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An artist's impression of a planetary system appearing in colours of orange, yellow and brown.
‘Sandwich’ discovery offers new explanation for planet formation
Scientists have made a new discovery on how small planets might form. Researchers at the University of Warwick investigated the ‘birth environment’ of planets – areas of gas and dust that swirl around a central star – known as the protoplanetary disc...
A blue and green image of the Sun generated by AI. Solar prominences are visible.
Scientists are using deepfake AI images to understand the Sun’s atmosphere
Solar scientists are using deepfake AI images to unravel the mysteries of the Sun’s atmosphere. The research, being presented at the National Astronomy Meeting this week, was carried out as part of a collaboration between Northumbria University and...
A view of the Moon rising above Earth's horizon as seen from the International Space Station.
RAS welcomes Earth Space Sustainability Initiative
The Royal Astronomical Society welcomes the launch of the Earth Space Sustainability Initiative (ESSI), announced in London today at the Global Leaders on Space Sustainability Symposium. ESSI is underpinned by a Memorandum of Principles, signed by...
Garry Hunt
RAS Fellows Garry Hunt and Guy Hurst receive national honours
Two Fellows of the Royal Astronomical Society received awards in the first Birthday Honours announced by King Charles III. Professor Garry Hunt is made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services to Space Science and Business...
Professor Nick Kaiser
Professor Nick Kaiser, 1954-2023
The Royal Astronomical Society would like to express its deepest sympathy to the family, friends and colleagues of cosmologist Professor Nicholas (Nick) Kaiser, who has died at the age of 68. Kaiser began his study of astronomy at the University of...
An image of the star-forming region IC348 overlaid with an image of the tryptophan molecule.
Evidence of the amino acid tryptophan found in space
Using data from the Spitzer space observatory, Dr Susana Iglesias-Groth , a researcher from The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC), has found evidence for the existence of the amino acid tryptophan in the interstellar material in a nearby...