Institute of Astronomy

News and Press Releases

Dr Nikku Madhusudhan wins 2019 MERAC Prize of the European Astronomical Society.

Published on 18/03/2019 

The 2019 MERAC Prize of the European Astronomical Society (EAS) for the Best Early Career Researcher in Theoretical Astrophysics is award

Moonwatch at IoA -- 16th March

Published on 16/03/2019 

Please note that tonight's "Moonwatch" event (part of the Cambridge Science Festival) is weather dependent! If the clouds do not allow observing to take place, the event will be cancelled.

You can phone us on +44 (0)1223 337548 after 5pm, or check our Twitter page (https://twitter.com/cambridge_astro) to find out whether the event will be taking place.

 

Double star system flips planet-forming disk into pole position

Published on 15/01/2019 

New research involving IoA researchers has found the first confirmed example of a double star system that has flipped its surrounding disc to a position that leaps over the orbital plane of those stars. The international team of astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/sub-millimeter Array (ALMA) to obtain high-resolution images of the Asteroid belt-sized disc.
 

Dark Energy Survey completes six-year mission

Published on 08/01/2019 

After scanning in depth about a quarter of the southern skies for six years and cataloguing hundreds of millions of distant galaxies, the Dark Energy Survey (DES) will finish taking data on January 9 2019.

Sapphires and Rubies in the Sky

Published on 19/12/2018 

Researchers at the Universities of Zurich and Cambridge have discovered a new, exotic class of planets outside our solar system. These so-called super-Earths were formed at high temperatures close to their host star and contain high quantities of calcium, aluminium and their oxides - including sapphire and ruby.