This has been a very exciting week for space enthusiasts as for the first time since 1972, humans have been sent up to the moon! Why are we going back to the moon? The Artemis II mission is ushering in a new era of space exploration, one where we will soon see the first permanent base set up on the moon, and possibly even the first human travel to Mars! Rare minerals and the increasingly important issue of international law and who owns space have also recently been thrust in

The weather where I have been recently has been rather unhelpful, oscillating between torrential downpour and sizzling humidity when the sky is clear. It got me thinking about weather elsewhere, in the moons and planets of the solar system and beyond. I am particularly fond of the planet Saturn and its entourage of moons, so today I will be zooming on one moon in particular- Titan! In visible light, Titan appears almost featureless. When observed in the infrared wavelength ho

Today's mini post is on a comet called K1 that was recently observed just after fragmenting into at least 4 pieces by the Hubble telescope. This accidental event is remarkable given the extraordinarily low odds of this happening. Comets are balls of rock and ice that orbit the Sun in elliptical orbits, often coming from beyond the Solar System, speeding up as they approach the Sun and are drawn in by its increasingly strong gravity then zooming off in the opposite direction.

Today I listened to a talk by Prof Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell, where she spoke about us all being made of star stuff, hosted by the Cambridge University Women in Physics Society. Being made of star stuff might sound bizarre, but it is true - the elements needed for life as we know it would not be possible without the stars in the universe. They are not just a pretty decoration of lights in the sky, they are crucial for our existence. How so? Taking a brief detour into biology

A mysterious iron 'bar' has been found in the heart of the Ring nebula, the remnant of an exploded star. Resisting any 'person walked into a bar and said ouch, because it was an iron bar' jokes, here is a little scientific summary of what has been found and why it is of interest. The Ring nebula is one of the most iconic classic Hubble images , showing shells of glowing gas around the remains of a sun-like star, now in the white dwarf phase of its life. Indeed, our Sun will e

There is a lovely podcast on Geology Bites which covers most of my planetary science degree in the space of half an hour, and I enjoyed it so much it was due a little blog post. To hear the whole thing in detail, here is the full link to it. Over 6000 exoplanets (planets outside of our solar system) have now been found, and the new direction of research has been to look for habitable life in them. What makes planets habitable? How could they be formed? How would we detect li

Planets form in discs of dust, gas and debris, known as protoplanetary discs. These are particularly fascinating to look at, although not typically seen in mainstream astrophysics pictures, which usually focus on galaxies or stars, or the planets within our own solar system, skipping out other planetary systems entirely. For this reason, today's blog post is dedicated to these faintly glowing discs of dust where, with little fuss or exploding, planets subtly accrete material

The skies were lit up once again in many parts of Europe, even the UK, with spectacular aurorae! A beautiful sight, and one with much fascinating physics behind it. At time of writing, I have about an hour before my friends pick me up to go out for dinner, so I've paused the sombre political podcast I was listening to in order to jot down a quick article about a spectacular phenomenon of the natural world instead. In dark times like these, we all need a little light and wonde

In honour of the new year, I shall celebrate with a brief recap of some exquisite astronomy including supernovae, growing stars, planetary discs and... the 2025 reunion of the best band on the planet (Champagne Supernova is one of the most famous songs by Oasis), here is a little post to celebrate another full circle around the Sun! A new moon! Rather excitingly, a new object was discovered right on our doorstep in the solar system! The mighty infrared/optical Webb telescope

Diamonds form under extreme pressure and temperature conditions. People are probably most familiar with mined diamonds from the Earth's crust, precious, glittery stones frequently used in jewellery. They are of course beautiful, and scarce, which is why people pay so much for them. They are also pretty interesting to study. Some of my friends got engaged recently, which inspired me to explore the science behind these tiny shimmering objects frequently encrusted into rings. Wh

Most stars in the galaxy will end their lives going through a phase of stellar evolution where they become a white dwarf. When stars exhaust their supplies of hydrogen fuel, they undergo a core collapse and shed their outer layers as a supernova. Low to medium mass stars then become white dwarfs, essentially dead stars. White dwarfs are the burnt out remnant cores of stars up to ~8x the mass of the Sun, made up of extremely dense and compact carbon and oxygen. These cores are

Today's post is on planets in protoplanetary discs, specifically one observed by the Very Large Telescope in Chile. The image below is the first clear detection of a baby planet in a disc featuring multiple rings, a phenomenon in protoplanetary discs which I wrote about in a previous blog post here . Stars are formed from molecular clouds in the interstellar medium, the material that fills space with a density of approximately 1 molecule per cubic metre, almost but not quite

To celebrate my first week at work- a post on Enceladus, my favourite icy moon! My colleagues will know this, because I have spoken of...

Here is a stunning collection of images of the Butterfly Nebula to celebrate new beginnings! This beautiful double lobed nebula forms...

As summer was approaching, I and my fellow Cambridge students were making the most of the sunshine by hunkering down inside, hunched over...

It is fair to say this has been an unusually water filled summer, even by the standards of a keen swimmer. Rest assured the physics...

Slightly different post today, as this curious physicist recently had a new type of adventure- swimming to France from Dover! Last autumn...

This week we've been treated to images of the sun's south pole for the first time! As a child learning to read, a particular favourite...

Life elsewhere in the universe is all very well, but life on Earth is pretty special too, so today's post will explore some of the...

On Wednesday, a mysterious email arrived in the inboxes of the Cambridge university astrophysics students, revealing there was to be a...

These Cambridge terms absolutely fly by, so here is another astronomical post to mark the start of the holiday and the ushering in of...

In the summer of 2022, I got a bit bored, and may have spent an hour compiling my favourite equations and sketches of my degree into a...

Behold, it's that time of year again where the holidays are starting, families are back together and the out of office emails are...

With two weeks to go before university term kicks off for my astrophysics masters, I'm making the most of my remaining free time by...

A grand day out Last month we had the fun experience of going to a racetrack to watch and excitingly also drive some fast cars with big...

Two rather cool things have happened this week, so I've tried to squeeze them both into one title. In no particular order, a mystery that...

Astrophysics and swimming are my twin passions, and interestingly they come together rather neatly in the area of distant moons with...

Recently I had a lifechanging trip to the Caribbean, where I was visiting a friend who is lucky enough to call her little island of Grand...

Many twenty-somethings have been celebrating recently, and I was no exception. This week, I am pleased to say I graduated with a First...