skip to content
Home

Institute of Astronomy

 

News Subscribe to News

Read more at: Webb reveals that galaxy mergers are the solution to early Universe mystery

Webb reveals that galaxy mergers are the solution to early Universe mystery

18 January 2024

weic2402a-2.jpg One of the key missions of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope is to probe the early Universe. Now, the unmatched resolution and sensitivity of Webb’s NIRCam instrument have revealed, for the first time, what lies in the local environment of galaxies in the very early Universe. This has solved one...

Read more at: Bouncing comets could deliver building blocks for life to exoplanets

Bouncing comets could deliver building blocks for life to exoplanets

16 November 2023

How did the molecular building blocks for life end up on Earth? One long-standing theory is that they could have been delivered by comets. Now, researchers from the IoA have shown how comets could deposit similar building blocks to other planets in the galaxy. In order to deliver organic material, comets need to be...

Read more at: MPhil in Planetary Sciences and Life in the Universe launched

MPhil in Planetary Sciences and Life in the Universe launched

28 September 2023

This week sees the launch of Cambridge’s new MPhil qualification in Planetary Sciences and Life in the Universe . The new programme will be jointly taught and led by astronomers, chemists, zoologists, plant biologists, and earth scientists. Applications for the course are now open . The MPhil is a 10-month cross-...

Read more at: Methane and carbon dioxide found in atmosphere of habitable-zone exoplanet

Methane and carbon dioxide found in atmosphere of habitable-zone exoplanet

28 September 2023

Methane and carbon dioxide found in atmosphere of habitable-zone exoplanet An international team of astronomers led by the University of Cambridge has used data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope to discover methane and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of K2-18 b, an exoplanet in the ‘Goldilocks zone’. This...

Read more at: IoA Researcher awarded ERC Starting Grant

IoA Researcher awarded ERC Starting Grant

28 September 2023

Dr Suhail Dhawan is one of three researchers at the University of Cambridge to be awarded this prestigious funding The ERC project is aimed at developing new methods to measure the present day expansion rate of the universe, also known as the Hubble Constant, and its directional dependence to search for new fundamental...

Read more at: More clues to understand our early Universe

More clues to understand our early Universe

31 January 2023

An array of 350 radio telescopes in the Karoo desert of South Africa is getting closer to detecting “the Epoch of Re-ionization” — the era just after the first stars ignited and galaxies began to bloom . In a paper accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal , the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array ( HERA )...

Read more at: Dust plumes observed being pushed into interstellar space by intense starlight
image cannot be loaded

Dust plumes observed being pushed into interstellar space by intense starlight

16 January 2023

Astronomers have observed directly for the first time how intense light from stars can ‘push’ matter. Researchers from the universities of Cambridge and Sydney made the observation when tracking a giant plume of dust generated by the violent interactions between two massive stars. The results , made using infrared images...

Read more at: Study of ‘polluted’ white dwarfs finds that stars and planets grow together
image cannot be loaded

Study of ‘polluted’ white dwarfs finds that stars and planets grow together

16 January 2023

A team of astronomers have found that planet formation in our young Solar System started much earlier than previously thought, with the building blocks of planets growing at the same time as their parent star. A study of some of the oldest stars in the Universe suggests that the building blocks of planets like Jupiter and...

Read more at: Gaia Collaboration to Receive 2023 Berkeley Prize
image cannot be loaded

Gaia Collaboration to Receive 2023 Berkeley Prize

13 January 2023

The Gaia collaboration, which is responsible for the spacecraft that is currently building the largest and most precise three-dimensional map of our galaxy, will receive the 2023 Lancelot M. Berkeley − New York Community Trust Prize for Meritorious Work in Astronomy . Bestowed annually since 2011 by the American...

Read more at: New from Webb Telescope: An Exoplanet Atmosphere as Never Seen Before
image cannot be loaded

New from Webb Telescope: An Exoplanet Atmosphere as Never Seen Before

11 January 2023

Known for beaming stunning images back to Earth, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope just scored another first: a molecular and chemical portrait of a distant world’s skies. The telescope’s array of highly sensitive instruments was trained on the atmosphere of a “hot Saturn” – a planet about as massive as Saturn orbiting a...

User login

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge