Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics

Department of Physics and Astronomy

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News Archive

• First Day at Jodrell Bank. Jodrell Bank celebrates 70th birthday
  14 December 2015: Seventy years ago today Bernard Lovell, a physicist at the University of Manchester, switched on some army surplus radar equipment at Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, part of the University's Botany Department. With permission to stay for just two weeks, he never left. And now Jodrell Bank Observatory is a world-renowned centre of radio astronomy research.
• Professor Rod Davies. Professor Rod Davies CBE FRS
  11 November 2015: It is with great sadness that we must report that Professor Rodney Deane Davies CBE FRS passed away at the weekend. Director of Jodrell Bank from 1988 to 1997, he will be greatly missed.
• Two galaxies colliding. 'Kathryn's wheel' collision lights up galaxy
  17 August 2015: A spectacular collision between galaxies has been spotted near the Milky Way. Two small star systems are slamming into each other, producing a colourful firework display.
• An image of the ring around the star Lambda Orionis, made with the ESA Planck satellite. Rings and Loops in the stars: Planck's stunning new images
  8 July 2015: A ring of dust 200 light years across and a loop covering a third of the sky: two of the results in a new map from the Planck satellite.
• An artists rendition of the encounter of the pulsar with the companion star Astronomers predict fireworks from a close encounter of the stellar kind
  3 July 2015: Astronomers are predicting a close encounter between a stellar remnant the size of a city and one of the brightest stars in the Milky Way.
• Artist impression First Light Pavilion Jodrell Bank secures major Heritage Lottery Fund support
  20 May 2015: The University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory has received Heritage Lottery Fund support* for a �v12,147,200 bid for the 'First Light' project, aiming to conserve and restore the heritage of the Jodrell Bank site and create a spectacular new space in which visitors can engage with and learn about the journey to explore our place in the Universe.
• Artist impression SKA HQ Jodrell Bank to be headquarters for world's biggest telescope
  30 April 2015: The permanent headquarters of the world's biggest telescope, the Square Kilometre Array, will be at The University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank, it has been announced.
• Artist impression SKA at night Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre project wins SKA engagement funding
  15 April 2015: Engineers working on the Square Kilometre Array, the world’s largest telescope, are being given the opportunity to engage the public in innovative new ways thanks to the award of funding from the Royal Academy of Engineering.
• DES Dark Matter map Dark Energy Survey creates detailed guide to spotting dark matter
  13 April 2015: Researchers at the Dark Energy Survey, including several from the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, have released the first in a series of dark matter maps of the cosmos.
• A triple star system forming within a dense gas filament in a numerical simulation modeling a group of forming stars. Astronomers catch 'Tatooine' multiple-star system as it forms
  12 February 2015: For the first time astronomers have caught a multiple-star system as it is created, and their observations are providing new insight into how such systems, and possibly the solar system, are formed.
• A schematic illustration of CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope receiving the polarised signal from the new 'fast radio burst'. Cosmic Radio Burst Caught Red-Handed
  19 January 2015: A team of astronomers using twelve telescopes from around the world, and in space, have for the first time captured a 'fast radio burst' happening live.
• Artist's rendition of SKA-dishes. Mapping The Universe
  19 January 2015: Scientists from around the world have joined forces to lay the foundations for an experiment of truly astronomical proportions: putting together the biggest map of the Universe ever made.
• Locations of the e-MERLIN antennas e-MERLIN team honoured by Royal Astronomical Society
  9 January 2015: The work of the e-MERLIN team, based at The University of Manchester's School of Physics & Astronomy and its Jodrell Bank Observatory, has won the Royal Astronomical Society's 2015 Group Achievement Award.
• Haslam et al (1982) 408 MHz radio map of the sky reprocessed by Remazailles et al (2014) Giant radio loops: What are they?
  7 November 2014: The radio sky is full of giant loops and elongated features which have been known since the earliest days of radio astronomy. Using data from the WMAP satellite and reprocessed classic maps of the sky, astronomers at Jodrell Bank suggest these loops may be produced by a nearby expanding shell driven by supernova explosions and the radiation from massive stars.
• Artist's impression of the gas ejected in the nova explosion Astronomers see right into the heart of an exploding star
  8 October 2014: Highly detailed images produced using radio telescopes across Europe and America have pinpointed the locations where a stellar explosion called a nova emitted gamma rays (the most energetic form of electromagnetic waves).
• Section of the IPHAS Milky Way image 219 million stars in catalogue of the Milky Way
  16 September 2014: A new catalogue of the visible part of the northern part of our Milky Way Galaxy including no fewer than 219 million stars has been published today. The IPHAS team is led by the University of Hertfordshire and includes the University of Manchester.
• Starburst galaxy M82 Spectacular supernova's mysteries revealed
  22 August 2014: New research by a team of UK and European-based astronomers is helping to solve the mystery of what caused a spectacular supernova in a galaxy 11 million light years away, seen earlier this year.
• New Order at Live from Jodrell Bank 2013 Watch the Skies!
  18 August 2014: We are excited to announce the first ever large-scale outdoor cinematic event at Jodrell Bank, showings of '2001: A Space Odyssey' and 'Alien' as part of the British Film Institute's sci-fi season Days of Fear and Wonder.
• Transformer Pulsar Transformer Pulsar swaps radio waves for gamma rays
  22 July 2014: An exceptional binary system containing a rapidly spinning neutron star has undergone a dramatic change in behaviour never before observed, swapping from a radio pulsar to a bright gamma-ray source.
• Tim O'Brien and Teresa Anderson Jodrell Bank duo honoured for innovative science communication
  1 July 2014: Two Directors at the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory have been awarded the Kelvin Medal of the Institute of Physics for outstanding contribution to the public understanding of physics.
• Three black holes. Trio of supermassive black holes shake space-time
  25 June 2014: Astronomers have discovered three closely orbiting supermassive black holes in a galaxy more than 4 billion light years away. This exotic system could help astronomers in their search for gravitational waves: the ripples in 'space-time' predicted by Einstein.
• LSST. All the Sky All the Time
  22 June 2014: Astronomers will discuss the case for UK involvement in the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope project on Monday 23 June at the National Astronomy Meeting in Portsmouth.
• Planck map of the CMB. Massive neutrinos solve a cosmological conundrum
  10 February 2014: Scientists have solved a major problem with the current standard model of cosmology identified by combining results from the Planck spacecraft and measurements of gravitational lensing in order to deduce the mass of ghostly sub-atomic particles called neutrinos.
• Discovery Centre Planet Pavilion. Jodrell's visitor centre reaches for the stars
  20 January 2014: The award-winning Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre looks set to expand thanks to a 250,000 pound donation from the Wolfson Foundation.
• The team of scientists. Was Einstein right? Scientists to image event horizon of black hole
  17 December 2013: The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded 14 Million Euros to a team of European astrophysicists to construct the first accurate image of a black hole. The team will test the predictions of current theories of gravity, including Einstein's theory of General Relativity.
• Artist's impression of part of SKA Telescope. Work starts on world's largest telescope
  4 November 2013: Work starts this week on the next phase of development for what will soon be the world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope - the Square Kilometre Array.
• The 42ft Radio Telescope at Jodrell Bank. Former missile-tracking telescope helps reveal fate of baby pulsar
  31 October 2013: A radio telescope once used to track ballistic missiles has helped astronomers determine how the magnetic field structure and rotation of the young and rapidly rotating Crab pulsar evolves with time.
• The Planck map of the Cosmic Microwave Background. Planck receives its final command
  22 October 2013: Europe's Planck satellite has been turned off after nearly 4.5 years of soaking up the relic radiation from the Big Bang and studying the formation of stars and galaxies throughout fourteen billion years of cosmic history.
• An example bipolar planetary nebula - Hubble 12 Mysterious alignment of ghostly stars discovered
  4 September 2013: Astronomers have used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope and ESO's New Technology Telescope to explore more than 100 planetary nebulae in the central bulge of our galaxy.
• Birth of Milky Way's most massive star Astronomers witness birth of Milky Way's most massive star
  10 July 2013: Scientists have observed in unprecedented detail the birth of a massive star within a dark cloud core about 10,000 light years from Earth.
• Cosmic Radio Bursts Cosmic radio bursts point to cataclysmic origins
  5 July 2013: Mysterious bursts of radio waves originating from billions of light years away have left the scientists who detected them speculating about their origins.
• https://www.jb.man.ac.uk/news/2013/SKAHQ/Figure1.jpg New headquarters for world's largest radio telescope
  7 May 2013: Less than a year after the decision to site the revolutionary Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in Southern Africa and Australia, the SKA Organisation has opened its new international headquarters at Jodrell Bank.
• https://www.jb.man.ac.uk/news/2013/Betelgeuse/Figure3.png Mysterious hot spots observed in a cool red supergiant
  25 April 2013: Astronomers have released a new image of the outer atmosphere of Betelgeuse - one of the nearest red supergiants to Earth - revealing the detailed structure of the matter being thrown off by the star.
• https://www.jb.man.ac.uk/news/2013/KACST/telescope_400px.jpg Collaboration between the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology and the University of Manchester
  15 April 2013: A collaboration has been formed between the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics.
• https://www.jb.man.ac.uk/news/2013/Orrery/Orrery1.jpg Giant clockwork model of solar system arrives at Jodrell Bank
  25 March 2013: The Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre is delighted to announce the arrival of its newest exhibit, a beautiful and unique mechanical Orrery (a moving model of the Solar System).
• https://www.jb.man.ac.uk/news/2013/Planck/cosmic-microwave-background_300px.jpg Planck challenges our understanding of the Universe
  21 March 2013: Europe's Planck space telescope, which University of Manchester scientists at the Jodrell Bank Observatory helped build, has compiled the most detailed map of the post-Big Bang Universe ever recorded and thrown up anomalies that current physics cannot yet explain.
• https://www.stfc.ac.uk/resources/image/jpg/antennaofALMA.jpg Celebrating completion of the ALMA Telescope
  13 March 2013: Scientists, including those in the UK ALMA Regional Centre at The University of Manchester, are today celebrating the monumental achievement of the completion of ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-millimetre Array.
• Pulsar artist impression Chameleon Pulsar Baffles Astronomers
  24 January 2013: A pulsar that is able, without warning, to dramatically change the way in which it shines has been identified by an international team including scientists from the University of Manchester.
• Professor Michael Kramer Astronomical award for Manchester scientist
  11 January 2013: A University of Manchester scientist, Professor Michael Kramer, has been awarded a prize for outstanding merit in observational astrophysics.
• Sir Bernard Lovell OBE FRS Sir Bernard Lovell
  7 August 2012: It is with great regret that we announce that Sir Bernard Lovell OBE FRS died yesterday 6th August 2012 at the age of 98.
• Elbow at Live from Jodrell Bank 2012 Elbow Go Down a Storm at Live from Jodrell Bank 2012
  25 June 2012: Around 12,000 people attended Live from Jodrell Bank on 23rd June 2012 to watch Elbow and supporting acts and take part in activities in the Science Arena.
• John Bishop and Olympic Torch on the Lovell Telescope Olympic Torch at Jodrell Bank
  31 May 2012: Today,comedian John Bishop carried the Olympic Torch to the very top of the Lovell Telescope. The event was enjoyed by local schoolchildren who took part in a range of sports and science activities.
• The Square Kilometre Array Location chosen for world's largest telescope
  25 May 2012: Members of the SKA Organisation today agreed on a dual-site solution for the Square Kilometre Array Telescope, whose international project office is sited here at Jodrell Bank.
• Artist's imprerssion of the red giant wind Astronomers discover sandstorms in space
  11 April 2012: Astronomers at The University of Manchester working with colleagues at the University of Sydney and elsewhere, believe they have found the answer to the mystery of a powerful 'superwind' which causes the death of stars.
• e-MERLIN image of HDF First results from e-MERLIN's deep radio survey of the Hubble Deep Field
  27 March 2012: Astronomers have begun the deepest ever high-resolution radio imaging survey of the region around the Hubble Deep Field. First results are being presented today during the National Astronomy Meeting 2012.
• Spitzer image of galaxy M91 Spectacular infrared images of galaxies
  27 March 2012: Infrared images of more than 200 galaxies, taken with the Spitzer Space Telescope, are being made publically accessible today during the National Astronomy Meeting 2012.
• Transmission 001 in July 2011 Elbow and Paul Weller to headline Live from Jodrell Bank
  28 February 2012: We are thrilled to announce that Elbow and Paul Weller will headline Live from Jodrell Bank on June 23rd and 24th, performing in the shadow of the iconic Lovell Telescope.
• Planck HFI mission draws to a close Planck HFI mission draws to a close
  16 January 2012: After an impressive two and a half years of operation, Planck's High Frequency Instrument has finally exhausted one of its onboard coolant gases and reached the end of its very successful mission. Meanwhile the Low Frequency Instrument, which does not need to be super-cold, will continue taking data with unprecedented sensitivity at longer wavelengths.
• Stargazing Live in 2011 BBC Stargazing Live returns to Jodrell Bank
  12 January 2012: The hugely popular BBC series Stargazing Live returns to Jodrell Bank Observatory next week. Hosted by Prof. Brian Cox and comedian Dara O'Briain, the astronomy extravaganza last year attracted more than 10 million viewers over three nights.
• The Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Olympic Torch to visit Jodrell Bank
  7 November 2011: Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire East has been selected to take part in the London 2012 Olympic Torch Relay as a host location for people to welcome the Olympic Flame.
• The Jodrell Bank stamp J is for Jodrell
  10 October 2011: Jodrell Bank has been chosen to represent the letter 'J' in a new set of stamps featuring an A to Z of iconic landmarks from all four countries in the UK.
• Antennae Galaxies with ALMA/HST ALMA opens its eyes wide
  3 October 2011: ALMA (the Atacama Large Millimetre/sub-millimetre Array), the most complex ground-based telescope in existence, is officially open to astronomers and has produced its first image.
• The Fried Egg Nebula Astronomers crack the Fried Egg Nebula
  28 September 2011: Astronomers have produced the best ever image of a colossal yellow hypergiant star - one of the rarest types of star in the Universe.
• The Diamond Planet The Diamond Planet
  25 August 2011: A once-massive star that's been transformed into a small planet made of diamond: that is what University of Manchester astronomers think they've found in the Milky Way.
• Richard Davis Jodrell Bank astronomer awarded OBE
  13 June 2011: Professor Richard Davis of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics has been awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List for services to science.
• LOFAR pulsars LOFAR takes the pulse of the radio sky
  13 April 2011: A powerful new telescope is allowing an international team lead by University of Manchester scientists to have their 'best-ever look' at pulsars: rapidly rotating neutron stars, created when massive stars die.
• Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre New Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre opens
  7 April 2011: Jodrell Bank Observatory has ushered in a new era with the opening of its new live science Discovery Centre.
• Getting ready for the world's biggest ever telescope Getting ready for the world's biggest ever telescope
  2 April 2011: Plans for the world's biggest telescope - the Square Kilometre Array - advanced significantly today with a decision to locate the project office at The University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory.
• The Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Jodrell Bank shortlisted as World Heritage Site
  22 March 2011: Jodrell Bank Observatory has been placed on the UK's shortlist as a potential UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Herschel weighs the key ingredient for making galaxies Herschel weighs the key ingredient for making galaxies
  24 February 2011: Astronomers have used Europe's Herschel Space Observatory to reveal just how much dark matter it takes to make a galaxy full of stars. The findings are a key step in understanding how dark matter – an invisible substance that pervades our Universe – contributed to the birth of massive galaxies in the early Universe.
• Cosmic magnifying glasses could shed light on the origin of the Universe Cosmic magnifying glasses could shed light on the origin of the Universe
  13 January 2011: Astronomers have shown how gravitational lensing allows us to see the faintest and most distant galaxies, helping us to understand the origin of the Universe.
• Planck unveils wonders of the Universe Planck unveils wonders of the Universe
  11 January 2011: The first scientific results from Europe's Planck spacecraft were released at a press briefing today in Paris.