Announcements

Stars need a partner to spin Universe’s brightest explosions
When it comes to the biggest and brightest explosions seen in the Universe, University of Warwick astronomers have found that it takes two stars to make a gamma-ray burst.   New research solves the mystery of how stars spin fast enough to crea…
Leading astronomers and geophysicists honoured in RAS bicentenary year
The Royal Astronomical Society is pleased to announce the winners of its medals and prizes for 2020, the bicentenary of its foundation. Each year the Society recognises significant achievement in the fields of astronomy and geophysics through th…
National Astronomy Meeting 12-17 July 2020: save the date!
In celebration of the 200 years since its foundation, the Royal Astronomical Society will hold its 2020 National Astronomy Meeting (NAM 2020) in the city of Bath. The Society’s founding president Sir William Herschel and his sister Caroline lived in…
Stormy cluster weather could unleash black hole power and explain lack of cosmic cooling
“Weather” in clusters of galaxies may explain a longstanding puzzle, according to a team of researchers at the University of Cambridge. The scientists used sophisticated simulations to show how powerful jets from supermassive black holes are disrupte…
2019 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded for cosmology, exoplanets discoveries
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics recognises discoveries in cosmology and of the first planet in orbit around a Sun-like star.   James Peebles, Albert Einstein Professor Emeritus at Princeton University receives half of the prize,…
RAS Bicentennial Quilt
  2020 will mark the 200th anniversary of the Royal Astronomical Society. One of the ways the society will celebrate this significant milestone is by running a project to make a commemorative quilt.   200 years ago it was…
The UK Exoplanet Naming competition is now launched!
Young people given the chance to name a planet! Between Friday 6th September and Friday 18th October, schools and youth organisations across the country can make their naming suggestions via an online submission form on the UK Exoworld website. Thes…
Winner of the Patricia Tomkins Undergraduate Prize 2019
Congratulations to Eimear Gallagher who has been awarded The Patricia Tomkins Undergraduate Prize 2019. Eimear is studying Physics with Astrophysics at Nottingham Trent University and is currently on an industrial placement year…
Winners of the 2018 RAS thesis prizes
The RAS is pleased to announce the winners of its prizes for the best Ph.D. theses completed in the UK during 2018. Prizes are awarded annually: the Michael Penston Prize for the best thesis in astronomy and astrophysics, the Keith Ru…
NAM 2019: Second media announcement
Around 500 astronomers and space scientists will gather at Lancaster University, from 30 June – 4 July, for the Royal Astronomical Society National Astronomy Meeting 2019 (NAM 2019). The conference is the largest annual astronomy and space science ev…