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Here’s how you can disable cookies in common browsers:
1. Google Chrome
Open Chrome and click the three vertical dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies and other site data.
Choose your preferred option:
Block all cookies (not recommended, can break most websites).
Block third-party cookies (can block ads and tracking cookies).
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Go to Settings > Privacy & Security.
Under the Enhanced Tracking Protection section, choose Strict to block most cookies or Custom to manually choose which cookies to block.
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Open Edge and click the three horizontal dots in the top-right corner.
Go to Settings > Privacy, search, and services > Cookies and site permissions.
Select your cookie settings from there, including blocking all cookies or blocking third-party cookies.
5. On Mobile (iOS/Android)
For Safari on iOS: Go to Settings > Safari > Privacy & Security > Block All Cookies.
For Chrome on Android: Open the app, tap the three dots, go to Settings > Privacy and security > Cookies.
Be Aware:
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Address: Department of Physics
196A Auditorium Rd, Unit 3046
Storrs, CT 06269-3046
The Milky Way Laboratory is a research group at the University of Connecticut that specializes in using our home Galaxy as a laboratory for understanding star formation throughout the cosmos. Read about our research, meet the team, and see where we are featured in the media. For a broad-level public overview of our work, check out our latest news items!
We are an open source research group. The Milky Way Lab freely shares our code: Milky Way Laboratory on GitHub and have many repositories on the Central Molecular Zone Github. Our recent 3D CMZ project has its own dedicated 3D CMZ website with paper links, code, data, a worldwide telescope tour, and a cool 3D viewer. Our CMZoom data is publicly available at the CMZoom Dataverse.
The Milky Way Laboratory was founded by Prof. / Dr. Cara Battersby, who is an associate professor of physics at the University of Connecticut, specializing in observational astrophysics. Prof. Battersby studies how stars are born in our Galaxy’s Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) by combining large observational surveys and numerical simulations. Prof. Battersby has authored over 100 publications and given over 70 invited research presentations. Read more about her research, team, and accolades. She is not very media-social, but you can sometimes find her on bluesky.
This PRobe far-Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA) mission concept is a proposed mission to NASA's Astrophysics Probe Explorer (APEX) call. The concept features a cryogenically cooled 1.8 m diameter telescope, and is designed to carry two science instruments covering the 24 to 264 $μ$m wavelength range: an imaging polarimeter (PRIMAger) and a spectrometer (FIRESS). The […]
Context. The fragmentation of massive molecular clumps into smaller, potentially star-forming cores plays a key role in the processes of high-mass star formation. The ALMAGAL project offers high-resolution data to investigate these processes across various evolutionary stages in the Galactic plane. Aims. This study aims at correlating the fragmentation properties of massive clumps, obtained from […]
Evidence suggests that protostellar outbursts likely play a critical role in the stellar mass assembly process, but the extent of this contribution is not well understood. Using the proposed observing program of PRIMA, a concept far-IR observatory (PRIMA GO Case #43 in Moullet et al. 2023), we examine the probe's ability to unambiguously determine whether […]
Investigating the multi-scale fragmentation of dense clumps into compact cores is essential for understanding the processes that govern the initial distribution of mass in stellar clusters and how high-mass stars ($>8~M_{\odot}$) form. We present a catalog of the hierarchical continuum structure from 904 clumps observed in the ALMAGAL program, a high resolution ($0.15-0.8$\arcsec) 1.38 mm […]
Ices imprint strong absorption features in the near- and mid-infrared, but until recently they have been studied almost exclusively with spectroscopy toward small samples of bright sources. We show that JWST photometry alone can reveal and quantify interstellar ices and present a new open-source modeling tool, icemodels, to produce synthetic photometry of ices based on […]
CO gas emission is a fundamental tool for measuring column density, but in cold, dark clouds, much of the CO is locked away in ice. We present JWST results from observations of a star forming filament (G0.342+0.024) that that appears to be associated with the 3 kpc arm. This filament is backlit by the Galactic […]
We report JWST NIRCAM and MIRI observations of Sgr B2, the most active site of star formation in the Galaxy. These observations, using 14 filters spanning 1.5 to 25 microns, have revealed a multilayered and highly structured cloud that contains both a revealed, low-extinction and hidden, high-extinction population of massive stars. JWST has detected new […]
We present the science drivers for the Far-Infrared Enhanced Survey Spectrometer (FIRESS), one of two science instrument on the PRobe Infrared Mission for Astrophysics (PRIMA). FIRESS is designed to meet science objectives in the areas of the origins of planetary atmospheres, the co-evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes, and the buildup of heavy elements […]
The Milky Way Lab’s 3D CMZ project is now published and making a splash! The four papers: Battersby et al. 2025a: 3D CMZ. I. Central Molecular Zone Overview Battersby et al. 2025b: 3D CMZ. II. Hierarchical Structure Analysis of the Central Molecular Zone Walker et al. 2025: 3D CMZ. III. Constraining the 3D Structure of […]
A press conference at the 245th meeting of the AAS on January 14th, 2025 presented by Danya Alboslani, a post-baccalaureate researcher working in the Milky Way Laboratory with Prof. Battersby. X-ray Echoes Reveal the 3D Structure of Molecular Clouds in our Galaxy’s Center A creative new method uses decades of data to learn about the […]
Learn about the ground-breaking work the Milky Way Laboratory and its collaborators are doing through this World Wide Telescope tour! World Wide Telescope is a free and open-source platform showcasing a breadth of astronomical images for the public to enjoy and planetarium-like views of our night sky! First publicly demonstrated in 2008, the World Wide […]
The Milky Way Laboratory was invited to collaborate with Genevieve de Leon, the 2022-23 Koopman Distinguished Chair in the Painting Department at the University of Hartford, for an exhibition focused on the intersection between the Maya calendrical cycles and scientific studies of the cosmos. From the Milky Way Laboratory, H Perry Hatchfield, Jennifer Wallace, Dani […]
Graduate student Jennifer Wallace’s paper on molecular filaments observed towards the Sagittarius E star forming region has been published in ApJ! Congratulations, Jen! The Sgr E region is located near the dynamic intersection between the Galaxy’s Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) and the ‘far dust lane’, a stream of inflowing gas that helps transport material from the […]
Our collaborative NSF proposal (led by Prof. Betsy Mills at KU and co-PIed with Adam Ginsburg at UF, Qizhou Zhang at SAO, and John Bally at Colorado) to fund research studying gas flows in our Galaxy’s Center using the ACES survey (more below!) has been awarded! With the ALMA CMZ Exploration Survey, an approved ALMA […]
While pursuing her research project to map out and analyze the minimum spanning trees (MSTs) of clouds in the Galactic Center using CMZoom Data, MW Lab undergraduate student Stefania Schuler, supervised by Jen Wallace, made an intriguing discovery. G0.316-0.201 is the designation of an isolated high-mass star-forming region in the CMZoom survey and it is […]
The 3D CMZ project builds a top-down view of our Galaxy's Center.
Recent Publications
3D CMZ Papers Make a SplashThe Milky Way Lab’s 3D CMZ project is now published and making a splash! The four papers: Battersby et al. 2025a: 3D CMZ. I. Central Molecular Zone Overview Battersby et al. 2025b: 3D CMZ. II. Hierarchical Structure Analysis of the Central Molecular Zone Walker et al. 2025: 3D CMZ. III. Constraining the 3D Structure of […]
MW Lab Press Conference at the AAS January 2025A press conference at the 245th meeting of the AAS on January 14th, 2025 presented by Danya Alboslani, a post-baccalaureate researcher working in the Milky Way Laboratory with Prof. Battersby. X-ray Echoes Reveal the 3D Structure of Molecular Clouds in our Galaxy’s Center A creative new method uses decades of data to learn about the […]
The MW Lab at an Art Exhibit at the University of HartfordThe Milky Way Laboratory was invited to collaborate with Genevieve de Leon, the 2022-23 Koopman Distinguished Chair in the Painting Department at the University of Hartford, for an exhibition focused on the intersection between the Maya calendrical cycles and scientific studies of the cosmos. From the Milky Way Laboratory, H Perry Hatchfield, Jennifer Wallace, Dani […]
SgrE paper published!Graduate student Jennifer Wallace’s paper on molecular filaments observed towards the Sagittarius E star forming region has been published in ApJ! Congratulations, Jen! The Sgr E region is located near the dynamic intersection between the Galaxy’s Central Molecular Zone (CMZ) and the ‘far dust lane’, a stream of inflowing gas that helps transport material from the […]
Large collaborative ACES grant funded!Our collaborative NSF proposal (led by Prof. Betsy Mills at KU and co-PIed with Adam Ginsburg at UF, Qizhou Zhang at SAO, and John Bally at Colorado) to fund research studying gas flows in our Galaxy’s Center using the ACES survey (more below!) has been awarded! With the ALMA CMZ Exploration Survey, an approved ALMA […]
Meet the Milky Way Laboratory’s New Unofficial MascotWhile pursuing her research project to map out and analyze the minimum spanning trees (MSTs) of clouds in the Galactic Center using CMZoom Data, MW Lab undergraduate student Stefania Schuler, supervised by Jen Wallace, made an intriguing discovery. G0.316-0.201 is the designation of an isolated high-mass star-forming region in the CMZoom survey and it is […]