(January 2026) Cool Star Lab PI Adam Burgasser has been named a Fellow of the American Astronomical Society. The AAS Fellows program was established in 2020 to recognize AAS members for original research and publications, innovative contributions to astronomical techniques or instrumentation, significant contributions to education and public outreach, and noteworthy service to astronomy and to the Society itself. It is an honor bestowed on less than 0.5% of AAS’s membership each year. Adam's citation noted his "foundational contributions to our understanding of the nature of the lowest-mass stars, brown dwarfs, and exoplanet host stars using space and ground-based facilities; for longstanding commitment to diversity and inclusion; and for extensive leadership roles in the astronomy community." (see the AAS press release).

(October 2025) Cool Star Lab researcher Marylin Loritsch has been awarded a USRA Distinguished Undergraduate Award Honorable Mention. USRA is an independent, nonprofit research corporation that advances space science and technology through industry, government, and university partnerships; UCSD is one of 121 participating universities. The annual USRA Award recognizes undergraduate students with a career interest in space science or engineering with a distinguished academic and research portfolio. Marylin's Honorable Mention recognizes her as among the top 10% of this year's applicant pool. Congratulations Marylin!

(October 2025) Cool Star Lab PI Adam Burgasser led a study in Science reporting the detection of abundant phosphine in the atmosphere of a cold brown dwarf named Wolf 1130C. Based on JWST observations, the study would phosphine at the level expected for vertical mixing chemistry, and reverses the pattern of "missing phosphine" in other brown dwarf and exoplanet atmospheres, and raises new questions about our understanding of phosphorous chemistry. The result was the subject of a press release and reported widely in the New York Times, the Conversation, and other venues (see the UCSD press release and the published Science article)

(August 2025) Cool Star Lab PI Adam Burgasser led spectral analysis of a rare "double-double" system composed of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. Discovered by collaborator Prof. Zenghua Zhang at Nanjing University, the system is named UPM J1040−3551 AabBab and appears on the sky as a wide M dwarf + T dwarf binary. However, closer scrutiny reveals both components to be overluminous, are likely both comprised of two objects each in close orbits. This discovery adds new empirical insight into how low-mass multiple star systems form, and received wide press coverage including a story in the New York Times Science Section (read the MNRAS article by Zhang et al.).

(August 2025) Holland America has announced that Cool Star PI Adam Burgasser will be part of the line-up for its “Mediterranean Solar Eclipse” cruise on the Oosterdam as its catches the total solar eclipse on August 12, 2026. Adam had previously served as "ship astronomer" during the April 2024 eclipse off the coast of Mexico. All Aboard! (read the Holland America press release)

(January 2025) Cool Star Lab graduate researcher Julia Haynes was featured in an article in the San Diego Tribune, highlighting her excellence in tennis and aspirations in astrophysics. Julia is the first nationally-ranked tennis player at UC San Diego since it joined Division I, and joined the team after completing her astrophysics degree at Columbia University. Now Julia is working on finding brown dwarfs in JWST deep survey fields using machine learning tools she's developing in the UCSD Data Science Masters program (see the San Diego Tribune story).

(January 2026) Cool Star Lab PI Adam Burgasser has helped to wrap up one of the longest-running ground-based parallax programs focused on the low-mass stars and brown dwarfs. The USNO Infrared Parallax Program started in 2000 on the 1.55-m Kaj Strand Astrometric Reflector at the USNO Flagstaff Station, and over the past quarter-century has made precise astrometric measurements of some of the most compelling nearby brown dwarf systems, most of which are inaccessible to Gaia. This final study reports parallaxes and proper motions for 74 L-dwarfs and 99 T-dwarfs, and provides new insights into resolved and unresolved brown dwarf binaries, wide companions to more massive stars, young planetary-mass objects, and ancient subdwarfs (read the preprint by Vrba et al.).

(January 2026) Cool Star Lab PI Adam Burgasser helped to characterize one of two low-mass stars hosting double planet systems, including close-in rocky worlds. The new planets, TOI-237c and TOI-4336Ac have radiii of 1.2 times that of the Earth, and short orbital periods of 1.7 days and 7.6 days. Adam used optical spectra to determine that TOI-4336Ac is a mid-type M dwarf lacking Halpha emission, suggesting it is an old system. The fours planets in these systems surround the so-called "radius valley", making them important targets for understanding the exoplanet evolution. These discoveries were made as part of the Hidden Gems project, which uses TESS data to search for additional planets transiting low-mass stars that have at least one confirmed world (read the preprint by Timmerman et al.).

(January 2026) Cool Star Lab researchers conducted optical reconnaissance of the low-mass hosts stars of a temperate Earth and a temperate Neptune exoplanet. The stellar hosts, TOI-6716 and TOI-7384, are both M4 dwarfs that show weak signatures of magnetic activity. The planets TOI-6716b have radii of 0.98 and 3.6 times that of Earth, and receive 4-5 times the stellar radiation as that on the Earth, placing them at the inner edge of their systems' habitable zones. These are the first discoveries by the TEMPOS survey, which aims to produce a catalogue of precise radii for temperate planets orbiting M dwarfs with temperatures ≤ 3400 K (read the MNRAS article by Madison et al.).

(January 2026) Cool Star Lab PI Adam Burgasser gave an interview with Astrobites ahead of his January 2025 AAS plenary talk. Adam talked about what excites him about brown dwarf science today, the pathway to his career, and advice for upcoming astronomers. (see the Astrobites article by Sarah Stevenson)

(December 2025) Cool Star Lab researcher Vivian Liu has been selected as part of the inaugural UCSD TRELS Cohort Experience. TRELS stands for Triton Research & Experiential Learning Scholars, and is a UCSD-wide program to support undergraduate research. The Cohort Experience is a new program that provides cohort meetings, professional events, engagement with faculty and guest speakers, and the opportunity to present at the Spring Mentored Undergraduate Research and Applied Learning Symposium (MURALS) event. Congratulations Vivian!

(December 2025) Cool Star Lab researcher Marylin Loritsch has been awarded the UCSD School of Physical Sciences Selma and Robert Silagi Award for Undergraduate Excellence. This annual award recognizes outstanding graduating seniors in Astronomy & Astrophysics, Biology, Chemistry & Biochemistry, Mathematics, and Physics who demonstrate exceptional academic merit, research, and future promise in their scientific fields. Marylin, a STARTastro scholar and recipient of a AAS Chambliss presentation award, is the first Astronomy & Astrophysics student to win this award. Congratulations Marylin!

(October 2025) Cool Star Lab PI Adam Burgasser participated in an Astrophysics Panel hosted by UCSD's Society of Asian Science and Engineers (SASE).  Adam, faculty Brian Keating and Ethan Nadler, and postdoctoral scholar Julie Inglis shared their experiences on becoming astrophysicists, and how to pursue research opportunities in the field.

(October 2025) Cool Star Lab PI Adam Burgasser shared his experience using the Palomar Observatory as a graduate student as part of Fleet Science's Sky Tonight: Palomar Observatory Experience.  Adam also updated the group on current results in brown dwarf astrophysics. The next Palomar Experience is April 2026 (see the slide deck).

(September 2025) Cool Star Lab members are volunteering in the Cosmic Tours program, an outreach project that brings a portable planetarium to local K-12 schools and community sites. The inflatable planetarium provides an interactive astronomical experience of the night sky, including a tour of constellations in different cultures and a tour of the Solar System. Since its founding, Cosmic Tours has held 150 events across the San Diego region (read more about Cosmic Tours, including how to support and coordinate an event at your institution)