Report on the RAS Specialist Discussion Meeting ‘System-scale observations and modelling of solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere (SW-M-I-T) coupling’.
It was the first UK meteorite fall for 30 years. Here we gather the story of a remarkable community hunt involving pandemic precautions, social media spikes and some very lucky guinea pigs.
David Aitken (1926–2021) A gifted physicist and pioneer of infrared astronomy, who loved the mountains, remembered by Patrick Roche. David Aitken passed away on 10 August 2021 at the age of 95. Across a long, happy and productive life, he retained a keen interest in astronomy, techniques and instrumentation until his death. Dave was born on 16 May 1926 in North Wales and spent his youth between there and Liverpool. His curious mind drew him to the explosive debris from wartime bombing, and the scars on his hands would later provide some alarming stories! After completing his National Service, he studied at University College London and stayed on to complete a PhD under the supervision of Franz Heymann. His thesis, ‘An investigation of ultra high frequency breakdown in resonant cavities at low pressures’, represented part of his contribution to the design and construction of a 29 MeV microtron built to study nuclear scattering.
The total eclipse of the Sun on 12 December 1871 offered a timely test of new astrophysical methods – and a priceless opportunity for one Indian astronomer.
50 years since the USSR's Luna 16, 20 and 24 missions gifted the world an important set of Moon rock samples. Samantha Bell, Katherine Joy and Keith Moore discuss the efforts of UK researchers and how the sample are to be preserved.
With a government eager to boost the UK's standing in global space research, a few key changes could significantly increase academia's influence in the space sector
Editor Sue Bowler looks back – briefly – at astronomy and geophysics a quarter of a century ago
Alastair Gunn looks back at the scientific and cultural legacy of an iconic instrument: the 305m Arecibo radio telescope
Shami Chatterjee reviews fast radio bursts, focusing on the rapid recent progress in observations of these enigmatic events, our understanding of their central engines, and their use as probes of the intergalactic medium
Karl Fuchs (1932–2021) A world-leading seismologist and geophysicist, who drove international and interdisiplinary research, recalled by Joachim Ritter and Friedemann Wenzel. Prof. Dr Karl Fuchs was a world-leading geophysicist and honorary fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society. During his extensive career he contributed to the present understanding of the lithosphere using seismology and tectonic stress field analysis. He initiated many international and interdisciplinary research programmes, served on international boards and published some 100 peer-reviewed papers. Fuchs was born on 21 January 1932 in Stettin, now Szczecin, Poland. After the Second World War his family fled to Germany where he went to school near Hamburg. He studied geophysics in Hamburg, London and Clausthal, where in 1957 he finished his studies and married his wife Cornelia (known to many as Corry). Fuchs accepted a position in the oil exploration industry and worked for Prakla Seismos GmbH (Hannover) as leader of geophysical field crews in the Amazon Basin in Brazil and the Sahara Desert in Algeria.
The daughter of a NASA engineer has spent her life advocating for sending humans to Mars. Interview by Paul Johnson
Umberto Battino and Alex Murphy consider both key observables of Type Ia supernovae and computational modelling of progenitor evolution and explosion, as discussed at an RAS meeting
For ten years, the ExoMol database of molecular line lists has provided vital spectroscopic data for the study of hot atmospheres. Jonathan Tennyson and Sergei N Yurchenko reflect on what the prject has achieved.
Laura Nuttall and Christopher Berry review the potential of multimessenger astronomy with gravitational-wave observations
Antony Hewish (1924–2021) Pioneer radio astronomer and leader of the team of researchers who identified the first pulsar, remembered by Malcolm Longair. Antony (Tony) Hewish went up to Cambridge University in 1942 to read natural sciences. After his second year, however, he was sent for war service at the Telecommunications Research Establishment, Malvern, where Martin Ryle was head of the radar counter-measures group. Tony worked on devices to jam the radar systems of hostile night-fighters. Returning to Cambridge in 1946, he completed his physics degree and then joined the newly founded radio astronomy group led by Ryle at the Cavendish Laboratory. Tony specialized in the phenomenon of radio scintillation, the twinkling of radio sources caused by plasma irregularities along the line of sight to the source. In 1951–52, he worked out in detail the theory of radio source scintillation (Hewish 1952) and in 1964 the phenomenon was observed in compact radio sources (Hewish et al. 1964). These sources included the recently discovered quasars, among the most extreme examples of active galactic nuclei.
Biosignature science has come a long way in half a century, but its future depends on more interdisciplinary feeback and conceptual innovation.
David Green, Ross Heyburn, Jessica Keeble, Alexandra Nippress, Stuart Nippress, Sheila Peacock and John Young review the history of the UK's seismological monitoring of underground nuclear testing
Ian Strangeways looks at the difficulty of operating meteorological instruments on Venus due to its harsh environment, and suggests some possible solutions
