Announcements

Research unveils birthplace of gold-rich stars
A team of researchers from the University of Notre Dame and Tohoku University have revealed the birthplace of so-called ‘gold-rich’ stars – stars with an abundance of heavy elements beyond iron, including the "jewellery store elements", gold and plat…
RAS E&O February 2022 Small Grants Winners
  Congratulations to the following winners from February's round of Education and Outreach small grant scheme applicants: Dr Vasileios Spathopoulos - The Antikythera Mechanism: Using an ancient computer to teach basic astronomy concepts Mrs…
The RAS and JWST
At its meeting in July the governing council of the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) took a decision to write to the UK Space Agency, the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA to express its concerns about the original JWST naming process, the apparen…
Black hole discovered firing jet at neighbouring galaxy
With the help of citizen scientists, a team of astronomers has discovered a unique black hole spewing a fiery jet at another galaxy. The black hole is hosted by a galaxy around one billion light years away from Earth named RAD12. The work was publish…
Red Alert: massive stars sound warning they are about to go supernova
Astronomers from Liverpool John Moores University and the University of Montpellier have devised an ‘early warning’ system to sound the alert when a massive star is about to end its life in a supernova explosion. The work was published in Monthly Not…
Hunga Volcano special issue of GJI: connection between atmosphere and Earth
A paper accepted for the special issue of Geophysical Journal International (GJI) on the 2022 January 15 eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano examines the connection between the atmosphere and the solid Earth highlighted by this event.…
Hunga Volcano special issue of GJI: analysis of tsunamis in Lingding Bay
The 2022 January 15 eruption of the Hunga volcano in Tonga caused tsunamis worldwide. A paper by Wang et al in the special issue of Geophysical Journal International (GJI) on the 2022 Hunga eruption highlights how atmospheric pressure waves created s…
Cat’s Eye Nebula seen in 3D
Researchers have created the first computer-generated three-dimensional model of the Cat's Eye Nebula, revealing a pair of symmetric rings encircling the nebula’s outer shell. The rings’ symmetry suggests they were formed by a precessing jet, providi…
Statement on the death of Queen Elizabeth II
The Royal Astronomical Society offers its sincere condolences to His Majesty the King and the members of the Royal Family following the death of Queen Elizabeth II. We were very grateful to have her as our patron throughout her reign. The thoughts of…
First paper published in RAS Techniques and Instruments
The first paper in our new open access journal, RAS Techniques and Instruments (RASTI), has now been published online: https://academic.oup.com/rasti/article/1/1/3/6651147 The paper, by Lugo-Aranda et al, describes a new code, PYHIIEXTRACTOR, which…
MoleGazer: Applying astronomy ideas to mole identification
Scientists are applying astronomical techniques to identify moles that may develop into the skin cancer melanoma. Astronomers regularly take images of the sky, producing software to map set targets over time. This technology is now being adapted to m…
Cyborg collaboration finds 40,000 ring galaxies
Human and machine intelligence worked together to find 40,000 ring galaxies, scientists at the National Astronomy Meeting will announce this week. Dr Mike Walmsley of the University of Manchester and the Galaxy Zoo collaboration will present the new…