ARI's Carole Mundell has been invited to give the opening lecture in the Lovell Lecture Series at Jodrell Bank. The title of the talk - "Big Bangs and Black Holes".

In this talk, Carole Mundell will introduce some of the most powerful phenomena in the Universe that are driven by black holes, big and small - Active Galactic Nuclei and Gamma Ray Bursts. Comparing and contrasting our current understanding gained from this range of observations, Prof. Mundell will give a flavour of life as an observational astronomer in the modern era of robotic telescopes and real-time discoveries.

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Peter Garnavich (Notre Dame) fielding questions.

The Astrophysics Research Institute recently hosted a Royal Astronomical Society-sponsored workshop entitled "Explosive Transients" LJMU's Peter Jost Enterprise Centre.

Around 60 Astronomers from 23 institutions, including those in the US, continental Europe and South Africa, took part. The meeting featured talks on some of the latest facilities around the globe, including the Liverpool Telescope, for detection and follow-up of these unpredictable stellar eruptions, then moved on to review the latest observations and theoretical interpretation of the events themselves.

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It is with the greatest sadness that we have to report Liverpool Telescope Support Astronomer Dr Chris Moss died on 12th May 2010 after a short illness in the Royal Liverpool Hospital. His untimely death has come as a great shock to everyone in the Institute and the wider community. A short tribute to Chris has been written by Professor David Carter.

L to R: Professor Peter Wheeler, Dean of the Faculty of Science, Professor Carole Mundell, Professor Mike Bode, Director of LJMU's Astrophysics Research Institute, and Aldham Robarts.

‘Big bangs and black holes - a multi-dimensional view of the Universe’ by Professor Carole Mundell

Professor Carole Mundell provided a fascinating multi-dimensional view of the Universe during her Inaugural lecture, which gave insight into black holes and how research into this particular field of astronomy has progressed over the last 200 years.

Professor Mundell explained that although theoretical concepts of black holes date back over 200 years, they remained in the realms of mathematical speculation until the late 20th century. Today, the existence of black holes - stellar and supermassive - is no longer debated; instead, the physics of their creation and the far-reaching consequences of their existence remain at the forefront of modern astronomy.

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The observation of Jupiter taken by the Liverpool Telescope for Blue Peter.

Andy Newsam (left) and Andy Akinwolere (right) control the Liverpool Telescope in La Palma from the Royal Observatory in Greenwich.

The Liverpool Telescope on La Palma (Image credit: A. Gomboc)

National Schools' Observatory astronomer Andy Newsam has guided Blue Peter presenter Andy Akinwolere to success in his hunt to see some planets. After being thwarted by the weather trying to observe using telescopes in Norfolk and Greenwich, the Liverpool Telescope came to the rescue by getting observations of Jupiter, Mars, Uranus and Neptune.

Filmed as part of the International Year of Astronomy, the Blue Peter planet hunt was broadcast this week and highlighted the power of robotic telescopes in bringing the wonders of the night sky to anyone. As world leaders in using this new technology to enhance education, LJMU was the obvious place to turn to when the BBC were looking for expert help and Andy Newsam was happy to step in: "Being on Blue Peter is a lifelong ambition of mine, and to combine that with a chance to show children how the science we are doing here can be part of their lives was an amazing experience".

Anyone wanting to follow in Andy Akinwolere footsteps and observe their own planets with the Liverpool Telescope should follow this link: http://www.schoolsobservatory.org.uk/obs/public/bpplanet.shtml

Websites:

National Schools Observatory: http://www.schoolsobservatory.org.uk
Liverpool Telescope: http://telescope.livjm.ac.uk

Dr Andreja Gomboc delivered a lecture to the Slovenian Parliament

Dr Andreja Gomboc, former fellow of LJMU's Astrophysics Research Institute, delivered a lecture to the Slovenian Parliament entitled 'Us and the Universe.'

The lecture focused on the Universe and astronomy, with Dr Gomboc explaining that many questions remain open and can only be answered with the help of modern technology, such as the LJMU-owned Liverpool Telescope (LT).

She informed the Slovenian Parliament about the capabilities of the world leading telescope and said the LT was a perfect model for robotic astronomy that her country may wish to follow.

Again referencing the LT, in particular results from RINGO, Dr Gomboc's lecture also focused on Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs), which she described as one of the hottest topics in modern astronomy and astrophysics. She explained how GRBs are unpredictable, short in duration and the most powerful explosions in the Universe since the Big Bang.

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RINGO image of GRB 090102 observed 2009 Jan 02. The field of view is 4.6x4.6 arcmin. The optical afterglow of the GRB is the ring labelled "G"; foreground comparison sources are labelled 1-6. © 2009 LT Group.

A team of astronomers from the Astrophysics Research Institute (ARI) at Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) have used the RINGO instrument on the Liverpool Telescope (LT) to measure the polarisation of light from a Gamma Ray Burst (GRB) and show that strong magnetic fields are responsible for beaming the light towards Earth.

Director of Liverpool Telescope Prof. Iain Steele explained: "We realised a few years ago that optical polarisation was going to be a vital discriminator between theoretical models of GRB formation, and developed the RINGO instrument specifically to study this question." The team's results are reported in a paper in the 10th December 2009 issue of Nature.

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Figure 1: Dr Will Priestly (l), Dr Joe Anderson (r) with Dr Phil James of the ARI

Figure 2: Dr Diego Black (r) with Professor Mike Bode, Director of the ARI at the award ceremony.

Four research students from the Astrophysics Research Institute received their Ph.D’s in this year’s degree ceremony held at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral. The awards were presented by the Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University, Dr Brian May.

Dr Will Priestly received his Astrophysics PhD for his research into the Evolution of Gas in Galactic Globular Clusters. Will has now been awarded a Daiwa Scholarship and is living in Tokyo, learning Japanese and working with Japanese scientists. Dr Joe Anderson received his Astrophysics PhD for his study into the Constraints on Supernova Progenitors. Joe secured a Postdoctoral Research position at the Univesidad de Chile and is now living in Santiago. Dr Diego Black completed his Astrophysics PhD on the Investigation of Extragalactic and Pre-Telescopic Novae and is now working for a Patent law firm in the West Midlands.

Dr Wichean Kriwattanawong, who was unable to attend the ceremony, gained his Astrophysics PhD for his study of The Formation and Evolution of the Galaxy Population in the nearby cluster Abell 1367. Dr Kriwattanawong is now a lecturer in the Department of Physics, Chiang Mai University and is also a senior astronomer with the Thai National Telescope project.

The ARI has a very active research programme and any student interested in undertaking a PhD should go to the website where further details on a number of PhD projects are available.

Astronaut Dr Rhea Seddon.

Former NASA astronaut Dr Rhea Seddon paid a visit to the North West as part of an International Space School Educational Trust (ISSET) visit to the UK. She was invited to tour the ARI and later gave a talk on some of her spaceflight experiences to a capacity audience. Dr Seddon flew three Space Shuttle missions between 1985 and 1993 accumulating over 30 days in space. Part of her work included looking at the effects on humans, animals and cells to microgravity, and in studying human and animal physiology, in particular medical experiments on the metabolic, cardiopulmonary and musculoskeletal effects of prolonged weightlessness. Chris Barber, founder and director of ISSET, and who organised the visit provided a brief overview of the aims of ISSET emphasising the use of space and space exploration to increase student and teacher motivation as well as the effectiveness of teaching and learning within UK schools and colleges.

ARI's Chris Collins has been invited to give the 2009 David Elder Lecture at the Department of Physics, University of Strathclyde. This public lecture series is one of the oldest in Scotland, originating in 1904 as a result of an endowment in memory of David Elder, who was regarded as the father of marine engineering on the Clyde. The scope of the endowment is the maintenance of ‘Lectures of Descriptive Astronomy’. Recent speakers include Professors John Zarnecki and Monica Grady of the Open University and Professor Gerry Gilmore of Cambridge University. The title of the 2009 talk is "A Cosmological Adventure".

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HST/ACS image of the RS Ophiuchi remnant.

Using the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope (HST), an international team of astronomers have taken the first optical images of a dramatic stellar outburst and discovered a peanut-shaped bubble expanding rapidly into space. Team member Valerio Ribeiro, a graduate student from Liverpool John Moores University will present their results on Wednesday 22nd April at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science conference at the University of Hertfordshire.

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Figure 1: Infrared image of the cluster XMMU J2235.3-2557

Figure 2: Mass evolution of brightest cluster galaxies with look-back time

Liverpool John Moores University astronomers have discovered large galaxies some two thirds of the way back in time to the big bang. This surprising find casts doubt on theories of how the biggest galaxies form. The conventional view is that the heaviest galaxies in the universe started out very small and light and have gained most of their weight relatively recently by cannibalising other galaxies that came too close. However, these new findings, to be published in Nature on April 2nd, suggest that rather than being svelte, some galaxies in the distant past weighed just as much as the monsters we see in the universe today.

The discovery was made using one of the largest optical telescopes in the World, called Subaru (named after the Japanese word for the Pleiades star cluster), located on the Island of Hawaii and owned by the National Observatory of Japan. Analysing the light from these remote galaxies, the astronomers at LJMU’s Astrophysics Research Institute have effectively weighed them and found that despite feeding on a constant diet of small galaxies, the heaviest galaxies have not increased their weight over the last 9 billion years. In a universe whose age is 13.7 billion years old, these results spark a debate as to how these galaxies put on so much weight in the first few billion years after the big bang.

LJMU’s Professor Chris Collins and leader of the international team of astrophysicists who made the breakthrough, said: “Current predictions using simulations run on super computers suggest that at such a young age these galaxies should be only 20% of their final weight, so to find galaxies so large suggests that galaxy formation is a much more rapid process than we previously thought and perhaps the theories are missing some important physics.”

Dr John Stott who carried out the analysis said: "We were surprised to find that the largest and brightest galaxies in the Universe have remained essentially unchanged for the last 9 billion years, having grown rapidly soon after the Big Bang."

One possibility being considered is that the galaxies formed by the collapse of an already massive cloud at the dawn of the universe.

Notes:

Figure 1: An infrared image of the cluster XMMU J2235.3-2557 taken with Subaru, seen at a distance corresponding to 65% of the way back to the big bang. The image shows the central 1.5 x 1.5 arc min of the cluster corresponding to 0.75 Mpc at this distance. The clusters X-ray emission is used to pinpoint the location of the brightest galaxy in the cluster as shown by the green contours which represent the X-ray intensity as measured by the XMM-Newton X-ray satellite.

Figure 2: The mass evolution of brightest cluster galaxies with look-back time. The red points represent the masses of the galaxies we have observed (the average and standard error are also shown) and the grey points the prediction of mass build up from hierarchical models. This work was carried out with funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) which also funds the UK subscription to ESA. Subaru is operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan and XMMNewton is an ESA science mission funded by contributions to ESA members and from NASA.

Chris Collins and John Stott (LJMU), are part of the Xmm X-ray Cluster Survey team along with: M. Hilton (KwaZulu-Natal, SA), S. Kay (The University of Manchester), A. Stanford (University of California, Davis), M Davidson (University of Edinburgh), M. Hosmer (university of Sussex), B. Hoyle (University of Portsmouth), A Liddle (University of Sussex), E. Lloyd-Davies (University od Sussex), R. Mann (University of Edinburgh), N. Mehrtens (University of Sussex), C. Miller (CTIO, USA), R. Nichol (University of Portsmouth), A. Romer (University of Sussex), Martin Sahlen (University of Sussex), P. Viana (Universiadade do Porto, Portugal), M West (ESO, Chile).

Astrophysics Research Institute URL http://www.astro.ljmu.ac.uk

Access to the Liverpool Telescope is through the internet

The John Cleveland College in Hinckley, Leicestershire has become the 1000th school to register with the National Schools’ Observatory (NSO) giving the College access to the world’s largest fully robotic telescope – The Liverpool Telescope (LT). The John Cleveland College is a Specialist Science College and is one of a growing number of specialist colleges that have registered with the NSO. The 1000th registration therefore marks another significant landmark in the life of the NSO and testimony to the value that the Liverpool Telescope is having on everyday classroom science. Dr Andy Newsam, Director of the National Schools’ Observatory and Reader in Astronomy Education said ‘this is another milestone that the NSO has reached in only a relatively short time. We are delighted that schools, particularly Specialist Science Colleges, are using our facilities to enhance the provision of science throughout the curriculum”.

This landmark is particularly timely as it coincides with the International Year of Astronomy (IYA). As part of the IYA celebrations the NSO is planning a number of workshops for school teachers around the UK later in the year.

MAD IV Programme

Spaceport Visitor Centre hosted another successful Merseyside Astronomy Day (MAD IV) on Saturday 21st March. Once again there were a series of six excellent presentations given by professional astrophysicists covering a range of topics from current research in Nova explosions and Sun storms to star formation and gamma ray emissions. All the talks were given to a near capacity audience in the Spaceport Dome . Green Witch from Cambridge (www.green-witch.com) provided practical information on a range of telescopes and binoculars for astronomy, and Liverpool John Moores University provided information on their Distance Learning courses. A selection of large format posters was also available as well as CD’s and large quantities of (edible) moon rock. Feedback and responses from those who attended the day clearly indicated the need for another MAD day next year.

Applications for undergraduate courses up 60%

The number of UCAS applications for the 3 year BSc degree course in Physics and Astronomy and the 4 year MPhys degree in Astrophysics has increased by almost 60% over the same period last year. Both degree courses are run jointly by the Astrophysics Research Institute at Liverpool John Moores University and the Physics Department at Liverpool University, and offer a considerable amount of flexibility in the modules that can be studied. This allows students a wide range of career paths on completion and a substantial number of students that graduate go on to undertake research degrees. Information about these degree courses can be found in the undergraduate brochure and Factfiles that are readily available from the Institute.

Professor Iain Steele

A number of staff and students recently attended Professor Iain Steele’s Inaugural Professorial Lecture in the Peter Jost Lecture Theatre at Liverpool John Moores University. His lecture entitled “Telescope 2 : Big Iron meets Big Glass” explored how observational astronomy may evolve in the future. He discussed how the boundaries between telescopes, detectors and analysis are starting to merge and how new methods of observational astronomy allow us to use software to define our telescopes and to construct ‘global sky models’. Professor Steele is the Director of the Liverpool Telescope and becomes Professor of Astronomical Technology at LJMU’s Astrophysics Research Institute.

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Sixth Framework Programme

Following this summer’s successful ASTRONET symposium, organised by LJMU, the Working Group, led by Mike Bode Professor of Astrophysics at LJMU have now published the Roadmap for European Astronomy. The essence of the Roadmap is to ensure that European Astronomy has the tools to compete successfully in answering challenges posed in the ASTRONET Science Vision. It not only prioritises the new front line research facilities from radio telescopes to planetary probes but also considers key issues such as existing facilities, human resources, and cost. The roadmap also proposes a series of measures to enhance public understanding of astronomy as a means to boost recruitment in science and technology in schools and universities across Europe.

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Dr Andy Newsam, IOP Lecturer 2009

LJMU’s Dr Andy Newsam has been confirmed as the Institute of Physics Lecturer for 2009. The IOP Schools and Colleges Lecture has been delivered by a series of acclaimed physics communicators annually throughout the UK for over 20 years. Dr Newsam’s lectures in 2009 will show how astronomers use telescopes to understand the Universe and highlight some of the exciting discoveries currently being made. Dr Newsam’s appointment is very opportunistic as it is the International Year of Astronomy as well as the 400th anniversary since the discovery of the first telescopes. He will visit around 35 venues throughout the UK during 2009.

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A false colour image of NGC 2600 taken by Glebe School

GCSE Astronomy pupils from Glebe School in Bromley made the 10,000th request for an observation using the National Schools’ Observatory’s Liverpool Telescope. Special needs students in Years 10 and 11 pinpointed the galaxy NGC2600 in the constellation of Pisces in order to learn how to use the imaging software developed by the NSO. They also discovered that this was the site of a supernovae explosion in 2005. Students are now busy analysing their data which they hope to use as part of their GCSE in Astronomy which is being developed at the school under the directorship of Malcolm Beckford. A special award will be presented to the school in the new year to commemorate the occasion and further help and support will also be given to help promote astronomy in the local area.

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Artist's concept of GRB "naked-eye"

The brightest explosion ever seen was observed in March this year. Now a team of astronomers from around the world have combined their data from satellites and ground-based observatories to explain what happened in an article released in the latest issue of Nature. The LT was one of the telescopes involved in the rush to observe this rare and fleeting event.

The event, called a Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB), was bright enough for human eyes to see despite originating in a galaxy halfway across the Universe.

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Liverpool Telescope

The Science and Technology Facilities Council continues to support the Liverpool Telescope as a National Facility

The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) included the Liverpool Telescope in its latest spending priority review, and acknowledged the quality of the science the telescope produces.Liverpool Telescope

Located in La Palma, Canaries, the Liverpool Telescope was ranked along with all the other front-rank research facilities in the UK in STFC's Programmatic Review, which is undertaken every two years to allow the Council to refresh its science strategy and identify new research priorities and strategic investments.

The council judged the Liverpool Telescope to be of importance to the continued success of the UK's astronomy programme and will therefore continue to support it.

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Liverpool John Moores University

Positive results in HESA's annual set of Research Performance Indicators 2006-07.

LJMU is the highest ranked university in England in terms of generating external research grant income from government funding, according to HESA's annual set of Research Performance Indicators for 2006-07.

The report reveals that no other university in England was able to generate as much external research income as LJMU for the level of HEFCE Funding the university receives to support research. LJMU's total research income of £9.4million was generated from £3.1million, a return of 300 per cent.

Overall, in terms of external research grant income, the University has continued its year-on-year improvement. LJMU now ranks 56th among UK HEIs for performance in this area, up from 70th place in 2001/02, and has overtaken traditional (pre-1992) universities such as Hull, Stirling, Aberystwyth, Keele, Salford and Aston.

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Chancellor Dr Brian May CBE, Honorary Fellows Professor Martin Rees and Andrew Holroyd OBE and Emeritus Chancellor, Cherie Booth QC

LJMU's Chancellor, Dr Brian May officiated for the first time at the University's graduation ceremony on Wednesday 23 July 2008, at which Professor Martin Rees, President of the Royal Astronomical Society, received an Honorary Fellowship from the University in recognition of his outstanding contribution to astronomy.

During his acceptance speech he talked about astronomy crossing all cultural boundaries, remarking that all cultures have looked up at the night sky and tried to interpret it. He spoke about the need for humanity to work together to combat issues such as global warming and poverty, saying: "This is the first century where the threats come not from nature but from us. Fate depends on humanity's actions this century."

For full story click here

Maria Cruz

Dr Maria Cruz, Astronet Project Research Assistant, has been appointed Associate Editor in astrophysics, astronomy and planetary science at the prestigious journal, Science.

Dr Cruz joined LJMU's Astrophysics Research Institute in 2007, working with Professor Mike Bode on developing ASTRONET's "Infrastructure Roadmap", which will guide investment in European astronomical research over the next 20 years.

In her role as ASTRONET Project Research Assistant, Dr Cruz was the main contact for the Roadmap's scientific panels and working groups. As well as helping produce a first draft of the Roadmap, she was the lead organiser for the hugely successful ASTRONET Symposium, which took place in Liverpool in June 2008 and attracted 275 delegates from across Europe. More...

White dwarfs in the old open cluster NGC6791 surprise astronomers (Credit: NASA, ESA, Digitized Sky Survey, and L. Bedin (STScI))

An international team of astronomers, including Maurizio Salaris from Liverpool JMU as the leading theoretician, has used the Hubble Space Telescope to discover the equivalent of three out-of-sync "clocks" in the ancient open star cluster NGC 6791. The normal, main-sequence stars indicate an age of 8 billion years, while the white dwarfs give significantly younger ages. Some bright white dwarfs give an age of 4 billion years, dimmer white dwarfs appear as if they are 6 billion years old.

When the research team analyzed the cluster in detail, they found that the bright white dwarfs were roughly twice as bright as the dim ones. The bright younger-looking group of white dwarfs may therefore consist of the same type of stars as the dimmer older-looking ones, but the stars are paired off in binary-star systems, where two stars orbit each other. Because of the cluster's great distance, astronomers see the paired stars as a brighter single star. If you assume that the bright white dwarfs are actually double stars, that would result in an age estimate of 6 billion years. The demonstration that binaries are the cause of the two different apparent ages for the cluster white dwarfs is an elegant an resolution of a seemingly inexplicable enigma

There are now only two ages to reconcile: an 8-billion-year age of the normal stellar population and a 6-billion-year age for the white dwarfs. All that is needed is a process that slows down white-dwarf evolution, for which there are some good theoretical ideas on the table.

The first results appeared in the May 10 issue of The Astrophysical Journal, and the clarification about binaries was in the May 20 issue of The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

The full Hubble Space Telescope press release can be found at http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/25/full/

A related popular article can be found at http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2008/07/10/1190390.aspx

Nova V2491 Cyg spectra on successive dates taken by Meaburn Spectrograph

The first science programmes are now underway using the Meaburn low resolution spectrograph on the Liverpool Telescope. In one programme, the LT is now taking regular spectra of the recent eruption of nova V2491 Cyg in conjunction with X-ray monitoring from the SWIFT satellite.
It has been suggested that this object belongs to the rare and important class of recurrent novae and the optical spectroscopy tends to confirm this hypothesis. More details of the instrument are available here, and some example spectra of V2491 Cyg in the region around Halpha can be seen here.

The Astronet Symposium

The long-term future of European ground-based and spaced-based astronomy will be debated at the ASTRONET Symposium in Liverpool between 16 and 19 June 2008.
The Symposium will help to determine if Europe will be able to retain its position as world leader in astronomical research and space exploration by establishing a realistic plan for the required funds and infrastructures for the necessary scientific advances to be made.
The ASTRONET Symposium, organised by Liverpool John Moores University – currently ranked in the top 1% of institutions worldwide for its space science research* – marks a crucial stage in the pan-European ASTRONET initiative.
Over 300 of Europe’s leading astronomers are travelling to Liverpool to debate and refine the content of key recommendations of the ‘Road Map to the Stars’. Many of the projects highlighted are crucial for maintaining European leadership in key areas of astronomy and their timely implementation is of paramount importance.
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MAD III brochure

Another very successful Merseyside Astronomy Day was held at the Spaceport Visitor Centre on Saturday 26 April. There were once again a series of six presentations given by professional astrophysicists covering a range of topics on current research from Extrasolar Planets to The Geometry of the Universe. Every talk was given to a capacity audience in the Spaceport Dome. This year’s event also included exhibition stands from the Sky at Night, Astromica.co.uk and Aurora Books. Liverpool John Moores University provided practical information on their Distance Learning courses as well as a providing a selection of large format posters. Feedback and responses from the event has clearly indicated a need for a MAD IV next year.

Brian May

Dr Brian May CBE, musician, songwriter and astronomer, was installed as the fourth Chancellor of Liverpool John Moores University on Monday 14 April.

The installation ceremony took place in Liverpool's St George's Hall in front of an audience of some 500 staff, students and alumni of the University as well as the Lord Lieutenant of Liverpool, mayors and other dignitaries. Two former LJMU Chancellors were also in attendance - Cherie Booth QC, who served as Chancellor between 1999 and 2006, and John Moores CBE, her predecessor, who served from 1994 to 1999.

The ceremony started with a colourful procession of staff, students and honorary members of the University and included some famous faces, such as LJMU Honorary Fellows Pete Postlewaite, Phil Redmond and Sir Patrick Moore.

Commenting on the appointment of the new Chancellor, Sir Patrick, who co-authored 'Bang! The Complete History of the Universe' with Dr May and Dr Chris Lintott, said: "I am delighted to see Brian take up the post. He is the right man for the University. Brian has so much to offer the world of music and science."

More on this story can be found here

The Astronet Symposium

Several hundred of Europe's leading astronomers are expected to travel to Liverpool between 16-19 June 2008 to help finalise a unique 'Road Map to the Stars'. Once agreed, this Road Map will act as the blueprint for Europe's ongoing exploration of the Universe over the next 20 years, guiding all major astronomical research and development. The ASTRONET Symposium, organised by LJMU's Astrophysics Research Institute, marks a crucial stage in the pan-European ASTRONET initiative. Established by a consortium of European science agencies in 2005, including the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), ASTRONET was set up to help astronomers devise a priority list of space missions and ground-based facilities to be developed over the next two decades. Now after two years of intense activity, a draft Road Map is ready for review. Due to be circulated for comment in early May 2008, the consultation period will culminate with the Liverpool ASTRONET Symposium, when Europe's astronomical community will come together to debate and refine the key recommendations.

Full story can be found here. For more details and how you can register, please visit: http://www.astro.livjm.ac.uk/~airs2008/.

Artist's impression of a "Hot Jupiter" with a rocky companion. Image Credit - NASA/ESA (G. Bacon).

Using a revolutionary new camera, UK astronomers have a real chance of being the first to find Earth-like planets around other stars. PhD student Neale Gibson of Queen's University Belfast will present the first results from the RISE instrument in his talk on Wednesday 2 April at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in Belfast.

RISE is a new fast camera designed by astronomers at Queen's University, Belfast (QUB) in collaboration with Liverpool John Moores University and is now installed on the 2m Liverpool Telescope on the Canary Island of La Palma.

More on this story can be found here.

Multicolour SDSS optical image of NGC5750, a nearby spiral galaxy with an active nuclei.

An ambitious study of active and inactive galaxies has given new insights into the complex interaction between super-massive black holes at the heart of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) and star formation in the surrounding galaxy. Results were presented in a talk by Paul Westoby on Friday 4th April at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting in Belfast.

Along with colleagues, Carole Mundell and Ivan Baldry from the Astrophysics Research Institute of Liverpool John Moores University, Westoby studied the properties of light from 360 000 galaxies in the local Universe to understand the relationship between accreting black holes, the birth of stars in galaxy centres and the evolution of the galaxies as a whole.

The study finds that gas ejected during the quasar stage of AGN snuffs out star formation, leaving the host galaxies to evolve passively. The study also reveals a strong link between galaxy mergers and the formation of super-massive black holes in AGN, but shows that if the environment becomes too crowded with galaxies, then the likelihood of firing up a supermassive black hole becomes suppressed.

More on this story can be found here.

Sir Arthur C Clark, CBE (1917-2008).

We are pleased to announce that the NSO has been nominated for a Sir Arthur Clarke Award (2008) in the Outreach Award for the Public Promotion of Space category. This is all the more pleasing because nominations are suggested by members of the public before being vetted by a distinguised panel of judges representing the UK space community. Past winners have included Sir Patrick Moore, Professor Colin Pillinger (of Beagle 2 fame) and Michael Foale (astronaut).

More on this story can be found here.

A team of astronomers, including LJMU's Dr David Bersier, Senior Lecturer in Astrophysics, have been using 'light echoes' to measure distances in space with startling precision.

Cepheids, also called Cepheid Variables, are stars which brighten and dim periodically. This behaviour allows them to be used as 'cosmic yardsticks', and enables astronomers to gauge distances tens of millions of light-years away from the Earth, even charting distances between galaxies.

A previously undiscovered Cepheid named RS Pup held the key to unlocking the 'intergalactic ruler'. Dr Bersier said: "It is 10 times more massive than the Sun, 200 times larger, and on average 15,000 times more luminous."

The research took several months to collate, and in order to get the results, the team had to travel to a remote desert outpost in La Silla, Chile, home to the European Space Observatory Telescope. "We try to find mountains in very dry, very high regions," Dr Bersier explained. "Ideally, we need good weather and Liverpool is not exactly the best for that. That's why we put telescopes in very remote places."

More on this story can be found here.

Artist's impression of the orbits of the newly detected planets.

Scaled versions of Jupiter and Saturn, orbiting a star half as massive as the Sun 5000 light-years away, have been revealed from an effort involving a world-wide net of telescopes that includes the LT. This marks the first discovery of another system of planets that has striking similarities with our Solar System. Moreover, it suggests that such giant planets do not favour the single life but are more likely to be found in family groups. The research is published in the 15th February issue of Science.

Whilst there are more than 250 planets now known, there are only about 25 such systems with multiple planets, and the newly discovered system resembles our own Solar System more closely than any previously observed.

More on this story can be found here.

Professor Chris Collins and Dr Ivan Baldry.

Professor Chris Collins and Dr Ivan Baldry, from LJMU's Astrophysics Research Institute, have been awarded the Royal Astronomical Society's 2008 Group Achievement Award for their role in the 2-degree Field (2dF) Galaxy Redshift Survey.

The 2dF team are the first recipients of this new award, which recognizes outstanding achievement by large consortia in any branch of astronomy or geophysics.

From 1997 to 2002, Professor Collins and Dr Baldry worked as part of the 2dF team of 33 astronomers, using the Anglo-Australian Telescope to survey more than 250,000 galaxies. By mapping such a large part of the 'local Universe', they could show how galaxies are found in clusters and superclusters while also giving astronomers a better understanding of the roles of normal and dark matter in the evolution of the cosmos.

More on this story can be found here.

Cosmonauts at the ARI.

The ARI were very pleased to welcome Russian Cosmonauts Alexander Volkov and Alexander Martynov to the Institute as part of their tour of the UK. They toured ARI and took part in a question and answer session with students and staff before returning to Spaceport where they spent the rest of a hectic day. More on this story can be found here.

The Times Higher Awards 2007

The ARI has won this year's prestigious Times Higher Education Supplement (THES) award for "Research Project of the Year" thanks to pioneering work with the RINGO optical polarimeter instrument on the Liverpool Telescope. In judging the team's project, entitled "Measuring Gamma-Ray Bursts", the distiguished Oxford scientist Professor Peter Atkins said: "the judges were impressed by the extent of teamwork involved in achieving a successful outcome". More details can be found here.

Brian May.

Dr Brian May has been appointed as the new Chancellor of the University. Best known as the lead guitarist of Queen, Brian left his research towards his PhD in astronomy to follow his other passion for music. Over thirty years later he completed his doctorate at Imperial College and was earlier this year awarded an Honorary Fellowship of LJMU,. The full story can be found here.

The Astrophysics Research Institute have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT) at a ceremony in the Institute's Twelve Quays House building today. The MOU cements the close working relationship that the ARI has forged with Thailand over the last few years and encourages closer co-operation in areas such as outreach and research. The MOU was formally signed by the Thai Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Science and Technology (Dr Suchinda Chotipanich) and the University's Pro-Vice Chancellor (Professor Gerry Kelleher). The ARI are to assist with the running of a joint workshop with NARIT in Thailand in January 2008.

Shown left to right in the picture are (seated) Dr. Suchinda Chotipanich, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), Thailand and Professor Gerry Kelleher, Pro-Vice Chancellor LJMU; (standing) Ms. Junpen Meka-Apiruk, Minister Counsellor, Office of Science and Technology. Counsellor, Royal Thai Embassy Brussels; Dr Andy Newsam, Director of the National Schools' Observatory, ARI; Dr. Busaba Kramer, Assistant Director of NARIT; Dr. Pichai Sonchaeng, President of the National Science Museum (NSM), Thailand; Mr. Thanakorn Palachai, Vice President of the NSM; Assoc. Prof. Boonrucksar Soonthornthum, Director of NARIT; Professor Mike Bode, Director ARI; Professor Iain Steele, Liverpool Telescope Director, ARI; Professor Chris Collins, Professor of Observational Cosmology, ARI; Dr David Bersier, Senior Lecturer, ARI, and Professor David Carter, Professor of Observational Astronomy, ARI.

The Times Higher Awards 2007.

The Astrophysics Research Institute has been shortlisted in the Research Project of the Year Category for its Gamma Ray Bursts research. As part of this research the team designed and built a new instrument, RINGO, to measure these powerful but unpredictable explosions.

Previously the scientists had used the worlds largest robotic telescopes also designed and built by the University to measure variations in GRB brightness. Thanks to the development of RINGO on the Liverpool Telescope, the team obtained a measurement nearly 100 times faster than any previously published optical polarisation measurement for a GRB afterglow. This enabled them for the first time to rule out the presence of magnetic fields in the emitting material flowing out from the explosion.

Gaelle Dumas, a student of the Astrophysics Research Institute, has completed the first JMU PhD under a `co-tutelle' scheme, which enables students to undertake research supervised jointly across two institutions. Gaelle worked with Prof. Carole Mundell of the ARI and Prof. Eric Emsellem of the Centre de Recherche Astronomique de Lyon, France, on a thesis investigating the properties of galaxies that host active nuclei. In these nuclei, supermassive black holes of a million to a billion times the mass of our Sun are continually drawing in gas from their host galaxy, which fuels intense energy generation across all parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. Gaelle's work has measured the galaxy disturbances likely to cause this fuelling process, using a novel combination of optical and radio techniques, to give three-dimensional maps of star and gas velocities.

Gaelle is shown celebrating the successful completion, on September 18th 2007, of both the UK and French versions of the PhD examination. Also shown (left to right) are Dr Niranjan Thatte (University of Oxford, thesis examiner), Dr Phil James (ARI, thesis examiner), Prof. Chris Collins (Director, ARI), and Prof. Eric Emsellem (Centre de Recherche Astronomique de Lyon, thesis supervisor).

A Grand Vision for European Astronomy.

The Science Vision for European Astronomy covering the next two decades has now been officially published. This two-year long effort by the ASTRONET network of major funding agencies underscores Europe's ascent to world leadership in astronomy and its will to maintain that position. The Science Vision will be followed in a year by a prioritised Roadmap for the observational facilities needed to implement the Vision. Implementation of these plans will ensure that Europe fully contributes to science's increased knowledge of the Universe whilst maximising the wide socio-economic benefits. Mike Bode from the ARI was a member of the Science Vision Working Group, and leads the Roadmapping exercise. Andy Newsam is a member of one of the Roadmapping Panels, and the ARI's Maria Cruz is helping to co-ordinate the whole exercise. More details can be found here here.

BBC's The Sky At Night.

The August 2007 edition of the popular astronomy programme "The Sky at Night" featured the RoboNet project, led by ARI on behalf of a consortium of 10 universities. The programme can be viewed online here. Further information on the project can be found here.

Brian May.

The famous "Queen" guitarist Brian May was made a Fellow of the University during the July 2007 awards ceremonies. Brian May is not only an accomplished musician however. He undertook research in astronomy towards a PhD after completing his physics degree at Imperial College London. However, his studies were interrupted by his musical career. He is now in the final stages of completing his research degree after all the intervening years. The Honorary Fellowship recognises in particular his work in the popularisation of astronomy and was held during the ceremony in which astronomy and astrophysics graduates of LJMU were presented with their awards. Further details can be found here.