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Illustration of a swarm of smaller black holes in a gas disk rotating around a giant black hole

Black hole billiards in the centres of galaxies

Researchers provide the first plausible explanation to why one of the most massive black hole pairs observed to date by gravitational waves also seemed to merge on a non-circular orbit.

Graphic showing winds from a neutron star

Warm winds witnessed in neutron star first

Using the most powerful telescopes on Earth and in space, a team of astronomers has found for the first time, blasts of hot, warm and cold winds from a neutron star while it consumes matter from a nearby star.

Image of the Milky Way from the MeerKAT telescope

Brand new insight into Milky Way centre

An international team of researchers, led by Dr Ian Heywood from the Department of Physics, has produced a new radio image of the centre of our Galaxy using the South African MeerKAT telescope, the most powerful of its kind in the world.

26 January 2022

Professor Pedro Ferreira

Professor Ferreira recognised by RAS

Professor Pedro Gil Ferreira has been awarded the Royal Astronomical Society’s 2022 Gerald Whitrow Lecture in Astronomy.

14 January 2022

Dr Becky Smethurst

Dr Becky Smethurst recognised by RAS

Dr Becky Smethurst has been awarded the Royal Astronomical Society’s 2022 Winton Award for Astronomy.

14 January 2022

Tim Lichtenberg

Dr Tim Lichtenberg recognised by RAS

Dr Tim Lichtenberg has been awarded the Royal Astronomical Society’s Winton Award for Early Achievement in Geophysics for his work on understanding the growth and long-term evolution of rocky planets.

14 January 2022

Artist's impression showing the surroundings of an SMBH at the heart of NGC 3783, an AGN in the Southern constellation of Centaurus. A wind of material in the polar region of the nucleus is visible. PAH emission is thought to originate in the inner parts of the galaxy disk which hosts the SMBH

Probing active galactic nuclei with Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons

PAH prove a promising new tool to probe the AGN-host galaxy connection

13 December 2021

Artist's impression of the planned Africa Millimetre Telescope

Africa Millimetre Telescope gets green light

Astrophysicists at the University of Oxford are delighted that the Africa Millimetre Telescope (AMT) project has been given the green light – the first step towards having a radio telescope in Namibia.

9 December 2021

Professor Roger Davies

Professor Davies recognised by IOP

Roger Davies, Wetton Professor of Astrophyiscs and Director of the Hintze Centre for Astrophysical Surveys has been awarded the Institute of Physics’ Fred Hoyle Medal and Prize 2021

29 November 2021

Professor Steve Balbus

Professor Balbus recognised by IOP

Professor Steven Balbus has been awarded the Institute of Physics’ Paul Dirac Medal and Prize 2021, and elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Physics

29 November 2021

Dr Rebecca Bowler

Dr Bowler recognised by IOP

Dr Rebecca Bowler has been awarded the Institute of Physics’ Henry Moseley Medal and Prize 2021, and elected as a Fellow of the Institute of Physics.

29 November 2021

Professor Vivien Parmentier

Measuring the atmosphere 340 light-years away

Commentary: Professor Vivien Parmentier explains how the unprecedented measurement of both oxygen and carbon atoms in an exoplanet atmosphere provides clues to understanding how planetary systems form.

27 October 2021