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Astronomers have detected the most promising signs yet of a possible biosignature outside the solar system, although they remain cautious. Using data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), the astronomers, led by the University of Cambridge, have detected the chemical fingerprints of dimethyl sulfide (DMS) and/or...

Jeremiah Ostriker, one of the most influential astrophysicists of the 20th century, has died at the age of 87. His work reshaped our understanding of the Universe, revealing it to be dominated not just by stars and galaxies, but also by mysterious dark matter and dark energy. From 2001 to 2004, Ostriker held the Plumian...

The European Space Agency’s Gaia spacecraft has been powered down, after more than a decade spent gathering data that are now being used to unravel the secrets of our home galaxy. On 27 March 2025, Gaia’s control team at ESA’s European Space Operations Centre switched off the spacecraft’s subsystems and sent it into a ‘...

An international team of astrophysicists has imaged a large number of exocomet belts around nearby stars, and the tiny pebbles within them. The crystal-clear images show light being emitted from these millimetre-sized pebbles within the belts that orbit 74 nearby stars of a wide variety of ages – from those that are just...

The European Space Agency’s Milky Way-mapper Gaia has completed the sky-scanning phase of its mission, racking up more than three trillion observations of about two billion stars and other objects over the last decade to revolutionise the view of our home galaxy and cosmic neighbourhood. Launched on 19 December 2013, Gaia’...

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our colleague and friend, Sverre Aarseth, on December 28, 2024, at the age of 90. A former student of Fred Hoyle, Sverre was the earliest resident researcher at the Institute of Astronomy and remained a constant and influential presence in the department for many...

It is with great regret that we announce the recent death of one of our Emeritus Staff, Houshang Ardavan. Houshang, whose research focused on radiation mechanisms in pulsars, had a longstanding connection with the IoA since the 1970s. He was an emeritus Fellow of Murray Edwards College and formerly Director of Studies in...

Congratulations to Professor George Efstathiou, who has been awarded an honorary degree from Durham University. Honorary graduates exemplify the highest levels of achievement in their spheres of activity. Professor Karen O’Brien, Vice-Chancellor of Durham University, said: "Our honorary graduates are leaders in their...

A team of astronomers has found that Venus has never been habitable, despite decades of speculation that our closest planetary neighbour was once much more like Earth than it is today. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, studied the chemical composition of the Venusian atmosphere and inferred that its...

On the 16 th and 17 th of September was held in Paris the kick-off meeting for the Astrophysics Centre for Multimessenger studies in Europe - ACME. This HORIZON-INFRA-2023-SERV-01 EU-funded project coordinated by Centre national de la recherche scientifique CNRS aims to realize an ambitious coordinated European-wide...

Two exceptional female astrophysicists will take up Master’s degree places at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge this month as the first recipients of The Parasol Foundation Scholarship. This new award is launched by Murray Edwards College in partnership with Cambridge University’s Institute of Astronomy to encourage more...

A team of researchers has today (Friday 13th) been awarded more than £5m* to establish the Spatial Profiling and Annotation Centre of Excellence (SPACE) to open up access to their groundbreaking cancer mapping technology and establish collaborations with other scientists to enable them to investigate tumours in 3D. The...

Interferometry of stunning spiral arms around young star reveals gravity’s hand in planet formation Traditionally, planet formation has been described as a “bottom-up” process, as dust grains gradually collect into bigger conglomerations over tens of millions of years: from microns, to centimeters, to meters, to kilometers...

More than 20 national space projects have been announced today by DSIT Secretary of State Peter Kyle, on the opening day of the Farnborough International Airshow The projects, worth £33 million, come from the UK Space Agency’s National Space Innovation Programme – designed to invest in high-potential technologies, drive...

An international team (including IoA astronomers Laura Rogers and Amy Bonsor) have recently found hundreds of “polluted” white dwarf stars in our home galaxy, the Milky Way. These are white dwarfs caught actively consuming planets in their orbit. They are a valuable resource for studying the interiors of these distant...

We are pleased to announce that Professor George Efstathiou (IoA director 2004-2008) is awarded the Albert Einstein Medal 2024. The medal is awarded to deserving individuals for outstanding scientific findings, works, or publications related to Albert Einstein. The award ceremony will take place on October 9, 2024 during...

Lord Martin Rees (born in England in 1942) is one of the most distinguished theoretical physicists of our time, with seminal contributions in a large number of areas, from cosmology and the formation of the first stars and galaxies to high-energy astrophysics, to the formation and evolution of massive black holes in the...

From a vantage point high in the Chilean Andes, cosmologists with the Simons Observatory have begun searching for evidence of what happened in the minuscule fraction of a second that followed the Big Bang. The observatory, which just completed its main construction phase, will make some of the most precise measurements...

Scientists from the Cambridge University have suggested that molecules vital to the development of life could have formed from a process known as graphitisation. Once verified in the laboratory, the finding could allow scientists to recreate plausible conditions for life's emergence. It has long been debated how the...

In a series of studies, a team of astronomers (including IoA postdoc Álvaro Ribas) has shed new light on the fascinating and complex process of planet formation. The stunning images, captured using the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT) in Chile, represent one of the largest ever surveys of...