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The central object is a very distant galaxy, labelled BDF 3299. The bright red cloud just to the lower left is the ALMA detection of a vast cloud of material that is in the process of assembling the very young galaxy

Astronomers witness assembly of galaxies in the early Universe for the first time

22 Jul 2015

An international team of astronomers led by the University of Cambridge have detected the most distant clouds of star-forming gas yet found in normal...

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Left: Image of HD 115600 showing a bright debris ring viewed nearly edge-on and located just beyond a Pluto-like distance to the star. Right: A model of the HD 115600 debris ring on the same scale.

Discovery shows what the solar system looked like as a ‘toddler’

27 May 2015

Astronomers have discovered a disc of planetary debris surrounding a young sun-like star that shares remarkable similarities with the Kuiper Belt...

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Artist’s impression of one of the possible galaxy strangulation mechanisms: star-forming galaxies (fed by gas inflows) are accreted into a massive hot halo, which ‘strangles’ them and leads to their death.

Cause of galactic death: strangulation

13 May 2015

Astronomers have partially solved an epic whodunit: what kills galaxies so that they can no longer produce new stars?

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The dwarf galaxies are located near the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds, at the centre of the image.

Welcome to the neighbourhood: new dwarf galaxies discovered in orbit around the Milky Way

10 Mar 2015

Astronomers have discovered a ‘treasure trove’ of rare dwarf satellite galaxies orbiting our own Milky Way. The discoveries could hold the key to...

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Celestial bodies

04 Feb 2015

Astronomy and oncology do not make obvious bedfellows, but the search for new stars and galaxies has surprising similarities with the search for...

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Illustration of the outflow (red) and gas flowing in to the quasar in the centre (blue). The cold clumps shown in the inset image are expelled out of the galaxy in a 'galactic hailstorm'

Galactic ‘hailstorm’ in the early Universe

16 Jan 2015

Astronomers have been able to peer back to the young Universe to determine how quasars – powered by supermassive black holes with the mass of a...

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An artist’s impression of a Type Ia supernova – the explosion of a white dwarf locked in a binary system with a companion star.

Gaia discovers its first supernova

12 Sep 2014

While scanning the sky to measure the positions and movements of stars in our Galaxy, Gaia has discovered its first stellar explosion in another...

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Galactic ‘vapour trails’ uncovered in giant cluster

20 Sep 2013

Astronomers have discovered enormous smooth shapes that look like vapour trails in a gigantic galaxy cluster. These ‘arms’ span half a million light...

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The galaxy NGC 4151. Researchers were able to use this galaxy to accumulate data about flares coming from a mysterious X-ray source close to the giant black hole at its centre.

“Echo” of light augurs new era in study of black holes

31 May 2012

A long-sought “echo” of light that promises to reveal more about supersized black holes in distant galaxies has been identified by an international...

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earth-sunset

Researchers get backing for cosmic vision

19 Jul 2010

A proposal to design a spacecraft that would seek out habitable planets beyond our own solar system could become reality after receiving support from...

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RSC busts

Royal Society announces new Fellows

21 May 2010

Seven Cambridge researchers are among the 44 new Fellows announced by the Royal Society this week.

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Region mapped by Planck satellite

Probing the Universe: Kavli Institute for Cosmology

01 May 2010

Scientists at Cambridge’s Kavli Institute are studying how the Universe developed after the Big Bang by analysing light emitted up to 13.7 billion...

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