Birds and other animals rely on Earth’s magnetic field for long-distance navigation during seasonal migrations. U-M researchers are now learning how periodic disruptions of the planet’s magnetic field, caused by solar flares and other energetic outbursts, affect the reliability of those biological navigation systems.

The Extremely Large Telescope (or ELT) could change everything we know about the universe — including how the first galaxies were created and where life on other planets may exist. And U-M is the only U.S. university involved in helping develop it.

U-M scientists have deduced that the Andromeda galaxy, our closest large galactic neighbor, shredded and cannibalized a massive galaxy two billion years ago.

Students prepare to launch a time capsule into orbit to mark U-M’s bicentennial. The plan is to retrieve it in 100 years.