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Graphic promoting the RASTI Student Prize, with the OUP and RAS logos and text 'Student Author Prize' on a blue starry background.
RASTI launches new student prize
RAS Techniques and Instruments ( RASTI) is delighted to announce a new annual student prize for the 'best' paper published in the journal by a student scientist. The award is designed to celebrate and acknowledge the contribution of student authors...
This image, which combines infrared data from the James Webb Space Telescope with submillimetre observations from the Atacama Large Millimetre/submillimetre Array (ALMA), shows the doughnut-shaped torus and interconnected bubbles of dusty gas that surround the Butterfly Nebula’s central star. The torus is oriented vertically and nearly edge-on from our perspective, and it intersects with bubbles of gas enclosing the star. The bubbles appear bright red in this image, illuminated by the light from helium and
Cosmic butterfly reveals clues to Earth's creation
Clues about how worlds like Earth may have formed have been found buried at the heart of a spectacular 'cosmic butterfly'. With the help of the James Webb Space Telescope, researchers say they have made a big leap forward in our understanding of how...
Fresh twist to mystery of Jupiter's core
The mystery at Jupiter's heart has taken a fresh twist – as new research suggests a giant impact may not have been responsible for the formation of its core. It had been thought that a colossal collision with an early planet containing half of...
An artist's impression of the UPM J1040−3551 system against the backdrop of the Milky Way as observed by Gaia.
Rare quadruple star system could unlock mystery of brown dwarfs
The "exciting" discovery of an extremely rare quadruple star system could significantly advance our understanding of brown dwarfs, astronomers say. These mysterious objects are too big to be considered a planet but also too small to be a star because...
Professor David Flower alongside an image of a front cover of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
MNRAS Editor-in-Chief to step down next year
The Editor-in-Chief of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS), Professor David Flower, is to step down after more than a decade in the role. He will remain in post until the end of 2026 but a recruitment process for his successor...
The newly discovered ultramassive blackhole lies at the centre of the orange galaxy. Far behind it is a blue galaxy that is being warped into the horseshoe shaped ring by distortions in spacetime created by the immense mass of the foreground orange galaxy.
'Most massive black hole ever discovered' is detected
Astronomers have discovered potentially the most massive black hole ever detected. The cosmic behemoth is close to the theoretical upper limit of what is possible in the universe and is 10,000 times heavier than the black hole at the centre of our...
Astronomers pulled from James Webb Space Telescope’s data to analyse a sample of 111 disc galaxies, like the ones shown here.
JWST digs into structural origins of disk galaxies
Astronomers are a step closer to deciphering the origins of disk galaxies like our own Milky Way thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope. Through the eyes of Webb they were able to study 111 single-disk and double-disk galaxies across a large span...
The final SPIRE Dark Field image map created by combining the Blue (250 micrometres), Green (350 micrometres) and Red (500 micrometres) SPIRE camera channels together, each channel stacking a total of 141 individual images on top of each other.
'Hidden galaxies' could be smoking gun in universe riddle
Astronomers have peered back in time to find what looks like a population of 'hidden' galaxies that could hold the key to unlocking some of the universe's secrets. If their existence is confirmed it would "effectively break current models of galaxy...
The giant radio jets stretching six million light-years across and an enormous supermassive black hole at the heart of spiral galaxy J23453268−0449256, as imaged by the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope.
Cosmic anomaly hints at frightening future for Milky Way
A terrifying glimpse at one potential fate of our Milky Way galaxy has come to light thanks to the discovery of a cosmic anomaly that challenges our understanding of the universe. An international team of astronomers led by CHRIST University...
New research suggests at least two mass extinction events in Earth's history were caused by a nearby supernova. Pictured is an example of one of these stellar explosions, Supernova 1987a (centre), within a neighbouring galaxy to our Milky Way called the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Violent supernovae 'triggered at least two Earth extinctions'
At least two mass extinction events in Earth's history were likely caused by the "devastating" effects of nearby supernova explosions, a new study suggests. Researchers at Keele University say these super-powerful blasts – caused by the death of a...
The "remarkable" XRT 200515 cosmic explosion observed by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Mystery of 'remarkable' cosmic explosion that lay hidden for years
The "needle in the haystack" discovery of a powerful explosion from a mysterious unknown object outside our galaxy has excited astronomers. It went unnoticed for years within a vast, two decade-long archive of observations by NASA's Chandra X-ray...
The newly-discovered giant radio galaxy ‘Inkathazo’. The glowing plasma jets, as seen by the MeerKAT telescope, are shown in red and yellow. The starlight from other surrounding galaxies can be seen in the background.
'Troublesome' radio galaxy 32 times size of Milky Way spotted
Astronomers have discovered an extraordinary new giant radio galaxy with plasma jets 32 times the size of our Milky Way. Measuring 3.3 million light-years from end-to-end, the cosmic megastructure was spotted by South Africa's MeerKAT telescope and...