Topic description and stories

Giant planets around young star raise questions about how planets form

15 Oct 2018

Researchers have identified a young star with four Jupiter and Saturn-sized planets in orbit around it, the first time that so many massive planets...

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Artist's concept depicting one possible appearance of the planet Kepler-452b

Scientists identify exoplanets where life could develop as it did on Earth

01 Aug 2018

Scientists have identified a group of planets outside our solar system where the same chemical conditions that may have led to life on Earth exist...

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Stephen Hawking

Taming the multiverse: Stephen Hawking’s final theory about the big bang

02 May 2018

Professor Stephen Hawking’s final theory on the origin of the universe, which he worked on in collaboration with Professor Thomas Hertog from KU...

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Gaia creates richest star map of our Galaxy – and beyond

25 Apr 2018

̽»¨Ö±²¥European Space Agency’s Gaia mission has produced the richest star catalogue to date, including high-precision measurements of nearly 1.7 billion...

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Artist's impression of spinning galaxy

Astronomers detect ‘whirlpool’ movement in earliest galaxies

10 Jan 2018

Astronomers have looked back to a time soon after the Big Bang, and have discovered swirling gas in some of the earliest galaxies to have formed in...

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Artistic impression of a habitable planet near a pulsar (right)

Habitable planets could exist around pulsars

19 Dec 2017

It is theoretically possible that habitable planets exist around pulsars - spinning neutron stars that emit short, quick pulses of radiation...

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Supermassive black holes.

A force to be reckoned with

27 Nov 2017

Gravity is one of the universe's great mysteries. We decided to find out why. Think you know what gravity is? Think again. New research is revealing...

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First detection of gravitational waves and light produced by colliding neutron stars

16 Oct 2017

In a galaxy far away, two dead stars begin a final spiral into a massive collision. ̽»¨Ö±²¥resulting explosion unleashes a huge burst of energy, sending...

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An artist's impression showing the exoplanet WASP-19b

Inferno world with titanium skies

13 Sep 2017

An international team of astronomers has detected titanium oxide in the atmosphere of an exoplanet for the first time. ̽»¨Ö±²¥results , reported in the...

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Smallest-ever star discovered by astronomers

12 Jul 2017

A star about the size of Saturn – the smallest ever measured – has been identified by astronomers.

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Artist’s impression of a runaway star

Fastest stars in the Milky Way are ‘runaways’ from another galaxy

05 Jul 2017

A group of astronomers have shown that the fastest-moving stars in our galaxy – which are travelling so fast that they can escape the Milky Way – are...

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Stephen Hawking

Cambridge celebrates Stephen Hawking’s 75th birthday

03 Jul 2017

Some of the biggest names in science took part in a special public event yesterday (2 July) to celebrate the life and work of Stephen Hawking, on the...

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