IPAC News

NASA Honor Awards recognize IPACers working on Euclid, NEOWISE, and Roman

• February 25th, 2026

On January 22, 2026, dozens of IPAC staff members were recognized at the NASA Honor Awards ceremony. With Group Achievement Awards handed out to teams working on Euclid,...

Caltech and IPAC Mourn the Passing of Carl Grillmair (1959–2026)

• February 22nd, 2026

Carl Grillmair, an astronomer at Caltech's IPAC science and data center for astronomy and planetary science, passed away suddenly on February 16, 2026. He was 67 years old.

Journey to Center of Milky Way With Upcoming NASA Roman Core Survey

• January 23rd, 2026

At the heart of our own galaxy, there is a dense thicket of stars with a supermassive black hole at the very center. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope will provide the...

Astronomers Discover the First Galaxy-wide Wobbling Black Hole Jet in a Disk Galaxy

• January 8th, 2026

Astronomers using W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island have uncovered the largest and most extended stream of super-heated gas ever observed flowing from a nearby...

We finally know how the most common types of planets are created

• January 7th, 2026

Four baby planets show how super-Earths and sub-Neptunes form.

Best wishes from your friends and colleagues at IPAC

• December 23rd, 2025

Wishing all our colleagues the very, very best for 2026!

People of IPAC: New Leaders, New Roles, New Staff

• December 5th, 2025

There were many changes in the IPAC team in the second half of 2025. We filled nine positions with people who either joined IPAC afresh or with existing staff who transitioned...

IPAC Director's Update 2025

• December 5th, 2025

I was happy to start as the new Executive Director in late May of 2025, and I thank George Helou and the IPAC staff for making IPAC so valuable to the community and such a great...

Charles “Chas” Beichman Steps Down from NExScI Executive Director Role

• December 3rd, 2025

Charles “Chas” Beichman has stepped down as Executive Director of the NASA Exoplanet Science Institute (NExScI), effective December 2, 2025. Beichman remains a JPL Fellow and...

Two different types of asteroids may actually share same origin story

• August 20th, 2025

A newly published paper, led by IPAC scientist Joe Masiero, provides evidence that two kinds of asteroids likely formed in the same regions during the beginning of our solar...