Our Virtual Reality movie about the life of the Milky Way is now out on YouTube in a flatscreen version! We're really proud of this and can't wait to take it out to schools in the North East 🤩🔭✨🧪

Durham University@durham.ac.uk · 4mo ago

@durhamphysics.bsky.social @icc-durham.bsky.social are taking us back nine billion years in time to understand the formation of our Milky Way! Their new movie is available in 3D VR format for schools and science outreach. See the full movie and discover more 👉 tinyurl.com/d7yppeem @ukri.org

Another proud supervisor moment today 🤩 Alex has their awesome paper out on the arXiv about what sets bar rotation in the cosmological context: arxiv.org/abs/2601.20941 Alex finds that galaxies with lower stellar mass and lower baryon-dominance have slower bars ✨ 🔭🧪 #astrosci #astro

Our @durhamphysics.bsky.social astronomers have helped create the highest resolution map of the dark matter that threads through our Universe - showing the mysterious substance’s influence on the formation of stars, galaxies and planets. Discover more 👉 www.durham.ac.uk/news-events/...

Revealing dark matter’s influence on the Universe - Durham University

durham.ac.uk

Very proud of PhD student Thomas Tomlinson, who's awesome paper is out on the arXiv today, on bar-induced substructures in stellar haloes 🤩🔭 #astrosci arxiv.org/abs/2601.14409

Cakes for Good: an initiative by Durham astronomy's wonderful PhD students reported on in Nature 🤩 www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Cake to the rescue: how these PhD students are cooking up a sense of community

One treat at a time, these graduate students are helping to raise funds for charitable organizations.

nature.com

Astronomers have detected a dark blob of...something, billions of light years away. It's as massive as a million Suns & it emits no detectable radiation. It might be a clump of dark matter, revealing new details about the structure of the invisible universe. 🧪🔭 www.ucdavis.edu/news/astrono...

Paper day! My PhD student Mariana Júlio, with @readdark.bsky.social, @pengfeili.bsky.social and others, studies the internal dynamics of dwarf galaxies and finds they don't agree with the Radial Acceleration Relation, challenging the dark matter alternative MOND. arxiv.org/abs/2510.06905 🔭☄️🧪 1/7

The radial acceleration relation at the EDGE of galaxy formation: testing its universality in low-mass dwarf galaxies

A tight correlation between the baryonic and observed acceleration of galaxies has been reported over a wide range of mass ($10^8 < M_{\rm bar}/{\rm M}_\odot < 10^{11}$) - the Radial Acceleration Rela...

arxiv.org

🌌 Yesterday, the Durham Advanced School on Astrophysical Simulations kicked off at Durham University! PhD students and researchers are diving into both theoretical and practical aspects of astrophysical simulations. Big thanks to the Institute of Computational Simulations for organizing! 🙏

The wait is over! Next week the Durham Advanced School on Astrophysical Simulations kicks off at @durhamuniversity.bsky.social We’re finalizing preparations for this international event with 50 students and ~12 lecturers 👩‍💻👨‍🏫 Big thanks to the DU-ICC for hosting! 📸 More updates and photos coming soon!

As a member of the Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts & Sciences (KNAW) I support our statement on the war in Gaza. www.knaw.nl/en/news/stat...

From using Arduino to simulate exoplanet transits (perfect for older students fond of technology) to exploring lightning on other planets, and wrapping up with a tactile Jupiter experience designed for younger children: This is the astroEDU summer collection of activities 2025! 1/4 🔭 #astroedu

Great article about the importance of software engineering and open source code in astrophysics 🔭🧪 (and if anyone is keen to work with me on #BlackHoles lmk, I am planning to hire a software engineer soon!) 😊 www.simonsfoundation.org/2025/08/12/a...

A Stellar Revolution: How Open-Source Tool MESA Changed the Way We Study Stars

A Stellar Revolution: How Open-Source Tool MESA Changed the Way We Study Stars on Simons Foundation

simonsfoundation.org

Last month we had the privilege of having Durham U's Chancellor, Dr Fiona Hill, record the narration for a new VR movie we're developing about the life of our Milky Way, using the new Auriga Superstars simulations 🔭☄️✨ We're really excited to share this soon with you all 👀 #astronomy #astrosci

Durham University@durham.ac.uk · last yr.

Our astronomers are developing a virtual reality movie to inspire children from North East England and beyond to be curious about science and the cosmos. Our Chancellor, Dr Fiona Hill, has recorded the voiceover for the movie which will premiere later this year! Watch this space… #NAM2025

Astrophysicist Margaret Burbidge FRS was born #OnThisDay in 1919. During her long career she helped originate the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis, discovered the most distant astronomical object known at the time, and helped develop instruments for the Hubble Space Telescope. #WomenInSTEM #Space

oh dear, scary, but good to know since I often use google for quick calculations and unit conversions 😱

John Forbes@redshiftless.bsky.social · last yr.

PSA to scientists: Google calculator appears to no longer do basic unit conversion correctly! n.b. the correct answer here is 223.4 Myr, a factor of about 60 larger than Google's answer. 🔭 🧪

We’ve got a new zooniverse program called Dwarf Quest! Help us find members of our Milky Way’s galactic entourage in data from the Dark Energy Camera www.zooniverse.org/projects/ywy...

Zooniverse

The Zooniverse is the world’s largest and most popular platform for people-powered research.

zooniverse.org

So something @stilgherrian.com shared earlier caught my eye and I did some reading. Apparently, SpaceX is lodged a complaint with the FCC that another company, AST, is putting to many satellites into orbit. First and foremost, let's get this out of the way ... fuckin lolz. They have no shame. 1/n

🧪Physicists disagree wildly on what quantum mechanics says about reality, Nature survey shows From nature.com www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Physicists disagree wildly on what quantum mechanics says about reality, Nature survey shows

First major attempt to chart researchers’ views finds interpretations in conflict.

nature.com

Big day for the matriarchy! 🥳 Huge congrats to the awesome Prof. Doughtery, lead on the Jupiter-bound ESA JUICE mission & STFC Exec Chair. If anyone's confused on the astro royal hierarchy: Michele and I are the astro equivalents of 🇬🇧Westminster and 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Holyrood 🤗 ℹ️: www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... 👩‍🔬🔭🧪

UK gets first female Astronomer Royal in 350 years

Prof Michele Dougherty is the first woman to be appointed to the influential post.

bbc.co.uk

Our sister institute at Durham, the Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy, are advertising for a five year lectureship position 🔭☄️ Advertisement is here, have a look and come join us in pretty Durham: durham.taleo.net/careersectio... #astrosci

🔭 Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, UK astronomy version. Inspired by a comment from LOC chair David Alexander at #NAM2025 🔭

I have a lot of thoughts here, but the most basic one is that it's insane that we've allowed people to get so rich that they can basically fund this with their own money while at the same time not providing any real mechanism for governmental oversight or regulation.

George Pearkes@peark.es · last yr.

Some absolutely insane numbers here.

DAY 3 #NAM2025durham 🌟 Midweek at #NAM2025 brings one of our busiest days of sessions! Join us for these special events: 🎨 Artwork unveiling in OCW including dance and poetry performances 🎲 board games night in the TLC And reminder to vote for most engaging exhibitor by 5pm!

My awesome PhD student 🤩

Durham University@durham.ac.uk · last yr.

The @royalastrosoc.bsky.social @nam25-durham.bsky.social is a chance for our students to hear from leading astronomers and share their own research. PhD student Martyna Winiarska says that taking part in NAM is what being a researcher is all about 👉 durham-student.org/national-ast... #NAM2025

We're excited to be hosting almost 1,000 leading space scientists at the @royalastrosoc.bsky.social ‪National Astronomy Meeting #NAM2025 next week, 7 to 11 July! Leading up to NAM, discover more about our amazing research into the mysteries of the Universe 👉 www.durham.ac.uk/news-events/...

Still confused by all the fuss about our new interstellar visitor? check out this new explainer by @astrokirsten.bsky.social ☄️🔭🧪 theconversation.com/astronomers-...

Astronomers have spied an interstellar object zooming through the Solar System

An object dubbed 3I/ATLAS is only the third interloper from outside the Solar System seen in all of human history.

theconversation.com

Finding out about Gaia at #EAS2025Cork! ☄️ Just announced: Gaia DR4 will be released in December 2026!

am I... the only person who likes the game of "submit to arXiv at exact time to be first"? 👀 I totally understanding those who don't want to play it and submit at any time. I always go through the whole list anyway, or lately tend to use something like benty-fields which sorts the papers for me

allowing myself a small moment of pride to say that I'm really happy to have been promoted to associate professor 😊

What's that you say? You don't have 400 HD TVs to see the #RubinFirstLook images at full resolution? Fear not, surf through Rubin's view of the cosmos with the @vrubinobs.bsky.social skyviewer app! Click the link to visit these little beauties 🥰 🧪🔭 🏄‍♀️: skyviewer.app

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot.bsky.social · last yr.

🥳 It's #RubinFirstLook day and the Universe sure is beautiful! Here's the evidence backing up my BBC Radio 4 Today assertion that Rubin's Trifid nebula image looks just like a jellyfish! You are welcome 🤗🔭 Join the watch party online today at 16:00 UK time! 🎥: www.youtube.com/live/Zv22_Am...