Cambridge astronomers play leading role as world's most ambitious sky survey begins
Astronomers at the University of Cambridge are celebrating the formal start of the Rubin Observatory's Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), which began capturing data last night from a mountaintop in Chile — a milestone the UK astronomy community has worked toward for more than a decade. Over the next ten years, the...
Astronomers find nearby planets to be small, strange, and utterly uninhabitable
A team led by researchers at the Institute of Astronomy has presented the most detailed portrait yet of the planetary system orbiting Barnard’s Star – the Sun’s closest neighbour after Alpha Centauri. Discovered in 2025, the four planets are all smaller than Earth and Venus, but larger than Mars – a type of planet not...
Paul Hewett (1956 - 2026)
It is with great sadness that the Institute of Astronomy announces the death of Professor Paul Hewett. Paul joined the Institute of Astronomy in 1982, following his doctoral thesis at the University of Edinburgh, and remained at the IoA for the entirety of his career. He was appointed Professor of Observational Cosmology...
Professor Vasily Belokurov awarded 2026 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics
IoA Professor Vasily Belokurov has been jointly awarded the 2026 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics with Amina Helmi from the University of Groningen and Rodrigo Ibata from the University of Strasbourg “for uncovering the fossil evidence of past mergers proving that the Milky Way galaxy was built through hierarchical accretion...
Professor Hiranya Peiris elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The Institute of Astronomy is pleased to congratulate Professor Hiranya Peiris on her election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the oldest and most prestigious learned societies in the United States. Induction ceremonies for the 2026 class will take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in October 2026...
Cheops discovers late bloomer from another era
In brief Scientists -- including IoA astronomer Dr Nic Walton -- used the European Space Agency's Cheops satellite to discover that the planetary system around the star LHS 1903 challenges current planet formation theories with the unusual order of its planets. Surprisingly, the most distant outer planet might be rocky and...
Scientists release the most detailed analysis yet on the expansion of the Universe
Scientists at the Dark Energy Survey have published their most detailed explanation yet of how the universe has expanded over the last six billion years, thanks to an unprecedented combination of cosmic measurements. The international group of researchers, including researchers from the University of Cambridge, is led by...
ALMA Reveals Teenage Years of New Worlds
New astronomical survey captures previously unknown growing pains in the lives of planets A team of astronomers (including Professor Mark Wyatt from the IoA) have, for the first time, captured a detailed snapshot of planetary systems in an era long shrouded in mystery. The ALMA survey to Resolve exoKuiper belt...
Professor Debora Sijacki Awarded RAS Eddington Medal
Professor Debora Sijacki has made outstanding contributions to our understanding of the role Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) play in the evolution of galaxies, clusters of galaxies, and the Universe. She pioneered the development of computational techniques and physical models to understand the complex interactions between...
Hubble sees asteroids colliding at nearby star for first time
In a historical milestone, catastrophic collisions in a nearby planetary system were witnessed for the first time by astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. As they observed the bright star Fomalhaut, the scientists saw the impact of massive objects around the star. The Fomalhaut system appears to be in a...
UK’s largest astronomy instrument begins journey to Chile
The University of Cambridge – through the Cavendish Laboratory, the Institute of Astronomy, and the Kavli Institute for Cosmology – has played a central role in the development of MOONS, the UK’s most complex astronomy instrument, now en route to Chile for installation on the Very Large Telescope. MOONS, the Multi-Object...
Professor Sera Markoff appointed Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at University of Cambridge
Professor Sera Markoff has been appointed Plumian Professor of Astronomy and Experimental Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. One of the oldest named professorships in the world – founded in 1704 after Sir Isaac Newton oversaw its creation – previous Plumian Professors include distinguished astronomers Sir Arthur...
Astronomers spot one of the largest spinning structures ever found in the Universe
Astronomers have identified one of the largest rotating structures ever reported: a “razor-thin” string of galaxies embedded in a giant spinning cosmic filament, 140 million light-years away. Their findings, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society , could offer valuable new insights into how...
Institute of Astronomy researcher awarded Schmidt Sciences fellowship to ensure AI benefits society
Institute of Astronomy researcher Dr Miles Cranmer is one of 28 researchers worldwide to receive an AI2050 fellowship from Schmidt Sciences, awarded to researchers studying how to fulfil AI’s potential to benefit humankind. The fellows will pursue efforts to solve challenging problems in AI by building AI scientists...
New telescope opens a window to the southern sky
A powerful new telescope has captured its first glimpse of the cosmos, and could transform our understanding of how stars, galaxies and black holes evolve. The 4MOST (4-metre Multi-Object Spectroscopic Telescope), mounted on the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope in Chile, achieved its ‘first light’ on 18...
Astronomers shed new light on the way galaxies shape the cosmos
A new study led by an international team, including researchers at the Institute of Astronomy, has been selected as an Editor’s Suggestion in Physical Review D -- a distinction awarded to only a small fraction of papers judged by the journal to be particularly important, interesting, and well written. The research explores...
Massive stars in metal-poor environment often have a close partner
Massive stars in distant, metal-poor galaxies are just as likely to have close companions as their counterparts in our own Milky Way, according to new research published today in Nature Astronomy. An international team of seventy astronomers, including researchers at the University of Cambridge, used the European Southern...
Dr Valeriya Korol awarded prestigious Ernest Rutherford Fellowship
Dr Valeriya Korol will join the Institute of Astronomy on a prestigious Ernest Rutherford Fellowship, awarded by UKRI’s Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) to explore how the Milky Way was assembled—using not just light, but also gravitational waves. She is one of seven early-career UK physicists to receive...
Astronomers find new evidence for planet around our closest solar twin
Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have found strong evidence of a giant planet orbiting a star in the stellar system closest to our own Sun. At just four light-years away from Earth, the Alpha Centauri triple star system has long been a target in the search for worlds beyond our solar system...
Astronomers find a giant hiding in the ‘fog’ around a young star
Astronomers have detected a giant exoplanet – between three and ten times the size of Jupiter – hiding in the swirling disc of gas and dust surrounding a young star. Earlier observations of this star, called MP Mus, suggested that it was all alone without any planets in orbit around it, surrounded by a featureless cloud of...