New UWM Star celebrates Panther pride and astronomy research
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students, alumni and supporters now have a star to call their own.
UWM is officially naming binary star system Gaia Black Hole 1 (Gaia BH1) as the UWM Star, celebrating both Panther pride and the university’s internationally recognized astronomy and astrophysics research. The idea of a UWM star began in the university’s Astronomy Club.
A proclamation signed by UWM Chancellor Thomas Gibson declaring Gaia BH1 the university’s official star will be read aloud during a public talk about black hole discovery at 7 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 10, at the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center.
The designation was inspired by the star system’s makeup: a gold, sun-like star orbiting a black hole. The colors match UWM’s school colors, and the black hole connects directly to the groundbreaking research conducted at UWM.
Faculty researchers participate in major international collaborations studying black holes and gravitational waves, including the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) collaboration, the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) – two initiatives that detect and study gravitational waves from astrophysical objects such as black holes – as well as the Event Horizon Telescope, which produced the first image of a black hole in 2019.
The binary system was first identified in 2022 by two independent research teams, one of which included Philip Chang, professor of physics and astronomy at UWM. The system includes the closest known black hole to Earth, about 1,560 light-years away. The system’s gold star, located in the constellation Ophiuchus, is too faint to see with the naked eye but can be viewed with a telescope. Black holes are effectively invisible because they don’t reflect or emit light.
The UWM Star reflects both our Panther spirit and our commitment to advancing humanity’s understanding of the universe. It’s a meaningful symbol of the research and discovery happening every day at UWM. As a symbol of both discovery and aspiration, the UWM Star offers students a reminder to keep reaching for the stars.
An artist’s rendering of the UWM Star is available on Wikipedia under a Creative Commons Attribution License.
