Institute of Astronomy

News and Press Releases

The Kavli Prize in Astrophysics awarded to Andrew Fabian

Published on 27/05/2020 

The 2020 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics is awarded to astronomer and astrophysicist Andrew Fabian for his pioneering research and persistence in pursuing the mystery of how black holes influence their surrounding galaxies on both large and small scales.

New data tests 'theory of everything'

Published on 19/03/2020 

One of the biggest ideas in physics is the possibility that all known forces, particles, and interactions can be connected in one framework. String theory is arguably the best-known proposal for a 'theory of everything' that would tie together our understanding of the physical universe.

Prof. Martin J. Rees awarded Fritz Zwicky Prize for Astrophysics & Cosmology

Published on 06/03/2020 

The Inaugural Fritz Zwicky Prize for Astrophysics & Cosmology is awarded to Prof. Martin J. Rees (University of Cambridge, United Kingdom) for outstanding contributions to astrophysics and cosmology including seminal papers on active galaxies and black holes, the origin of gamma-ray bursts, the large-scale structure of the Universe, and the cosmic microwave background. This exceptionally broad oeuvre has been both prescient and enormously influential.

 

Large exoplanet could have the right conditions for life

Published on 27/02/2020 

Astronomers have found an exoplanet more than twice the size of Earth to be potentially habitable, opening the search for life to planets significantly larger than Earth but smaller than Neptune.

 

XMM-Newton maps black hole surroundings

Published on 21/01/2020 

 XMM-Newton maps black hole surroundings

 Material falling into a black hole casts X-rays out into space – and now, for the first
 time, ESA’s XMM-Newton X-ray observatory has used the reverberating echoes of
 this radiation to map the dynamic behaviour and surroundings of a black hole itself.