Meteorite causes rethink of how and when our solar system formed
Fri 11 Jul 11:30: Unveiling the shape of the ionizing spectrum of galaxies
Abstract not available
- Speaker: Anne Verhamme (University of Geneva)
- Friday 11 July 2025, 11:30-12:30
- Venue: Ryle Seminar Room, KICC + online.
- Series: Galaxies Discussion Group; organiser: Sandro Tacchella.
Rare find: interstellar visitor seen blazing through our Solar System
Nature, Published online: 03 July 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-02141-5
The comet-like body called either C/2025 N1 or 3I/ATLAS is now zipping past Jupiter.Hubble Observations Give “Missing” Globular Cluster Time to Shine
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Hubble Observations Give “Missing” Globular Cluster Time to Shine This NASA Hubble Space Telescope image features a dense and dazzling array of blazing stars that form globular cluster ESO 591-12. NASA, ESA, and D. Massari (INAF — Osservatorio di Astrofisica e Scienza dello Spazio); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
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A previously unexplored globular cluster glitters with multicolored stars in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image. Globular clusters like this one, called ESO 591-12 or Palomar 8, are spherical collections of tens of thousands to millions of stars tightly bound together by gravity. Globular clusters generally form early in the galaxies’ histories in regions rich in gas and dust. Since the stars form from the same cloud of gas as it collapses, they typically hover around the same age. Strewn across this image of ESO 591-12 are a number of red and blue stars. The colors indicate their temperatures; red stars are cooler, while the blue stars are hotter.
Hubble captured the data used to create this image of ESO 591-12 as part of a study intended to resolve individual stars of the entire globular cluster system of the Milky Way. Hubble revolutionized the study of globular clusters since earthbound telescopes are unable to distinguish individual stars in the compact clusters. The study is part of the Hubble Missing Globular Clusters Survey, which targets 34 confirmed Milky Way globular clusters that Hubble has yet to observe.
The program aims to provide complete observations of ages and distances for all of the Milky Way’s globular clusters and investigate fundamental properties of still-unexplored clusters in the galactic bulge or halo. The observations will provide key information on the early stages of our galaxy, when globular clusters formed.
Explore MoreHubble’s Star Clusters
Exploring the Birth of Stars
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claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
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Contract signed for construction of CTAO-South roads and telescope foundations
This week, a major contract, worth several million Euros, has been signed between ESO and a consortium of Chilean companies for the construction of telescope foundations for the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory’s (CTAO’s) southern hemisphere array (CTAO-South) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The contract includes more than 50 foundations for CTAO-South telescopes, as well as approximately 17 km of roads connecting these foundations to the support facilities. ESO, a founding member of the CTAO European Research Infrastructure Consortium and host of its southern array, signed the contract on behalf of this international organisation. The construction of this important civil infrastructure is expected to take one year, paving the way for the first telescopes to be erected on site. Therefore, this milestone marks the beginning of the array’s construction in the southern hemisphere.
The CTAO will be the largest and most powerful ground-based observatory for gamma-ray astronomy. It is composed of two telescope arrays—CTAO-South, and CTAO-North in La Palma, Spain. One located in the southern hemisphere and the other in the northern hemisphere, both will keep a watchful eye out for an elusive form of radiation called Cherenkov radiation. When cosmic gamma rays reach the atmosphere and interact with it, they generate a cascade of ultra-energetic particles; as they move through the air, these particles create a faint blue flash of “Cherenkov light”. By analysing this faint light, astronomers can infer much about the cosmic sources, like supermassive black holes and supernova remnants, that emitted the original gamma rays.
To capture Cherenkov radiation, the CTAO-South site will consist of 51 individual telescopes of different sizes to detect both bright and faint events. The site will cover an area of about 3 square kilometres and is located about 10 kilometres away from Cerro Paranal, the home of ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Once built, the CTAO will make data and analysis software publicly available for the entire global scientific community to share, strengthening worldwide collaboration and helping to answer questions across both astronomy and particle physics, like the hunt for dark matter, the mechanics of supernovae, and how dense neutron stars collide.
The CTAO will be the first observatory of its kind, able to observe the high-energy Universe with unparalleled sensitivity. Its location near Cerro Paranal, far from light pollution sources and under one of the world’s darkest and most pristine night skies, is key to detecting the extremely faint Cherenkov blue light.
More informationIn January 2025, the CTAO was established as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) by the European Commission. The Founding Members of the CTAO ERIC are Austria, the Czech Republic, the European Southern Observatory (ESO), France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, and Spain. Additionally, Japan is a Strategic Partner, and the accession of Switzerland and Croatia as Founding Members is being processed.
The landscape of binary core-collapse supernova progenitors and the late emergence of Wolf-Rayet winds
The landscape of binary core-collapse supernova progenitors and the late emergence of Wolf-Rayet winds
Stunning image of a supernova reveals a dead star that exploded twice
Interstellar visitor spotted hurtling through the solar system
New Horizons images enable first test of interstellar navigation
Bioplastic habitats on Mars could be built from algae
Interstellar comet hurtling through solar system named 3I/ATLAS
Carbonate formation and fluctuating habitability on Mars
Nature, Published online: 02 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09161-1
A modelling study suggests that Mars had a desert-like climate with intermittent liquid-water oases regulated by a negative feedback among solar luminosity, liquid water and carbonate formation.Tue 08 Jul 11:15: Optimizing Data Delivery and Scalable HI Profile Classification for the SKA Era: Infrastructure and Science Challenges at the Spanish SRC
This talk presents ongoing work at the Spanish SKA Regional Centre (esSRC) in the context of the SRC Net 0.1. The first part focuses on the development of efficient data delivery techniques from the distributed Rucio-based storage system to the SRC infrastructure and, ultimately, to user workspaces. Several approaches have been evaluated to support science-ready access, yet current solutions often involve unnecessary data duplication in user areas, resulting in increased usage of storage and computational resources. To address this, we have prototyped mechanisms based on file linking, caching, and data reuse, enabling more efficient access paths for users. While these methods show promising improvements in terms of performance and resource usage, challenges remain, particularly in terms of orchestration, scalability, and compatibility with existing workload managers. The second part presents advances in the automated classification of neutral hydrogen (HI) profiles using machine learning methods, building on previous work [Parra et al., 2024, arXiv:2501.11657]. We outline a roadmap for extending these techniques to handle the data volumes expected from the SKA Observatory. This includes developing scalable pipelines capable of ingesting and processing large spectral datasets in a reproducible and efficient manner, and adapting the classification models to cope with the diversity and complexity of the SKA data products.
- Speaker: Dr. Manu Parra-Royón (Astrophysics Institute of Andalucia - Spanish National Research Council)
- Tuesday 08 July 2025, 11:15-12:00
- Venue: Coffee area, Battcock Centre.
- Series: Hills Coffee Talks; organiser: Charles Walker.
Molecular gas in a low-dust galaxy hints at how stars formed in the early Universe
Nature, Published online: 02 July 2025; doi:10.1038/d41586-025-01979-z
The James Webb Space Telescope has detected molecular hydrogen in a nearby galaxy that has a very low proportion of metals. This implies that considerable quantities of molecular gas can form at low metallicities, and provides insight into similarly metal-poor galaxies in the early Universe.Close-in planet induces flares on its host star
Nature, Published online: 02 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s41586-025-09236-z
Planet-induced flares on HIP 67522, a 17 million-year-old G dwarf star with two known close-in planets, were detected.How NASA’s SPHEREx Mission Will Share Its All-Sky Map With the World
5 min read
How NASA’s SPHEREx Mission Will Share Its All-Sky Map With the World NASA’s SPHEREx mission will map the entire sky in 102 different wavelengths, or colors, of infrared light. This image of the Vela Molecular Ridge was captured by SPHEREx and is part of the mission’s first ever public data release. The yellow patch on the right side of the image is a cloud of interstellar gas and dust that glows in some infrared colors due to radiation from nearby stars. NASA/JPL-Caltech
NASA’s newest astrophysics space telescope launched in March on a mission to create an all-sky map of the universe. Now settled into low-Earth orbit, SPHEREx (Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization, and Ices Explorer) has begun delivering its sky survey data to a public archive on a weekly basis, allowing anyone to use the data to probe the secrets of the cosmos.
“Because we’re looking at everything in the whole sky, almost every area of astronomy can be addressed by SPHEREx data,” said Rachel Akeson, the lead for the SPHEREx Science Data Center at IPAC. IPAC is a science and data center for astrophysics and planetary science at Caltech in Pasadena, California.
Almost every area of astronomy can be addressed by SPHEREx data.Rachel Akeson
SPHEREx Science Data Center Lead
Other missions, like NASA’s now-retired WISE (Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer), have also mapped the entire sky. SPHEREx builds on this legacy by observing in 102 infrared wavelengths, compared to WISE’s four wavelength bands.
By putting the many wavelength bands of SPHEREx data together, scientists can identify the signatures of specific molecules with a technique known as spectroscopy. The mission’s science team will use this method to study the distribution of frozen water and organic molecules — the “building blocks of life” — in the Milky Way.
This animation shows how NASA’s SPHEREx observatory will map the entire sky — a process it will complete four times over its two-year mission. The telescope will observe every point in the sky in 102 different infrared wavelengths, more than any other all-sky survey. SPHEREx’s openly available data will enable a wide variety of astronomical studies. Credit: NASA/JPL-CaltechThe SPHEREx science team will also use the mission’s data to study the physics that drove the universe’s expansion following the big bang, and to measure the amount of light emitted by all the galaxies in the universe over time. Releasing SPHEREx data in a public archive encourages far more astronomical studies than the team could do on their own.
“By making the data public, we enable the whole astronomy community to use SPHEREx data to work on all these other areas of science,” Akeson said.
NASA is committed to the sharing of scientific data, promoting transparency and efficiency in scientific research. In line with this commitment, data from SPHEREx appears in the public archive within 60 days after the telescope collects each observation. The short delay allows the SPHEREx team to process the raw data to remove or flag artifacts, account for detector effects, and align the images to the correct astronomical coordinates.
The team publishes the procedures they used to process the data alongside the actual data products. “We want enough information in those files that people can do their own research,” Akeson said.
One of the early test images captured by NASA’s SPHEREx mission in April 2025. This image shows a section of sky in one infrared wavelength, or color, that is invisible to the human eye but is represented here in a visible color. This particular wavelength (3.29 microns) reveals a cloud of dust made of a molecule similar to soot or smoke. NASA/JPL-Caltech This image from NASA’s SPHEREx shows the same region of space in a different infrared wavelength (0.98 microns), once again represented by a color that is visible to the human eye. The dust cloud has vanished because the molecules that make up the dust — polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — do not radiate light in this color. NASA/JPL-CaltechDuring its two-year prime mission, SPHEREx will survey the entire sky twice a year, creating four all-sky maps. After the mission reaches the one-year mark, the team plans to release a map of the whole sky at all 102 wavelengths.
In addition to the science enabled by SPHEREx itself, the telescope unlocks an even greater range of astronomical studies when paired with other missions. Data from SPHEREx can be used to identify interesting targets for further study by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, refine exoplanet parameters collected from NASA’s TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite), and study the properties of dark matter and dark energy along with ESA’s (European Space Agency’s) Euclid mission and NASA’s upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope.
The SPHEREx mission’s all-sky survey will complement data from other NASA space telescopes. SPHEREx is illustrated second from the right. The other telescope illustrations are, from left to right: the Hubble Space Telescope, the retired Spitzer Space Telescope, the retired WISE/NEOWISE mission, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the upcoming Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. NASA/JPL-Caltech
The IPAC archive that hosts SPHEREx data, IRSA (NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive), also hosts pointed observations and all-sky maps at a variety of wavelengths from previous missions. The large amount of data available through IRSA gives users a comprehensive view of the astronomical objects they want to study.
“SPHEREx is part of the entire legacy of NASA space surveys,” said IRSA Science Lead Vandana Desai. “People are going to use the data in all kinds of ways that we can’t imagine.”
NASA’s Office of the Chief Science Data Officer leads open science efforts for the agency. Public sharing of scientific data, tools, research, and software maximizes the impact of NASA’s science missions. To learn more about NASA’s commitment to transparency and reproducibility of scientific research, visit science.nasa.gov/open-science. To get more stories about the impact of NASA’s science data delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for the NASA Open Science newsletter.
By Lauren Leese
Web Content Strategist for the Office of the Chief Science Data Officer
The SPHEREx mission is managed by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory for the agency’s Astrophysics Division within the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters. BAE Systems in Boulder, Colorado, built the telescope and the spacecraft bus. The science analysis of the SPHEREx data will be conducted by a team of scientists located at 10 institutions in the U.S., two in South Korea, and one in Taiwan. Caltech in Pasadena managed and integrated the instrument. The mission’s principal investigator is based at Caltech with a joint JPL appointment. Data will be processed and archived at IPAC at Caltech. The SPHEREx dataset will be publicly available at the NASA-IPAC Infrared Science Archive. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.
To learn more about SPHEREx, visit:
Media ContactsCalla Cofield
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
626-808-2469
calla.e.cofield@jpl.nasa.gov
Amanda Adams
Office of the Chief Science Data Officer
256-683-6661
amanda.m.adams@nasa.gov
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Institute Coordinator
The Kavli Institute for Cosmology, Cambridge (KICC), affiliated with the Department of Physics, the Institute of Astronomy (IoA) and the Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics (DAMTP), seeks to appoint an enthusiastic and highly organised Institute Coordinator. This is an exciting opportunity to join a vibrant scientific community and play a key role in the coordination of the Institute's academic and administrative activities.
The successful candidate will support the Director of KICC and oversee the smooth operation of the Institute's internal processes. You will be responsible for coordinating a diverse portfolio of activities including the administration of funding calls, recruitment of postdoctoral fellows, visitor programmes, scientific events, financial processes, and internal and external communications. You will also act as the first point-of-contact for KICC and provide a professional PA service to the Director.
This is a dynamic role requiring strong communication, organisational and interpersonal skills, the ability to manage competing priorities, and experience of working with minimal supervision. You will be liaising regularly with academic staff, visiting scientists, University departments, and external partners, and must be confident in building effective working relationships at all levels. Applicants should be educated to degree level, or have equivalent practical experience, and be proficient in the use of standard IT applications including Microsoft Office. Experience in event or project coordination and financial or HR processes would be an advantage.
Why Join Us?
At the University of Cambridge, we offer a rewarding and supportive work environment with:
- Generous Leave: 36 days annually (including bank holidays, pro rata for part-time staff).
- Career Development: Access to University training and annual development reviews.
- Work-Life Balance: Hybrid working and a collaborative, inclusive culture.
- Family-Friendly Policies: Extensive parental leave, workplace nurseries, and childcare support.
- Financial Security: Competitive pay with annual increases and a generous pension scheme.
- Exclusive Perks: Travel benefits and discounts at over 2,000 retailers.
- Join a world-class institution committed to research, innovation, and your personal growth.
Informal enquiries about the role may be directed to the IoA Departmental Administrator via departmental.administrator@ast.cam.ac.uk.
If you have any questions regarding the application process, please contact HR@ast.cam.ac.uk.
While the role is ideally suited to being filled on a full-time basis, we are open to considering part-time or job share arrangements, with a minimum of 0.8 FTE.
Click the 'Apply' button below to register an account with our recruitment system (if you have not already) and apply online.
Closing Date: Thursday, 24 July 2025 at 23:59 BST
Please note, should we receive a high volume of applications for this vacancy, we reserve the right to close the advert earlier than the stated closing date. Conversely, we may also extend the closing date if necessary to ensure a robust and inclusive recruitment process.
Interview Date: Week commencing 11 August 2025
Please ensure that you outline how you match the criteria for the post and why you are applying for this role on the online application form.
Please include details of your referees, including email address and phone number, one of which must be your most recent line manager.
Please quote reference LG46508 on your application and in any correspondence about this vacancy.
The University actively supports equality, diversity and inclusion and encourages applications from all sections of society.
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