Astronomy

A recent article in The Independent highlights a striking new astronomical discovery by a team led by Nadia Zakamska, Member in the School of Natural Sciences: a “mystery object” several times the mass of Jupiter or larger, orbited by a giant metallic wind cloud.

A group of astronomers, including Nadia Zakamska, frequent Member in the School of Natural Sciences, and James Owen, NASA Hubble Fellow (2014–17) in the School, have achieved unprecedented detection of vaporized metals within a dusty, gaseous cloud during rare stellar occultation. Their work utilized the Gemini South telescope.

Five past scholars from the School of Natural Sciences have been named as recipients in the American Astronomical Society (AAS) 2026 Awards and Prizes for “outstanding achievements in research and education.” Their research spans a wide range of topics, including the formation, structure, and evolution of galaxies, as well as the study of relativistic deflection.

Why are some stars brighter than others? Why are some redder or bluer? A plot from a recent research paper by Hsiang-Chih Hwang, Member in the School of Natural Sciences, which addresses this question, has been selected as the Gaia Space Telescope's Image of the Week.

Measuring the mass of a galaxy cluster is difficult—clusters cannot be “weighed” by placing them on a scale. Digvijay Wadekar, current Member in the School of Natural Sciences, has worked to develop an AI program to identify new variables that might make inferring the mass from other observable quantities more accurate.

A research team, led by current Visitor Roman Rafikov, has developed a technique to study planet formation in other solar systems. By analyzing the vortices that form within discs of gas and dust around young stars, limits can be placed on the mass and age of planets of various sizes.

"The gas gobbled up by M87* and Sgr A* (the supermassive black holes at the centers of Messier 87 and the Milky Way), is likely a mix of hydrogen and helium with just a dash of heavier elements, but we don’t know its exact composition."

“We can see the unseen. An astonishing deep-field image of crashing galaxies and bygone nebulae. A glimpse at what the death of our own sun might look like. Baby stars being born perched on cosmic cliffs. The first photographs of the JWST are breathtaking, and they will dramatically change how we understand the universe."

Chris Hamilton, current Member in the School of Natural Sciences, has received the International Astronomical Union’s (IAU) 2021 Ph.D. Prize to Recognize Excellence in Astrophysics for his thesis “Secular Dynamics of Binaries in Stellar Clusters," supervised by current IAS Visitor and frequent Member Roman Rafikov. 

Past Member Roger Ulrich (1975) has been named a winner of the 2022 Kavli Prize in Astrophysics. He is cited, along with Conny Aerts and Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard, for “pioneering work and leadership in the development of helioseismology and asteroseismology.”