more:
https://mcss.washu.edu/news/live-alaska-nova-pbs

🏆 Congratulations to MCSS fellow Trevor GrandPre, who has been named the recipient of *Scientific American*'s inaugural Young Scientist Award!

GrandPre, an assistant professor of physics at WashU, was recognized for his innovative research applying physics to living systems, from understanding how cells organize themselves to exploring the fundamental rules that govern life.

The award honors exceptional promise and achievement by early-career researchers whose work is advancing science in exciting new directions.

Read more: https://mcss.washu.edu/news/trevor-grandpre-wins-scientific-americans-inaugural-young-scientist-award