Announcements

Royal Astronomical Society reveals 2022 award winners
The Royal Astronomical Society is pleased to announce the 2022 winners of its awards, medals and prizes. Each year the RAS recognises significant achievement in the fields of astronomy and geophysics through these awards, encompassing different…
Black hole at centre of Milky Way unpredictable and chaotic
An international team of researchers, led by postgraduate student Alexis Andrés, has found that the black hole at the centre of our galaxy, Sagittarius A*, not only flares irregularly from day to day but also in the long term. The team analysed 15 ye…
Quadrantids Offer Winter Meteor Spectacle
Northern hemisphere stargazers can look forward to what could be 2022’s best meteor shower on 3-4 January. Observers enjoying dark skies could see 50 or more meteors an hour that night, as the Quadrantids shower reaches its peak. Meteors are the res…
Dr Sheila Kanani awarded MBE
Dr Sheila Kanani, the Royal Astronomical Society’s Education, Outreach and Diversity Officer has been awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the New Year Honours list. She receives the honour in recognition of her services to…
James Webb Space Telescope is on its way!
Today saw the successful launch of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana, atop an Ariane 5 rocket. The culmination of more than three decades of work, JWST is seen as the successor to the Hubble Space Telesc…
Gaia finds fossil spiral arms in Milky Way
An international team of astronomers, led by researcher Chervin Laporte of the Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the University of Barcelona (ICCUB-IEEC), has used data from the Gaia space mission to create a new map of the Milky Way’s outer disc. Intr…
Record Medal Haul for UK School Students at Astronomy and Astrophysics Olympiad
Students at UK schools have won their largest ever haul of medals in the International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics. The team of three girls and two boys were among 298 pupils from 48 countries, with the online competition run from Bogota i…
Evidence emerges for dark-matter free galaxies
An international team of astronomers led by researchers from the Netherlands has found no trace of dark matter in the galaxy AGC 114905, despite taking detailed measurements over a course of fourty hours with state-of-the-art telescopes. They will pr…
The last breaths of massive galaxies
  The massive elliptical galaxy M87. Credit NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)   A team of astronomers propose a scenario in which…
Charting our history: two centuries of the RAS
  A digital Timeline designed to celebrate the bicentenary of the RAS is now live on the RAS website and on Instagram – as well as printed as a concertina poster sent to RAS Fellows with the December issue of the A&G magazine. You can…
Professor Emma Bunce Wins EGU David Bates Medal
President of the Royal Astronomical Society, Professor Emma Bunce, has been named the winner of the European Geosciences Union David Bates Medal. The medal was established by the EGU Planetary & Solar System Sciences Division in recognition of th…
Professor Antony Hewish, 1924-2021
The Royal Astronomical Society offers its sincere condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Professor Antony Hewish, who has died at the age of 97. Born in Cornwall, Prof. Hewish served at the Royal Aircraft Establishment and the Telecomm…