Press Releases

Tracing 13 billion years of history by the light of ancient quasars

Published on 08/03/2023

An internation team of astrophysicists (including IoA Professor Martin Haehnelt) have shed new light on the state of the universe 13 billion years ago by

Astronomers observe light bending around an isolated white dwarf

Published on 15/02/2023

Astronomers have directly measured the mass of a dead star using an effect known as gravitational microlensing, first predicted by Einstein in his General Theory of Relativity, and first observed by two Cambridge astronomers 100 years ago.

More clues to understand our early Universe

Published on 30/01/2023

An array of 350 radio telescopes in the Karoo desert of South Africa is getting closer to detecting “the Epoch of Re-ionization” &

UK-led robotic sky scanner reveals its first galactic fingerprint

Published on 13/12/2022

A major telescope upgrade has peered through to the distant Universe to reveal the spectra of a pair of galaxies 280 million light years away from Earth.

The spectra provide a first glimpse of the sky from the WHT Enhanced Area Velocity Explorer (WEAVE) – a unique upgrade to the William Herschel Telescope (WHT) in La Palma on the Canary Islands.

Non-detection of key signal allows astronomers to determine what the first galaxies were – and weren’t – like

Published on 05/12/2022

Researchers have been able to make some key determinations about the first galaxies to exist, in one of the first astrophysical studies of the period in the early Universe when the first stars and galaxies formed, known as the cosmic dawn.

Using data from India’s SARAS3 radio telescope, researchers led by the University of Cambridge were able to look at the very early Universe – just 200 million years after the Big Bang – and place limits on the mass and energy output of the first stars and galaxies.

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

Published on 23/11/2022

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.

Gaia Collaboration to Receive 2023 Berkeley Prize

Published on 09/11/2022

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.

CHANDRA SHOWS GIANT BLACK HOLE SPINS SLOWER THAN ITS PEERS

Published on 30/06/2022

Astronomers have made a record-breaking measurement of a black hole’s spin, one of two fundamental properties of black holes. NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory shows this black hole is spinning slower than most of its smaller cousins.

Fifth Gaia-ESO Data Release: the Catalogue with the Astrophysical Parameters for ~115,000 Stars

Published on 24/05/2022

ESO has now released the very major results from the Gaia-ESO survey. This 10+-year effort has been co-led by Cambridge (Gerry Gilmore) and Arcetri (Sofia Randich), with substantial support from a dedicated IoA team and CASU. The Cambridge Project Office included Clare Worley, Anna Hourihane and Anais Gonneau, with additional support in IoA over the years from Jim Lewis, Sergey Kosopov, Mike Irwin, Eduardo Gonzalez Solares, Maria Bergemann, Andy Casey, Keith Hawkins, Karin Lind, Paula Jofre, Thomas Masseron, George Kordopatis, and David Murphy.

Professor Nikku Madhusudhan awarded ERC Consolidator Grant

Published on 24/03/2022

Professor Nikku Madhusudhan, Professor of Astrophysics and Exoplanetary Science at the Institute of Astronomy, has been awarded a prestigious Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council.