Announcements

Supermassive black holes put a brake on stellar births
Black holes with masses equivalent to millions of suns do put a brake on the birth of new stars, say astronomers. Using machine learning and three state of the art simulations to back up results from a large sky survey, the researchers resolve a 20-y…
Planetary Shields Will Buckle Under Stellar Winds From Their Dying Stars
Any life identified on planets orbiting white dwarf stars almost certainly evolved after the star’s death, says a new study led by the University of Warwick that reveals the consequences of the intense and furious stellar winds that will batter a pla…
SuperBIT: A Low-cost Balloon-Borne Telescope To Rival Hubble
Durham, Toronto and Princeton Universities have teamed up with NASA and the Canadian Space Agency to build a new kind of astronomical telescope. SuperBIT flies above 99.5% of the Earth’s atmosphere, carried by a helium balloon the size of a…
Beyond Visible Noise: the ‘sounds of space’ on film
Space scientists, spoken word artists and filmmakers teamed up to create a new short film, ‘Beyond Visible Noise’, that will launch at the National Astronomy Meeting on Tuesday 20 July. Dr Martin Archer of Imperial College London will describe how sc…
RAS Free Public Lectures - dont miss out!
Have YOU wondered? Ever wondered about the universe? Where do we sit within it? What would life be like on Mars, and could we survive there? From the formation of the galaxy, the Solar System and the Earth itself, the Royal Astronomical Society want…
Caroline Herschel Medal to honour women astronomers in UK and Germany
A new prize will celebrate outstanding research by women astrophysicists in the UK and Germany. The Caroline Herschel Medal, announced today by the UK government to mark the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, celebrates the longstanding scient…
RAS Staff Win 'Arthurs' for Outstanding Outreach Work
Sheila and Aine receiving their awards. Credit Dr Sheila Kanani/Aine O'Brien Licence type All Rights Reserved Congratulations to o…
Burlington House Lunchtime Scientist: Astrobiology 2021
  Burlington House Lunchtime Scientist is a free series of informal talks with GCSE and A Level students and their teachers to learn about exciting science career paths. The Royal Astronomical Society is collaborating with the Linnean Society…
Annular Eclipse 10 June 2021: viewing it safely
On Thursday 10 June, the whole of the UK will see a partial eclipse of the Sun. These are quite rare, and this one will be a significant event. That morning, the Moon will pass right in front of the Sun, blotting out up to 38% of its disc. However…
Prof. Catherine Heymans becomes Astronomer Royal for Scotland
The Royal Astronomical Society congratulates Professor Catherine Heymans, an astrophysicist at the University of Edinburgh and Ruhr University Bochum on her appointment as Astronomer Royal for Scotland. Professor Heymans is the eleventh scientis…
Royal Astronomical Society signs Climate Neutral Now pledge
‘Net zero’ by 2050, and drastic cuts in CO2 emissions by 2030: these are the new commitments from the Royal Astronomical Society after signing the UN Climate Neutral Now pledge. The RAS joins organisations around the world in pledging rapid action in…
RAS Quilt Project - an update
It's been 18 months since the launch of the RAS Bicentennial Quilt Project and although we haven't been able to complete the project by the original deadline (December 2020) we have reached an exciting milestone... A total of 100 squares have been s…