Latest news and comment | University of Oxford Department of Physics

Audience

Research theme

Sub-department

The same transient event shown in three surveys, with rows corresponding to Pan-STARRS (top), MeerLICHT (middle), and ATLAS (bottom).

AI breakthrough helps astronomers spot cosmic events with just a handful of examples

A new study co-led by the University of Oxford and Google Cloud has shown how general-purpose AI can accurately classify real changes in the night sky.

The MeerKAT radio telescope

First evidence of black hole and astrophysical jets alignment

Scientists have found direct evidence that the fastest and most powerful astrophysical jets are locked to the spin of the black hole that launches them. The results have been published in Nature Astronomy.

23 September 2025

Image of MeerKAT radio telescope during daytime.

Distant galaxies reveal hidden effect from Big Bang

Physicists at the University of Oxford have found the first compelling observational evidence that the Cosmic Microwave Background – the faint afterglow of the Big Bang – affects radio signals from distant galaxies.

15 September 2025

Professor Stephen Smartt and Dr Heloise Stevance

AI tool helps astronomers find supernovae in a sky full of noise

A new AI-powered tool has reduced astronomers’ workload by 85% filtering through thousands of data alerts to identify the few genuine signals caused by supernovae – powerful explosions from dying stars.

11 September 2025

Insight into rare pulsar

New insights into rare pulsar

Physicists from the University of Oxford have been part of an international team who have uncovered new insights into the behaviour of a rare transitional millisecond pulsar.

An estimation of the orbit of 3I (red, dashed) relative to the orbit of the Sun (yellow, dotted) through the Milky Way.

Third ever detection of interstellar object

The discovery of 3I/ATLAS – an interstellar comet shooting through the Solar System – sent astronomers scrambling last week, excited for only their third chance to study a small body from another star.

Dr Sophia Vaughan

Dr Vaughan awarded RAS thesis prize

Dr Sophia Vaughan has been awarded the Royal Astronomical Society's Michael Penston Thesis Prize following her DPhil at the University of Oxford’s Department of Physics.

NSF-DOE Rubin Trifid and Lagoon nebulas

First look: the trailer for Rubin’s movie of the sky

The first images from the extraordinary NSF-DOE Vera C Rubin Observatory have been made public today.

Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell CH

Jocelyn Bell Burnell appointed Companion of Honour

Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell has been appointed Companion of Honour in the King’s Birthday Honours List 2025 for her services to astronomy and physics and to diversity.

Deaglan Bartlett

Meet...Deaglan Bartlett

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

The Very Large Array sees fountains of hot gas erupting from a beastly black hole in the heart of a large galaxy known to radio astronomers as Hercules A. For millions of trillions of miles, these jets shoot through space, finally slowing when they reach ancient gaseous hiccups left behind by this galaxy’s earliest days of star-forming fury.

Black holes: nature’s own supercolliders

Scientists could turn to black holes to complement facilities searching for dark matter and similarly elusive particles that hold clues to the universe’s deepest secrets, a new study by Oxford researchers suggests.

One of the Simons Observatory small aperture telescopes (SAT)

Commentary: Professor Alonso on unlocking secrets of the universe with the Simons Observatory

A consortium across six UK universities has been awarded an STFC Astronomy Large Award to fund their work analysing data from the Simons Observatory; Professor David Alonso explains how it could shed light on dark matter, dark energy and the Big Bang.