Skip to main content
COLLEGE OF LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF ASTROPHYSICS AND PLANETARY SCIENCE

Two students look through a telescope in the observatory.

The science of astronomy is an exciting and fast-paced field—ranging from interactions between individual atoms in space to the formation and evolution of the Universe itself.

The Department of Astrophysics and Planetary Science is proud to be a part of such a rich field of study. Through our courses, we seek to share an important and fascinating body of knowledge about the nature of the physical Universe—much of which has been discovered only in very recent years—via an active and engaged group of experienced teacher/scholars, who are themselves involved in the acquisition of new knowledge through their own research programs.

Chair: Edward L. Fitzpatrick, Ph.D.
Dept. of Astrophysics & Planetary Science
Villanova University
Mendel Hall, Rm. 458A
800 Lancaster Avenue
Villanova, PA 19085

OUR FACILITIES

Faculty, staff and students have access to a wide range of telescopes, observatories and more to aid their teaching, learning and research activities.

Learn More

NEWS & EVENTS

HEAR FROM OUR ALUMNI

Our 2022 graduates and other alumni give short testimonial videos about their experiences in the Astrophysics and Planetary Science department. MORE...

MARS GARDEN

Edward Guinan, PhD and Scott Engle, PhD, professors in the department of Astrophysics and Planetary Science, began the “Red Thumbs Mars Garden Project” to research the feasibility of growing sustainable food sources in sheltered greenhouses on the Red Planet. MORE...

REU GRANT

Scott Engle, PhD, assistant professor of Astrophysics and Planetary Science, and Amber Stuver, PhD, assistant professor of Physics, received a three-year, $227,000 Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site Grant from the National Science Foundation. MORE...

BINARY STARS

NASA’s Astrophysics Data Analysis Program awarded a $300,000 grant to Kelly Hambleton, PhD, assistant professor in Astrophysics and Planetary Science, to support her project, "Validating and Expanding the Tests of Asteroseismic Scaling Relations Using Red-Giant Binary Stars." MORE...

EDUCATION WITH IMPACT

 

AN EDUCATION IN THE LIBERAL ARTS AND SCIENCES promotes intellectual curiosity and rigor; instills the fundamentals of critical insight, mature judgment and independent thinking; and strengthens students’ sense of their moral responsibility for others and for the betterment of society.