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Image showing blue fragments of a comet breaking up
Tail without a comet: the dusty remains of Comet ATLAS
A serendipitous flythrough of the tail of a disintegrated comet has offered scientists a unique opportunity to study these remarkable structures, in new research presented today at the National Astronomy Meeting 2021. Comet ATLAS fragmented just...
Artist's depiction of a blue neutron star surrounded by plasma tracing magnetic field lines
A bug’s life: millimetre-tall mountains on neutron stars
New models of neutron stars show that their tallest mountains may be only fractions of millimetres high, due to the huge gravity on the ultra-dense objects. The research is presented today at the National Astronomy Meeting 2021. Neutron stars are...
An illustration of material being ejected from the Sun (left) interacting with the magnetosphere of the Earth (right)
Planetary Shields Will Buckle Under Stellar Winds From Their Dying Stars
Any life identified on planets orbiting white dwarf stars almost certainly evolved after the star’s death, says a new study led by the University of Warwick that reveals the consequences of the intense and furious stellar winds that will batter a...
The SuperBIT ballon observatory in flight
SuperBIT: A Low-cost Balloon-Borne Telescope To Rival Hubble
Durham, Toronto and Princeton Universities have teamed up with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency to build a new kind of astronomical telescope. SuperBIT flies above 99.5% of the Earth’s atmosphere, carried by a helium balloon the size of a football...
A poster for the short film Beyond Visible Noise
Beyond Visible Noise: the ‘sounds of space’ on film
Space scientists, spoken word artists and filmmakers teamed up to create a new short film, ‘Beyond Visible Noise’, that will launch at the National Astronomy Meeting on Tuesday 20 July. Dr Martin Archer of Imperial College London will describe how...
RAS Public Lecture's
RAS Free Public Lectures - dont miss out!
Have YOU wondered? Ever wondered about the universe? Where do we sit within it? What would life be like on Mars, and could we survive there? From the formation of the galaxy, the Solar System and the Earth itself, the Royal Astronomical Society wants...
The entrance to the Royal Astronomical Society
Sir David Attenborough calls on Prime Minister to solve crisis threatening four of the UK’s learned societies
Sir David Attenborough has written to the Prime Minister to urge his intervention to safeguard the learned societies at Burlington House, whose contributions to the planet’s welfare Attenborough says are under severe threat from the grossly...
Artist's impression of a free-floating planet
Kepler telescope glimpses population of free-floating planets
Tantalising evidence has been uncovered for a mysterious population of “free-floating” planets, planets that may be alone in deep space, unbound to any host star. The results include four new discoveries that are consistent with planets of similar...
A portrait of Caroline Herschel with an illustration of planets in the solar system
Caroline Herschel Medal to honour women astronomers in UK and Germany
A new prize will celebrate outstanding research by women astrophysicists in the UK and Germany. The Caroline Herschel Medal, announced today by the UK government to mark the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, celebrates the longstanding...
The RAS logo next to an image of Dr Sheila Kanani and Aine O'Brien with their awards
RAS Staff Win 'Arthurs' for Outstanding Outreach Work
Congratulations to our Diversity Officer, Aine O'Brien, and our Education, Outreach and Diversity Officer, Dr Sheila Kanani, who have both won Sir Arthur Clarke Awards (or 'Arthurs') for their outstanding work in outreach. Dr Kanani won the Space...
The Milkyway overlaid with the RAS logo and text reading "2021 Caroline Herschel Lectureship Winner"
2021 Caroline Herschel Lectureship Winner Announced
The Caroline Herschel Prize Lectureship was established in 2018 by what is now the Herschel Society, in association with the Royal Astronomical Society, to celebrate Caroline’s memory by supporting promising female astronomers early in their careers...
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New observations of the most distant galaxies close in on cosmic dawn
New observations of six of the most distant galaxies currently known have helped to pinpoint the moment of first light in the Universe, known as ‘cosmic dawn’. The new work is published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, and puts a...