Topic description and stories

Black Holes: Monsters in Space (Artist's Concept)

Big, spinning black hole blurs light

14 Aug 2014

NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) has captured an extreme and rare event in the regions immediately surrounding a supermassive...

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Large scale projection through Illustris, centered on the most massive cluster, 70 million light years away. Dark matter density (left) is transitioning to gas density (right).

Astronomers create first realistic virtual universe

07 May 2014

Astronomers have created the first realistic virtual simulation of the Universe, tracking 13 billion years of cosmic evolution.

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Soyuz VS06, with Gaia space observatory, lifted off from Europe's Spaceport, French Guiana, on 19 December 2013

Stellar stuff: outreach programme brings Gaia into schools

24 Mar 2014

A Cambridge-led outreach project is connecting over 2,200 pupils with the excitement of ESA’s Gaia mission through a Q&A session that will take...

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Milky Way Over Crater Lake

Gaia-ESO data show Milky Way may have formed ‘inside-out’, and provide new insight into Galactic evolution

20 Jan 2014

Research on first data release from Gaia-ESO project suggests the Milky Way formed by expanding out from the centre, and reveals new insights into...

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Gaia satellite

Gaia’s mission: solving the celestial puzzle

19 Dec 2013

A space mission to create the largest, most-accurate, map of the Milky Way in three dimensions has been launched today. Astronomers say the data...

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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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Dust ring around the star Fomalhaut taken by ALMA

Opening new windows on the Universe

20 Oct 2012

Advances in telescope technology being developed at Cambridge will drive a revolutionary period of discovery in astronomy.

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The Alps

Avalanches and life as we know it up for discussion at summer exhibition

03 Jul 2012

The dynamics of an avalanche and the origins of the Universe will be the subjects of two presentations to the public by Cambridge researchers as part...

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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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John, in front of the 12-metre-diameter antennas at the ALMA Array Operations Site

‘Extreme Sleepover #8’ – unlocking the universe from the Atacama desert

29 Dec 2011

In the eighth of a series of reports contributed by Cambridge researchers, we hear about Dr John Richer’s night-time research activities at the ALMA...

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Artist impression of Sagittarius

A beast with four tails

30 Nov 2011

The Milky Way galaxy continues to devour its small neighbouring dwarf galaxies and the evidence is spread out across the sky.

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Representation of the timeline of the universe

Quasars shine a light on the earliest stars

21 Mar 2011

New research is bringing astronomers closer to unlocking the ‘dark ages’ of the cosmos.

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