Topic description and stories

Artist’s impression of Gaia14aae

Gaia satellite and amateur astronomers spot one in a billion star

17 Jul 2015

The Gaia satellite has discovered a unique binary system where one star is ‘eating’ the other, but neither star has any hydrogen, the most common...

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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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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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At the outer fringes of the system, the gravitational influence of a hypothetical giant planet (bottom left) captures comets into a dense, massive swarm (right) where frequent collisions occur.

Galactic gas caused by colliding comets suggests mystery ‘shepherd’ exoplanet

06 Mar 2014

Latest research has uncovered a massive clump of carbon monoxide in a young solar system. The gas is the result of near constant collisions of icy...

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This illustration is an artist’s impression of the thin, rocky debris disc discovered around the two Hyades white dwarfs. Rocky asteroids are thought to be perturbed by planets within the system and diverted inwards towards the star, where they break up,

‘Polluted’ stellar graveyard gives glimpse of our Solar System after Sun’s implosion

09 May 2013

Research indicates the existence of Earth-like planets in dead solar system through latest chemical analysis techniques

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Beyond the blinding starlight

11 Mar 2013

Study reveals chemical composites of exoplanet atmospheres 128 light years away. Scientists say techniques will “one day provide evidence of life...

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An image of the star Gilese 581 (bottom of image), with an illustration of the debris disc superimposed to show its position.

Low-mass planets make good neighbours for debris discs

27 Nov 2012

Astronomers using the Herschel Space Observatory have detected massive debris discs around two nearby stars hosting low-mass planets. The discovery...

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Sun's active region loops

New light shed on explosive solar activity

02 Jul 2012

The first images of an upward surge of the Sun’s gases into quiescent coronal loops have been identified by an international team of scientists. The...

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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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Lucid in the sky

26 Sep 2007

A New Cambridge University star catalogue is the “most accurate ever”.

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Winston Churchill

Churchill borrowed some of his biggest ideas from HG Wells

27 Nov 2006

Winston Churchill was a “closet science-fiction fan” who borrowed the lines for one of his most famous speeches from H. G. Wells, a Cambridge...

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