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View of a partial solar eclipse
How to see best solar eclipse visible from UK since 1999
The most impressive solar eclipse visible from the UK in almost 30 years can be enjoyed by people across the country on Wednesday 12 August. Around 90-96 per cent of the Sun will be covered by the Moon at its peak at around 19:00 BST, with the...
Professor Ralph A.M.J. Wijers
Professor Ralph A.M.J. Wijers, 1964–2026
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is saddened to hear of the death of Professor Ralph A.M.J. Wijers, who was a member of the Editorial Board of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS). Professor Wijers passed away at the age of...
Jodrell Bank Observatory.
Mass cuts and potential Jodrell closure 'devastating for astronomy'
The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) is shocked and dismayed to hear that the UK's iconic Jodrell Bank Observatory is at risk of closure amid a slew of catastrophic budget cuts. This deeply troubling development is one of several heavy blows to UK...
A conceptual design of the Habitable Worlds Observatory.
NAM 2026: UK in pole position to lead key instrument in NASA's hunt for Earth-like worlds
UK astronomers are a step closer to playing a leading role in NASA's search for alien life in the coming decades, after receiving £3million to continue developing one of the core instruments of the Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO). The "exciting"...
Daisaburo Kido, of the University of Tokyo.
2026 MNRAS Student Author Prize winner announced
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) is delighted to announce the winner of the 2026 MNRAS Student Prize. The annual prize recognises papers that, in the view of the MNRAS Editorial Board, are the best submitted in a given 12...
ALMA's DV-59 antenna in the foreground with multiple other antennas observing the sky in a night dominated by the Moon.
NAM 2026: Could alien signals be hiding on a different radio channel?
Astronomers searching for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence may have been missing alien signals in part of the radio spectrum that has not recently been explored. Most radio SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) surveys have focused on...
A global photography competition called RAStroPhoto is being launched to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS).
RAStroPhoto competition launched to mark MNRAS bicentenary
Amateur astrophotographers are invited to share their images capturing the wonder of astronomy for a new photography competition being launched to celebrate the 200th anniversary of Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS). First...
Aurora borealis seen over Cwmbran, Wales, produced by the May 2024 solar storm. 
NAM 2026: Most powerful Northern Lights in a generation 'exposed weaknesses in UK infrastructure'
Millions of people across the UK marvelled at the spectacular Northern Lights that lit up the night sky in May 2024. But while the display captivated skywatchers, the geomagnetic storm behind it also served as the biggest test in a generation of the...
From left, Professor Joe Silk, Dr Jonathan McDowell, Professor Martin Ward, Dr Nikita Chiu and Dr Manuel Salvoldi.
NAM 2026 Debate: Should the far side of the Moon be reserved for science?
What we do on the Moon now will set a precedent for preserving parts of the entire Solar System as we move out into it, according to astrophysicist and leading space debris expert Dr Jonathan McDowell. He was speaking during a debate in which experts...
Image from HST showing the bipolar outflow of material ejected by the helium nova V445 Puppis. The progenitor binary star system is just about visible in the centre of the outflow. Also visible are the 'bullets' of gas that were shot out at either end of the outflow. Image taken in 2013 with the F502N filter on Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3.
NAM 2026: Mystery 'bullets' seen in Milky Way's only helium nova
Mysterious high-speed "bullets" – clumps of possibly oxygen-rich gas travelling at up to 20 million miles per hour – have been discovered shooting out of the rarest stellar explosion in our galaxy. They were spotted after a dust of debris surrounding...
Halo 18 is an example of a galaxy that had a head-on collision (see the panel at z=1.2) and had a disc flip (you can see this by comparing the disc orientation at z=1.4 and z=0). This image and Image 2 show how these two exemplary galaxies evolve with time: each panel corresponds to a different time defined by redshift (z). Redshift is a quantity used by astronomers to measure the time in the universe, with z=0 corresponding to the present day, and larger z corresponding to earlier times. Each z has two pan
NAM 2026: How our Milky Way once underwent a dramatic flip
The Milky Way may have undergone a dramatic change in orientation during its history, according to new research that helps explain a long-standing mystery about our galaxy. Using supercomputer simulations of galaxies like the Milky Way, a team of...
Comparison of Mars before (left) and during (right) the June 2018 dust storm, which coincided with the solar energetic particle event examined by the Lancaster University team. Images taken by the Mars Color Imager (MARCI), a wide-angle camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), that maps daily weather conditions across the planet.
NAM 2026: Solar storms 'may alter Martian weather during dust storms'
Solar storms may affect weather on Mars when they strike at the same time as major Martian dust storms, a new study has suggested for the first time. Researchers found evidence of rising temperatures in the Red Planet's lower atmosphere when the two...