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Image of the Bubble Nebula overlaid with the RAS logo in the top right corner and text in the centre reading "GCSE Poster Competition 2023 Winners Announced!"
RAS GCSE Poster Competition winners announced
The RAS GCSE Competition, sponsored by Winton, provides a chance for students studying GCSE Astronomy to showcase their astronomy knowledge. Students were invited to present an astronomy topic of their choice as an academic style poster for a chance...
Professor Richard Ellis
Professor Richard Ellis wins Gruber Prize for Cosmology
The 2023 Gruber Prize in Cosmology recognises the outstanding work of Professor Richard Ellis CBE in studying the evolution of galaxies and the universe from early in its history, and designing the instruments to make this possible. The Prize is...
Ambassador Miguel Berger and Professor Gillian Wright stand side by side. Prof. Wright is holding a small box containing the medal and a certificate.
Professor Gillian Wright awarded Caroline Herschel Medal
Professor Gillian Wright CBE was awarded the 2023 Caroline Herschel Medal in a ceremony that took place on Thursday 13 April 2023 at the residence of the German Ambassador to the United Kingdom. In attendance were representatives from the German...
Patrick Poitevin looking through a telescope eyepiece
Prime Minister awards Derbyshire astronomer Points of Light award
An astronomer from Derbyshire who set up a charity with his late wife to donate astronomy kits for children with special educational needs has received Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s daily Points of Light award. Patrick Poitevin and his late wife...
An image of the Milky Way warped around a small black circle at the centre of the image.
Light-bending gravity reveals one of the biggest black holes ever found
A team of astronomers have discovered one of the biggest black holes ever found, taking advantage of a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. The findings are published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The team, led by Durham...
The artist's impression shows a large, grey rocky body in outer space with a bright yellow-white star in the background. Faint stars are also seen in the background.
Redness of Neptunian asteroids sheds light on early Solar System
Asteroids sharing their orbits with the planet Neptune have been observed to exist in a broad spectrum of red colour, implying the existence of two populations of asteroids in the region, according to a new study by an international team of...
The RAS Presidential Portrait of Dame Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell Awarded Jules Janssen Prize
The Société Astronomique de France (the French Astronomical Society – SAF) has awarded its prestigious international astronomy prize – the Jules Janssen Prize – to Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, a former President of the Royal Astronomical...
Prof. S. M. Razaullah Ansari and Prof. S. Zillur Rahman
Professor S. M. Razaullah Ansari, 1932-2023
The Royal Astronomical Society offers its condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Professor Shaikh Mohammad Razaullah Ansari, who has died at the age of 90. Prof. Ansari was a well-known historian of science, physicist, astronomer and...
The artist's impression shows a source of bright yellow-white light against the dark backdrop of space. Coming from the centre of the light source is a conical jet that is blue in colour. Faint, smaller galaxies are seen in the background of the image,
Galaxy changes classification as jet changes direction
A team of international astronomers have discovered a galaxy that has changed classification due to unique activity within its core. The galaxy, named PBC J2333.9-2343, was previously classified as a radio galaxy, but the new research has revealed...
The RAS logo in black on a white background.
Royal Astronomical Society announces all journals to publish as open access from 2024
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) has today announced that all journals published by the Society will be Open Access (OA) from January 2024. This move will enable everyone in the global community to have free, immediate, and unrestricted access to...
Professor Mike Edmunds
RAS President writes to government about 'surrender' of R&D funding
Last week the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy returned £1.6billion of funds to the Treasury, which had previously been allocated for association to the EU's Horizon Europe programme or for domestic alternatives. Professor Mike...
An image of two galaxies intertwined against the dark backdrop of space. Both of the galaxies are light in colour, with touched of lilac, pink and red running throughout. Very distant galaxies are seen in the background, most of them spiral shaped and much smaller than the two interacting galaxies.
New discovery sheds light on very early supermassive black holes
Astronomers from the University of Texas and the University of Arizona have discovered a rapidly growing black hole in one of the most extreme galaxies known in the very early Universe. The discovery of the galaxy and the black hole at its centre...