Journal News

A bright multicoloured array of swirls. The core of the Milky Way is depicted by the darkest red blobs and swirls, with orange eddies and flows visible around the darker areas. The rest of the image is varying shades of blue and green.
Astronomers create new microwave map of the Milky Way and beyond
An international team of scientists have successfully mapped the magnetic field of our galaxy, the Milky Way, using telescopes that observe the sky in the microwave range. The new research is published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Soc…
Image of a star field with a red square in the centre highlighting a small group of stars.
Astronomers discover eight new super-hot stars
An international team of astronomers has discovered eight of the hottest stars in the universe, all with surfaces hotter than 100,000 degrees Celsius. The work was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The paper is based on…
Royal Astronomical Society logo
Update on the RAS and JWST
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) recently wrote to the UK Space Agency, the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA to express its concerns about the original JWST naming process, the apparent failure to investigate James Webb’s background and the d…
The Milky Way in the night sky. A silhouette of a telescope is visible in the foreground.
Three quarters of major observatories affected by light pollution
Researchers from Italy, Chile and Galicia have studied and compared the light pollution levels at major astronomical observatories across the world. The study shows that light is polluting the sky above most observatories and that immediate action is…
2022 Geophysical Journal International Student Author Award Winners announced
Three student authors, Gauthier Guerin, Paul Alberto Jarrin Tamayo and Solvi Thrastarson, have jointly won the 2022 Geophysical Journal International student author prizes. The winning authors each received a cash prize and a certificate of recogniti…
A yellow gold hued spiral galaxy against the blue-black backdrop of space.
Research unveils birthplace of gold-rich stars
A team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame and Tohoku University have revealed the birthplace of so-called ‘gold-rich’ stars – stars with an abundance of heavy elements beyond iron, including the "jewellery store elements", gold and plat…
Three large blobs against the black backdrop of space. The one on the left is yellow, the middle is hot pink and shaped like a mushroom, and the one on the right is also yellow. The yellow blobs are galaxies and the pink is the radio jet being emitted from RAD12.
Black hole discovered firing jet at neighbouring galaxy
With the help of citizen scientists, a team of astronomers has discovered a unique black hole spewing a fiery jet at another galaxy. The black hole is hosted by a galaxy around one billion light years away from Earth named RAD12. The work was publish…
a large orange star is seen exploding, with layers of orange fiery looking material being blown outwards as well as rays of high energy.
Red Alert: massive stars sound warning they are about to go supernova
Astronomers from Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Montpellier have devised an ‘early warning’ system to sound the alert when a massive star is about to end its life in a supernova explosion. The work was published in Monthly Not…
A world map scattered with different coloured circles. The circles are blue, orange and green and appear translucent against the map.
Hunga Volcano special issue of GJI: connection between atmosphere and Earth
A paper accepted for the special issue of Geophysical Journal International (GJI) on the 2022 January 15 eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano examines the connection between the atmosphere and the solid Earth highlighted by this event.…
The SDV tide gauge at Macau. A wall with very obvious water markings. Behind the wall are several buildings. Water beneath the wall and markings is dark and still.
Hunga Volcano special issue of GJI: analysis of tsunamis in Lingding Bay
The 2022 January 15 eruption of the Hunga volcano in Tonga caused tsunamis worldwide. A paper by Wang et al in the special issue of Geophysical Journal International (GJI) on the 2022 Hunga eruption highlights how atmospheric pressure waves created s…
A composite image made of two images. The image on the left is a 3D model of the Cat's Eye Nebula, a nebula made of tendrils of blue and light orange hued gas. The image on the left is an image of the Cat's Eye Nebula in 2D, imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.
Cat’s Eye Nebula seen in 3D
Researchers have created the first computer-generated three-dimensional model of the Cat's Eye Nebula, revealing a pair of symmetric rings encircling the nebula’s outer shell. The rings’ symmetry suggests they were formed by a precessing jet, providi…
A silhouette of a skygazer against a green-hued night sky, with the Milky Way visible.
Hidden gems from 1926 found in Geophysical journal archive
Hidden treasures can be found in the archive of the Geophysical Supplement to the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (1922-1957) including, for example, detailed observations of a meteor which descended over Yorkshire in 1926. In the…