{"id":159586,"date":"2026-09-08T09:37:39","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T14:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/?p=159586"},"modified":"2026-09-08T09:37:39","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T14:37:39","slug":"uwm-students-can-now-wish-on-their-own-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/news\/uwm-students-can-now-wish-on-their-own-star\/","title":{"rendered":"UWM students can now wish on their own star"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">New UWM Star celebrates Panther pride and astronomy research<\/span><\/i><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students, alumni and supporters now have a star to call their own.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">UWM is officially naming binary star system Gaia Black Hole 1 (Gaia BH1) as the UWM Star, celebrating both Panther pride and the university&#8217;s internationally recognized astronomy and astrophysics research.\u00a0The idea of a UWM star began in the university\u2019s Astronomy Club.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">A proclamation signed by UWM Chancellor Thomas Gibson declaring Gaia BH1 the university&#8217;s official star will be read aloud during a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/letters-science\/event\/the-galactic-underworld-finding-invisible-black-holes\/\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">public talk about black hole discovery <\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">at 7 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 10, at the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center. <\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The designation was inspired by the star system&#8217;s makeup: a gold, sun-like star orbiting a black hole. The colors match UWM&#8217;s school colors, and the black hole connects directly to the groundbreaking research conducted at UWM.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Faculty researchers participate in major international collaborations studying black holes and gravitational waves, including the\u202fLaser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) collaboration, the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) \u2013 two initiatives that detect and study gravitational waves from astrophysical objects such as black holes \u2013 as well as the Event Horizon Telescope, which produced the first image of a black hole in 2019.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>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&#8217;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\u2019t reflect or emit light.<\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The UWM Star reflects both our Panther spirit and our commitment to advancing humanity&#8217;s understanding of the universe. It&#8217;s a meaningful symbol of the research and discovery happening every day at UWM.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">As a symbol of both discovery and aspiration, the UWM Star offers students a reminder to keep reaching for the stars.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">An artist&#8217;s rendering of the UWM Star is available <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gaia_BH1#\/media\/File:Artist%27s_impression_of_the_closest_black_hole_to_Earth_and_its_Sun-like_companion_star.jpg\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">on Wikipedia<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> under a Creative Commons Attribution License.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New UWM Star celebrates Panther pride and astronomy research\u00a0 University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee students, alumni and supporters now have a star to call their own.\u00a0 UWM is officially naming binary star system Gaia Black Hole 1 (Gaia BH1) as the UWM Star, celebrating both Panther pride and the university&#8217;s internationally recognized astronomy and astrophysics research.\u00a0The idea [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39392,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[202],"tags":[],"section":[],"display_categories":[],"related-coverage":[],"uwmnews-feed":[],"class_list":["post-159586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-releases"],"uwm_unpublish_requested":false,"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - 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