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Artist’s rendering of a black hole emitting a jet of hot gas known as plasma.

Pioneering lab-generated plasma ‘fireballs’

An international team of scientists, led by the Department of Physics at the University of Oxford, has developed a novel way to experimentally produce plasma ‘fireballs’ on Earth, opening up a new frontier in laboratory astrophysics.

Abbey Barnard

Meet...Abbey Barnard

We work among extraordinary people doing extraordinary things; get to know some of them by reading these quick-fire interviews.

Dr Heloise Stevance

Dr Stevance recognised by RAS

Dr Heloise Stevance, Schmidt AI in Science Fellow at the University of Oxford, has been awarded the Caroline Herschel Prize Lectureship 2024.

Dr Brian Lacki

Commentary: Dr Brian Lacki on SETI

Breakthrough Listen’s Dr Brian C Lacki, a theoretical astronomer with the Breakthrough Listen Initiative, has recently published two papers that look at the search for extraterrestrial intelligence in a new light.

Artist's depiction of CSIRO's ASKAP radio telescope with two versions of the mysterious celestial object.

Scientists detect slowest-spinning radio emitting neutron star ever recorded

Scientists have detected what they believe to be a neutron star spinning at an unprecedentedly slow rate – slower than any of the more than 3,000 radio emitting neutron stars measured to date.

An example of a next generation, high resolution and local climate model created by Oxford researchers.

Next-gen weather forecasting to measure human impact

National forecasting centres like the Met Office could apply the same tools used for weather forecasting to quantify how human behaviour is aggravating major events like floods, heatwaves and storms.

Infrared image from NASA James Webb Space Telescope

James Webb Space Telescope discovers the most distant galaxy so far

The discovery of the most distant galaxy yet seen was announced today by an international team, with Oxford astronomers playing a key role

Vice Chancellor with some of the team

Community project wins VC Award

A community engagement project supported by the Department of Physics was named joint winner of the Vice Chancellor’s Community Partnership Award 2024.

Professor Laura Herz

Professor Laura Herz elected Fellow of the Royal Society

Professor Laura Herz has been elected Fellow of the Royal Society for her study of light-harvesting and energy-conversion pathways in emerging semiconducting materials.

Simulation of the guiding of the high-energy laser pulse train (red) through a plasma channel (blue). The pulse train resonantly excites a large amplitude plasma wave that can be used to accelerate charged particles to GeV-scale energies

Advance in laser-driven accelerators

Researchers from the Department of Physics have taken a step closer to demonstrating a new generation of high-repetition-rate laser-driven particle accelerators; these compact accelerators could drive myriad applications.

The black hole pulls material from a companion star towards it, forming a disc that rotates around the black hole before falling into it.

First proof of black hole ‘plunging regions'

Einstein has been proved correct with a key prediction about black holes, an international team led by researchers from the Department of Physics at Oxford.

Playing with light

Fuelling a passion for physics

The Department of Physics worked with Merton College to support education charity Physics Partners schools competition: What Lights up your Love of Physics?