The universe’s expansion may be slowing down

How do astronomers currently think the Universe is expanding? Astronomers have long believed the Universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, driven by what we call ‘dark energy’. This led to a mode

As an astronomer, I collect stars. There are several hundred billion of them in our Galaxy, the Milky Way, so it’s important to find a way to categorise them. While others might rank their stars by co

An artist’s impression of Cha 1107-7626 accreting material ...

Astronomers are now regularly detecting planets thousands of light years from Earth – but have we missed one in our own Solar System?

Our understanding of the Universe has revealed that its existence, and indeed our own, relies on a particular set of rules. For example, the fundamental ‘constants of nature’, such as the charge of th

The year 2025 has been a vintage one for astronomy. In January, we were hooked on reports of a building-sized asteroid on course to collide with Earth. The risk was quickly downgraded from worrying to