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On a massive planet around a nearby star, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has detected a stratosphere, one of the primary layers of the atmospheres of Earth and other planets in our solar system.

‘Sunscreen’ layer detected on distant planet

12 Jun 2015

On a blazing-hot exoplanet known as WASP-33b, a team of astronomers including researchers from the University of Cambridge has detected a...

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Polarisation of the Cosmic Microwave Background

Planck reveals first stars were born late

05 Feb 2015

New maps from the Planck satellite uncover the ‘polarised’ light from the early Universe across the entire sky, revealing that the first stars formed...

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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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Solar flare

First sightings of solar flare phenomena confirm 3D models of space weather

27 Mar 2014

Video of magnetic field lines “slipping reconnection” bring scientists a step closer to predicting when and where large flares will occur.

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Work begins on world’s most powerful radio telescope

04 Nov 2013

This week, work begins on the next phase of development for the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope, with the University of Cambridge leading...

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Opening of new centre for experimental astrophysics at Cambridge

25 Oct 2013

A new building on the Institute of Astronomy site off Madingley Road will complete the consolidation of astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology on a...

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Planck captures portrait of the young Universe, revealing earliest light

21 Mar 2013

Satellite’s first all-sky image is the most detailed picture to date of the early Universe, giving us a better understanding of its birth.

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This artist's impression shows a gas-giant exoplanet transiting across the face of its star. Infrared analysis by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.

World-renowned astrophysicist to join Cavendish Laboratory

31 Oct 2012

New professor is one of the joint discoverers of a planet orbiting a normal star beyond the Solar System.

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All-guests-group-w-PPE

Construction starts on Centre for Astrophysics

19 Oct 2012

A groundbreaking ceremony was held yesterday to mark the start of construction of a £5 million building for the University of Cambridge, to the north...

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