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Each year the RAS recognises the best PhD theses in astronomy and geophysics completed in the UK. Three prizes are available: the Michael Penston prize for astronomy, the Keith Runcorn prize for geophysics, and the Patricia Tomkins prize for...

Members of the RAS Council are elected by ballot of the Fellowship, with the result announced at the Annual General Meeting that in 2021 will be held on Friday 14 May. Fellows are invited to submit nominations, or to consider having yourself...

New research has found that the majority of stars in our galaxy’s central bulge formed in a single burst of star formation more than 10 billion years ago. To reach this conclusion, astronomers surveyed millions of stars across 200 square degrees of...

This month the RAS Supermassive podcast looks at humans in space. Our presenters Becky Smethurst and Izzie Clarke are (very) excited to talk to superstar astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti about her work as an astronaut - and where we're hoping to send...

Astronomers from The University of Western Australia’s node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) have developed a new way to study star formation in galaxies from the dawn of time to today. The new work appears in a paper...

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences today announced the winners of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Physics, recognising seminal discoveries about the creation and location of black holes. Professor Sir Roger Penrose of the University of Oxford receives...

The Royal Astronomical Society offers its condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Professor John Barrow, who has died at the age of 67. Barrow’s many awards and prizes included the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society, which he...

It's almost one year since the launch of the bicentennial quilt project. A lot has happened in that time and we've suffered a few setbacks along the way but through it all we have consistently been amazed by people's support, enthusiasm and creative...

This month's episode of RAS Supermassive is packed! Join Izzie Clarke and Dr Becky Smethurst as they travel through our solar system; where exactly have we sent probes and rovers? Plus, they speak with Professor Jane Greaves, the scientist behind...

Astronomers have shown that water vapour can potentially be detected above impenetrable clouds in the atmospheres of exoplanets, with a cutting-edge technique described in a paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The new method...

Dr Sheila Kanani, the RAS Education, Outreach and Diversity Officer, has won the 2020 Europlanet Prize for Public Engagement with Planetary Science. Sheila is a planetary physicist, broadcaster, comedian, author and teacher, with a background in...

An international team of astronomers, led by Professor Jane Greaves of Cardiff University, today announced the discovery of a rare molecule – phosphine – in the clouds of Venus. On Earth, this gas is only made industrially, or by microbes that thrive...