science wire

Shaw Prize win for Oxford astronomer

Heart of space mission cleared for launch by University of Glasgow
Scientists at the University of Glasgow's Institute for Gravitational Research (IGR) have successfully concluded extensive testing of a vital component of a future space mission.

’Polluted’ stellar graveyard gives glimpse of our Solar System after Sun’s implosion
Research indicates the existence of Earth-like planets in dead solar system through latest chemical analysis techniques Is there another recipe for life? The chemistry can tell us Jay Farihi By chemically sampling the atmospheres of two dead stars in the Hyades cluster 150 light years away, researchers at Cambridge and NASA/ESA's Hubble Space Telescope have discovered the building blocks for Earth-sized planets formed around the stars while they lived.

New headquarters for world’s largest radio telescope
07 May 2013 Less than a year after the decision to site the revolutionary Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in Southern Africa and Australia, the SKA Organisation has opened its new international headquarters.

Imperial Podcast: diabetes news, festival preview, and women in space

Herschel Space Observatory loses its cool
Europe's Herschel Space Observatory has exhausted its supply of liquid helium coolant, after almost four years of scientific observations. As none of the instruments can work without helium-cooling, Herschel's operational life is now over. The spacecraft itself will soon be placed in a parking orbit around the Sun, but the analysis and evaluation of the data will continue for years to come.

Mysterious hot spots observed in a cool red supergiant
25 Apr 2013 Astronomers have released a new image of the outer atmosphere of Betelgeuse – one of the nearest red supergiants to Earth – revealing the detailed structure of the matter being thrown off the star. The new image, taken by the e-MERLIN radio telescope array operated from the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, also shows regions of surprisingly hot gas in the star's outer atmosphere and a cooler arc of gas weighing almost as much as the Earth.

Star factory in the early Universe challenges galaxy evolution theory
A team including Dr Mat Page (UCL Space and Climate Physics) has discovered an extremely distant galaxy making stars more than 2000 times faster than our own Milky Way. Seen at a time when the Universe was less than a billion years old, its mere existence challenges our theories of galaxy evolution.

New telescope brings distant galaxies into sharp focus
New telescope brings distant galaxies into sharp focus Durham University astronomers have played a key role in research using a powerful new telescope to bring images of the distant Universe into much sharper focus. Durham University astronomers have played a key role in research using a powerful new telescope to bring images of the distant Universe into much sharper focus.

Strange new bursts of gamma rays point to a new way to destroy a star
A team led by the University of Warwick has pinpointed a new type of exceptionally powerful and long-lived cosmic explosion, prompting a theory that they arise in the violent death throes of a supergiant star. These explosions create powerful blasts of high energy gamma-rays, known as gamma-ray bursts, but while most bursts are over in about a minute, this new type can last for several hours.

Sussex remembers astrophysicist

Lego Rovers head to NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge
A system that imitates navigation of a space rover, originally intended for use in North West schools, will become part of NASA's International Space Apps Challenge later this month.

Physicists visit neutrino experiment site
Physicists visit neutrino experiment site Physicists from the University of Sussex are in the USA this month helping to set up the largest-ever experiment into neutrinos to be built there, just weeks after its neutrino detector, which is still under construction, recorded its first three-dimensional images of particles.

Huge find throws new light on ancient Iraq
05 Apr 2013 University of Manchester archaeologists have started the excavation of an enormous building complex in Iraq, thought to be around 4,000 years old. The team, directed by Professor Stuart Campbell and Dr Jane Moon, both from Manchester, and independent archaeologist Robert Killick, first spotted the amazing structure – thought to be an administrative complex serving one of the world's earliest cities– on satellite.

Cutting airborne pollutants could have a large effect on climate
Science journalist Tatiana Moreno talks to Dr Apostolos Voulgarakis about the impact of airborne pollutants on our planet's changing climate. Some airborne pollutants change the make-up of our planet's atmosphere where, according to a wealth of recent research, they can strongly influence regional and global climate.

Travel: Professor Tejinder Virdee
Born in Kenya, now commuting between the Alps and London, Professor Tejinder Virdee is a particle physicist working at the CMS experiment at CERN.

Map of the Universe at 380,000 years old
Latest pictures from Planck satellite have mapped the whole Universe as it was just after the Big Bang Pictures taken by Europe's Planck satellite are giving scientists a view of the Universe that's more than 50 million years older than anything they have previously seen.

Kibble at 80
Imperial marks pioneering physicist Tom Kibble's 80th birthday with a guest lecture from Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg.

Giant clockwork Solar System arrives at Jodrell Bank
The University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre has announced the arrival of its newest exhibit – a beautiful and unique mechanical orrery.

Jon Culshaw gives Oxford's rogue planet a voice
Impressionist Jon Culshaw is helping Oxford University scientists to take viewers on a tour of the ancient solar system and discover strange new worlds.

Are we ready to meet ET?
Once only science fiction, astronomers are now finding hundreds of planetary systems beyond our own. Given recent discoveries through space exploration, it is entirely feasible that we may soon discover the existence of extra-terrestrial life forms on other planets.

Durham University plays leading role in equipping the world’s largest telescope
Durham is leading two pivotal projects to provide instruments for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), one of the biggest science collaborations in history.

Hear how maths can predict random global events

Team to study Jupiter’s moons in first outer-planetary European mission
A sophisticated instrument designed and built by scientists and engineers from Imperial College London will fly to Jupiter in 2022, when Europe launches its first mission to the giant planet.

Science from scratch: just how big is a supermassive black hole?
Black holes are deeply mysterious objects that exist throughout the universe: giant plugholes in space that drag in and consume anything that strays too close.

New head of MPS takes up post

Meteorite research wins top astronomy prize

First ever Welsh-led EU space programme launched by Cardiff University
Cardiff University has launched the first ever Welsh-led European Union (EU) space research programme, funded by a €2M award from the EU through its FP7 (Framework Programme 7) SPACE programme.

Durham University academic lands funding for solar research
A lecturer from Durham University has been awarded a grant for his part in a project that seeks to further our understanding of how the sun works.

Intel wishes Stephen Hawking a microscopic “Happy Birthday”
This is a very special gift for a very extraordinary scientist and an extraordinary man" —Professor Martin Curley At a ceremony at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology where Haw

Lunar library could unlock origins of life
Understanding how life evolved in our Solar system by studying the chemistry of meteorites that have smashed into the Moon's surface will be the focus of research, which begins this week. Scientists from the Imperial College London, along with academics from Birkbeck College and University College London, aim to understand in more detail the organic chemistry inside rock fragments on the Moon, which are like a “lunar library” – an unspoilt source of geological information spanning billions of years.

Astronomical award for Manchester scientist
Michael Kramer, whose research uses the telescopes at Jodrell Bank Observatory, received the 2013 Herschel Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society.

Party with the stars: part deux
Are you watching BBC Stargazing Live - You should be, especially as it features OxSciBlog regular Chris Lintott giving you the chance to (virtually) explore Mars in the citizen science project Planet Four.

Reaching for the stars with Realise Stargazing Evenings
The Institute of Astronomy welcomed the aspiring astronomers to join in their winter programme of observing and talks on 28 th November and 19 th December.

Starry nights at Jodrell Bank
The popular astronomy show presented by Brian Cox and comedian Dara O'Briain will run on BBC Two from January 8 to January 10.

Physics hits the West End
Science is no stranger to cinema, being a regular staple of Hollywood blockbusters ever since Star Wars in the 1970s through to Prometheus last year.

University archive inspires play about ’America’s most notorious liar’
A play based on the confessions of a notorious Cold War supergrass – whose personal papers are now housed in an archive at the University of Sussex – is heading for a run in London in 2013.

The year ahead
Attempting to make predictions about science, technology and economics is a famously fraught task. Former IBM Chairman Thomas Watson apparently once remarked: “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers”.

The world inside a Spanish globe
The planetarium is sized to fit a child's hand, with instructions designed to be read aloud." —Seb Falk Object Wh.5892 in the University's Whipple Museum of the History of Science is something of an enigma.