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Student Prizes 2023/2024

ucastro@lancashire.ac.uk — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 14:46:45 GMT

This year we have eight Honours graduates.

The BSc (Hons) Astronomy Prize is awarded to:

Timothy Hurton from the UK with the highest overall APM.

The Astronomy Dissertation Prize is awarded to:

Kelly Al-Dakkak from the United States.

Each year students obtaining the highest marks the most popular University Certificates are awarded a Prize.

This year we have one prize for Outstanding Achievement across all three modules.

We are delighted to announce that there is one prize winner for this year.

Paul Murphy from the UK who achieved the highest grades on:

University Certificate in Astronomy

University Certificate in Cosmology

University Certificate in Sun, Earth, and Climate

Student Prizes 2022/2023

ucastro@lancashire.ac.uk — Tue, 11 Jul 2023 15:33:21 GMT

This year we have 12 Honours Graduates.

The BSc (Hons) Astronomy Prize is awarded to:

David Liddicott from the UK with an APM of 79.24%.

The Astronomy Dissertation Prize is jointly awarded to:

Jennie Dunn from the UK with a mark of 87%, and

Mark Trapnell from the UK with a mark of 87%.

Each year the students obtaining the highest marks in the most popular entry level modules are awarded a prize.

We are delighted to announce the following prize winners for this year.

AA1051 Introduction to Astronomy:

Paul Scott from the UK with a mark of 94%.

AA1053 Introduction to Cosmology:

John Maisey from the UK with a mark of 93%.

AA1059 Introduction to Astrobiology:

Gavin James from the UK with a mark of 90%.

Student Prizes 2021/2022

ucastro@lancashire.ac.uk — Fri, 08 Jul 2022 16:31:57 GMT

This year we have 10 Honours Graduates.

The BSc (Hons) Astronomy Prize is awarded to:

Stephen Wallace from the UK with an APM of 83.80%.

The Astronomy Dissertation Prize is awarded to:

John Glassey from the UK with a mark of 87%.

Each year the students obtaining the highest marks in the most popular entry level modules are awarded a prize.

We are delighted to announce the following prize winners for this year.

AA1051 Introduction to Astronomy:

Jointly awarded with a mark of 88% to:

Anthony Davis from the UK and

Philippa Gibbons from the UK.

AA1053 Introduction to Cosmology:

Rony Lanssiers from Belgium with a mark of 90%.

AA1058 Sun, Earth and Climate:

John Maisey from the UK with a mark of 93%.

Student Prizes 2021

ucastro@lancashire.ac.uk — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 12:04:21 GMT

This year we have 12 Honours Graduates.

The BSc (Hons) Astronomy Prize is awarded to:

Kevin Pretorius from the UK with an APM of 80.76%.

The Astronomy Dissertation Prize is awarded to:

Michael Drew from the UK with a mark of 87%

Each year the students obtaining the highest marks in the most popular entry level modules are awarded a prize.

We are delighted to announce the following prize winners for the year 2020/21:

AA1051 Introduction to Astronomy:

Gavin James from the UK with a mark of 93%.

AA1053 Introduction to Cosmology:

Gavin James from the UK with a mark of 87%.

AA1059 Astrobiology:

John Hurwood from the UK with a mark of 92%

Polarised light image of M87 - new insights into its Black hole

ucastro@lancashire.ac.uk — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 18:13:23 GMT

Professor Derek Ward-Thompson, the Head of UCLan’s School of Natural Sciences and JHI Director, is part of the global Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, who produced the first ever image of a black hole, and this new image shows how the centre of the M87 galaxy looks in polarised light (see here for Prof Ward-Thompson’s interview with the BBC).

This is the first-time astronomers have been able to measure polarisation, a signature of magnetic fields, this close to the edge of a black hole. The observations are key to explaining how the M87 galaxy, located 55 million light-years away, is able to launch energetic jets from its core.

Professor Ward-Thompson, commented: “This unique observation means that for the first time we can map the magnetic fields around a black hole right into the region of the event horizon. This is exciting because astronomers believe that the magnetic fields are responsible for launching ionised material millions of light years into space in what we call ‘jets’, which can be ten times larger than the entire galaxy.

“This was extremely difficult to do, because not only do we have to record the intensity of the light in the manner of a camera, we also have to record its polarisation in the manner of a pair of polaroid sunglasses. So, in the same way as sunglasses dim the amount of light we see from the sun, the polariser on our telescope dims the amount of light we can see from the black hole, making it much more difficult to detect.”

Monika Mościbrodzka, Coordinator of the EHT Polarimetry Working Group and Assistant Professor at Radboud Universiteit in the Netherlands, said: “We are now seeing the next crucial piece of evidence to understand how magnetic fields behave around black holes, and how activity in this very compact region of space can drive powerful jets that extend far beyond the galaxy.”

On 10 April 2019, scientists released the first ever image of a black hole, revealing a bright ring-like structure with a dark central region — the black hole’s shadow. Since then, the EHT collaboration has delved deeper into the data on the supermassive object at the heart of the M87 galaxy collected in 2017. They have discovered that a significant fraction of the light around the black hole is polarised.

“This work is a major milestone: the polarisation of light carries information that allows us to better understand the physics behind the image we saw in April 2019, which was not possible before,” explains Iván Martí-Vidal, also Coordinator of the EHT Polarimetry Working Group and GenT Distinguished Researcher at the Universitat de València, Spain.

He adds that “unveiling this new polarised-light image required years of work due to the complex techniques involved in obtaining and analysing the data.”

Light becomes polarised when it goes through certain filters, like the lenses of polarised sunglasses, or when it is emitted in hot regions of space that are magnetised. In the same way polarised sunglasses help us see better by reducing reflections and glare from bright surfaces, astronomers can sharpen their vision of the region around the black hole by looking at how the light originating from there is polarised. Specifically, polarisation allows astronomers to map the magnetic field lines present at the inner edge of the black hole.

EHT collaboration member Andrew Chael, a NASA Hubble Fellow at the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science and the Princeton Gravity Initiative in the USA, commented: “The newly published polarised images are key to understanding how the magnetic field allows the black hole to ‘eat’ matter and launch powerful jets.”

The bright jets of energy and matter that emerge from M87’s core and extend at least 5,000 light-years from its centre are one of the galaxy’s most mysterious and energetic features. Most matter lying close to the edge of a black hole falls in. However, some of the surrounding particles escape moments before capture and are blown far out into space in the form of jets.

Astronomers have relied on different models of how matter behaves near the black hole to better understand this process. But they still don’t know exactly how jets larger than the galaxy are launched from its central region, which is as small in size as the Solar System, nor how exactly matter falls into the black hole. With the new EHT image of the black hole and its shadow in polarised light, astronomers managed for the first time to look into the region just outside the black hole where this interplay between matter flowing in and being ejected out is happening.

The observations provide new information about the structure of the magnetic fields just outside the black hole. The team found that only theoretical models featuring strongly magnetised gas can explain what they are seeing at the event horizon.

“The observations suggest that the magnetic fields at the black hole’s edge are strong enough to push back on the hot gas and help it resist gravity’s pull. Only the gas that slips through the field can spiral inwards to the event horizon,” explains Jason Dexter, Assistant Professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, USA, and coordinator of the EHT Theory Working Group.

To observe the heart of the M87 galaxy, the collaboration linked eight telescopes around the world, including the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, which UCLan helps to finance, to create a virtual Earth-sized telescope, the EHT. The impressive resolution obtained with the EHT is equivalent to that needed to measure the length of a credit card on the surface of the Moon.

This setup allowed the team to directly observe the black hole shadow and the ring of light around it, with the new polarised-light image clearly showing that the ring is magnetised. The results are published today in two separate papers in The Astrophysical Journal Letters by the EHT collaboration. The research involved more than 300 researchers from multiple organisations and universities worldwide.

EHT collaboration member Jongho Park, an East Asian Core Observatories Association Fellow at the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics in Taipei, added: “The EHT is making rapid advancements, with technological upgrades being done to the network and new observatories being added. We expect future EHT observations to reveal more accurately the magnetic field structure around the black hole and to tell us more about the physics of the hot gas in this region.”

You can see a zoomed video of the Messier87, including the polarized emission of the ring, online.

JHI Spring Lecture - Hunting for the Ghosts of Galaxies

ucastro@lancashire.ac.uk — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 11:11:39 GMT

Event Date:: 22 April 2021

We are holding our next JHI Spring Lecture online on Wednesday the 22 April at 6.30pm BST. If you would like to register for a ticket(s) please click on the Eventbrite link below.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/jeremiah-horrocks-spring-lecture-hunting-for-the-ghosts-of-galaxies-tickets-144492830947

Please note all participants will be emailed on how to access this online lecture week beginning 19th April.

Lecture by Dr Mark Norris of UCLan In recent years it has become possible to study millions or even billions of individual stars within our Milky Way galaxy, and hence to determine how it formed in exquisite detail. But our Universe contains hundreds of billions of other galaxies, all but a handful of which are far too distant to individually examine their stars. Is it possible for us to learn how they formed or acquired their stars with similar detail? In this talk I will describe how the combination of computer simulations, large surveys using state-of-the-art spectrographs, and a few bright ideas are allowing us to pick apart the light of galaxies to work out how and when their stars were formed. In the process we are uncovering the ghosts of the dozens or hundreds of former galaxies that were destroyed to produce the surviving galaxies we see today. Biography

Dr Mark Norris graduated from Durham University with a MSci in Physics in 2004, followed by a PhD in Astrophysics in 2008. Between 2008 and 2015 he conducted research into the formation of galaxies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy in Heidelberg Germany as a postdoctoral scholar. In 2015 Mark joined UCLan as a Lecturer in Astronomy, teaching undergraduate on-campus and distance learning course related to Astronomy. He is responsible for the running of UCLan’s Alston Observatory.

Student Prizes 2019-2020

ucastro@lancashire.ac.uk — Mon, 29 Jun 2020 10:26:26 GMT

This year we have 13 Honours Graduates. Congratulations to them all.

Each year the students with the best performance in the Entry Level modules and in the BSc (Hons) Astronomy are nominated for a prize.

The BSc (Hons) Astronomy Prize is awarded to

Richard Pomeroy from the UK with an APM of 79.96%.

The Astronomy Dissertation Prize is awarded to:

Ciaran McDonnell from the Republic of Ireland with a mark of 87%.

Each year the students obtaining the highest marks in the most popular entry level modules are awarded a prize.

We are delighted to announce the following prize winners for this year.

AA1051 Introduction to Astronomy:

John Maisey from the UK with a mark of 97%.

AA1058 Sun, Earth and Climate: Joint

Philip Buley (from the UK) and Alastair Green from Australia with a mark of 94%.

Royal Astronomical Society celebrates 200th Anniversary

ucastro@lancashire.ac.uk — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 10:59:52 GMT

Two JHI staff members, Prof Derek Ward-Thompson and Dr Megan Argo, joined 250 other astronomers, geophysicists, and invited guests at the Langham Hotel in central London on January 23rd to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Royal Astronomical Society. Formed when fourteen gentlemen sat down to dinner at the Freemason’s Tavern in London in January 1820, the Society has since grown to a diverse membership of more than 4000 geophysicists and astronomers, both amateur and professional, around the world.

Among the speakers at the celebration event were RAS President-Elect Prof Emma Bunce who gave the presidential address, and Lord Rees of Ludlow, Astronomer Royal, who entertained the assembled guests with his thoughts on what might be in store for us over the next 200 years.

Interestingly, Megan herself, had spoken on that exact same topic – the next 200 years – two weeks earlier at the normal meeting of the RAS. Professor Ward-Thompson said: “I felt that this was somewhat of a difficult title, but in my opinion Megan did as good a job as Lord Rees at addressing the subject.”

The crowd also heard a reading of a new poem, Astronomy for Beginners, performed and recorded in advance by its author, Simon Armitage, the Poet Laureate. The new logo was also officially revealed at the event by master of ceremonies for the evening, Philip Diamond, RAS Executive Director.

The formalities also included a short Q&A with three recipients of RAS funding: Manasvee Saraf, recipient of an Undergraduate Research Bursary; Charlotte Grundy from Girlguiding UK, one of the RAS200 projects; and Jo Barstow, recipient of an RAS research Fellowship. All the recipients explained what the funding had meant to them, and how it had helped them progress and realise their potential. The formal part of the evening concluded, the guests adjourned for drinks and nibbles, and discussions about the next 200 years of astronomy and geophysics.

Pic caption: Professor Derek Ward-Thompson (left) and Dr Megan Argo (right) meet Sir Martin Rees.

JHI astronomers find a way to form ‘fast and furious’ planets around tiny stars

ucastro@lancashire.ac.uk — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 10:56:22 GMT

New research unveiled in Astronomy and Astrophysics Journal

New astronomy research from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) suggests giant planets could form around small stars much faster than previously thought.

As published in Astronomy and Astrophysics Journal, Dr Anthony Mercer and Dr Dimitris Stamatellos’ new planet formation research challenges our understanding of planet formation.

Red dwarfs, the most common type of stars in our Galaxy, are small stars, 10% to 50% the size of our Sun. Despite their small mass, they are found to host giant planets up to 10 times bigger than Jupiter, the largest planet in our Solar System.

The formation mechanism of these big planets remains an unsolved mystery. Giant planets around stars, like our Sun, are thought to have formed by the gradual build-up of dust particles to progressively bigger bodies. However, red dwarfs are tiny when compared to the Sun, and they do not seem to have enough material around them to form such big planets.

The research team used the UK Distributed Research using Advanced Computing (DiRAC) supercomputing facility to simulate the evolution of protoplanetary discs around red dwarf stars. Protoplanetary discs are rotating structures of dense gas and dust found around all newly-born stars.

The researchers found that if these young discs are big enough they can fragment, i.e. break up into pieces, forming gas giant planets. This theory predicts that the formation of giant planets happens within a few thousand years, a timescale which is extremely fast in astrophysical terms.

Dr Mercer, who led the research, said: “The fact that planets may be able to form on such short timescale around tiny stars is incredibly exciting. Our work shows that planet formation is particularly robust: other worlds can form even around small stars in a variety of ways, and therefore planets may be more diverse than we previously thought.”

The researchers also found these planets are extremely hot when they form, with temperatures at their cores reaching thousands of degrees. Such hot planets would be relatively easy to observe when they are still young. They do not have an internal energy source, so they become fainter with time, and the window of opportunity to directly observe them is very small. Nevertheless, they can still be indirectly observed by their effect on their host star. Many planets like these have been discovered so far around small stars.

Co-author of the research Dr Stamatellos, Astrophysicist in UCLan’s Jeremiah Horrocks Institute, added: “This was the first time that we were able not only to see planets forming in computer simulations but also to determine their initial properties with great detail. It was fascinating to find that these planets are of the ‘fast and furious’ kind – they form quickly and they are unexpectedly hot.”

Future observations of planets around very young red dwarf stars will test the predictions of this new theory.

The research was funded by a PhD studentship from the Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC).

To view the research paper visit https://www.aanda.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201936954

Pic caption

Computer simulation of planets forming in a protoplanetary disc around a red dwarf star.

Animations A high resolution animation can be downloaded at http://www.star.uclan.ac.uk/~dstamatellos/downloads/movies/mdwarfs.mp4

A related YouTube animation can be found at https://youtu.be/YuhqebYwQis

Notes for editors

Simulations were performed using the UK’s DiRAC High Performance Computing facility. The research was funded by a PhD studentship from the Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC).

Related publications

Mercer, A. & Stamatellos, D. 2019, Astronomy & Astrophysics

“Planet formation around M dwarfs via disc instability”

Contact details

Dr Dimitris Stamatellos

Jeremiah Horrocks Institute for Mathematics, Physics, & Astronomy

University of Central Lancashire

Preston PR1 2HE, UK

Web: http://www.star.uclan.ac.uk/~dstamatellos

Email: dstamatellos@uclan.ac.uk

Tel: +44(0) 1772 896418

Success for JHI researchers at the Royal Astronomical Society awards

ucastro@lancashire.ac.uk — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 10:53:04 GMT

Two members of the JHI, Dr Danielle Bewsher and Dr Daniel Brown have been named as part of the STEREO Heliospheric Imager group that have won the 2020 RAS Group Achievement Award for achievement by a large consortium in geophysics.

The Heliospheric Imager instruments, on board the twin NASA Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) spacecraft, have given an entirely new perspective on the heliosphere and space weather. Their scientific achievements are extensive, including the first stereoscopic imaging of a coronal mass ejection impacting the Earth, revealing the complex structure of the solar wind, and imaging the disconnection of a comet’s tail due to a coronal mass ejection.

The Heliospheric Imager team have provided outstanding service by contributing tools, assistance and bespoke data products to facilitate rapid scientific progress, with their vital space-weather data and expertise in great demand.

For more information, see https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/leading-astronomers-and-geophysicists-honoured-ras-bicentenary-year-0

Image credit: Danielle Bewsher & the STEREO HI team.