Announcements

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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…
Nobel Prize in Physics 2019
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, "for contributions…
Ellen Baker's "Solar System" Quilt
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 not uncommon for family a…
exoplanets outside our Solar System
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…
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UK young astronomers gain international medals in Hungary
The UK team of 5 secondary level students have all gained medals in a fierce competition at this year's International Olympiad on Astronomy and Astrophysics (IOAA) in Hungary. The results were the best since the UK entered the competition in 2015. …
Eimear Gallagher at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
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 at the Rutherford Ap…
Books on the shelf in the RAS library
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 Runcorn Prize for…
Professor David Southwood awarded CBE
Professor David Southwood. Max Alexander / RAS Professor David Southwood, President of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2012-14, has been made Commander of the Most Excellen…
Lancaster rooftops
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…
Photograph of Dr Anna Lisa Varri. Winner of the 2019 Caroline Herschel Lectureship Prize
Winner of 2019 Caroline Herschel Prize Lectureship announced
The winner of the 2019 Caroline Herschel Prize Lectureship is Dr Anna Lisa Varri. Dr Varri (UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the School of Physics and Astronomy and School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh) is an outstanding researcher who works a…
ESO night sky above La Silla observatory in Chile
RAS statement on Starlink satellite constellation
The Royal Astronomical Society notes with concern the launch of the new SpaceX Starlink constellation of satellites into low-Earth orbit, and the potential impact of this and other programmes on views of the night sky and on astronomical research. S…
Logo for the RAS National Astronomy Meeting 2019
NAM 2019: First 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…