University of Southampton astronomer Dr Francesco Shankar took pupils on an interactive journey around massive galaxies and black holes in a series of inspirational lectures in Rome.

Francesco, an Associate Professor in Southampton’s Astronomy Group, introduced the junior year pupils to physics models and presented his own area of research in galaxy evolution.

The international visit included lectures at St Stephen’s School, the American Overseas School of Rome and Marymount International School, before a special seminar with high school and university students at the British Council in Rome.

“It is always a touching experience to return to where I first discovered my passion for physics, and I hope this visit has gone some way to inspiring young people to follow our fascinating and rewarding subject,â€? Francesco says. “It was great to see the enthusiasm of students across the city. We’re already exploring next steps for future engagement in Italy and I hope that more experts from our University can share their knowledge at similar events in the future.â€?

Over one hundred prospective physicists took part in group activities as part of the short lecture series, which spanned from Tuesday 27th February to Thursday 1st March.

The British Council seminar, which was open to all school and university students in the area, offered the audience a basic understanding of how galaxy classification is quantitatively carried out by astronomers, before outlining some of the scenarios behind the the formation of various morphological types of galaxies and their central supermassive black holes.

Francesco started his career with a PhD from the International Advanced Studies Institute (SISSA) in Trieste, Italy, and developed global expertise in his field through stints at Ohio State University in the USA, the Max Planck Institute for Astrophysics in Germany and the Observatoire de Paris in France. He is now a Second Year Director of Studies in Southampton’s Department of Physics and Astronomy and is leading research into the theoretical modelling of galaxies, their central supermassive black holes and their host dark matter haloes.

Find out more about undergraduate and postgraduate study at the University of Southampton through the Physics and Astronomy website. Further requests for international lectures from Southampton astronomers are welcome and can be arranged through global@southampton.ac.uk.

Former University of Southampton student Helen Parker scooped the overall prize and a gold medal for physics at the STEM for Britain parliament showcase for early career researchers.

Helen, an MPhys Physics alumna, was recognised for current PhD research in Scotland that is imaging lung disease for vulnerable patients in intensive care.

She was judged the best of 180 finalists in Westminster on Monday 12th March, taking home the Westminster Medal, the Cavendish Medal for Physics and a prize of £2,000. STEM for Britain celebrates excellent research and its communication from science, technology, engineering and mathematics through a national poster competition that concludes at parliament’s Portcullis House.

“I was surprised to win since, although my expertise is in physics, there is a large biological aspect to my research,â€? Helen says. “This win shows that interdisciplinary science is valuable not only to the academic community but also to the rest of society who rightly want to see the direct applicability of research. I really enjoyed hearing about the breadth of research happening in Britain at the moment and it was interesting to see the emphasis that Stephen Metcalfe MP, Chairman of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, put on the importance of a close relationship between scientists and parliamentarians.â€?

Helen graduated from the University of Southampton in 2015 and has since moved to The Queen’s Medical Research Institute at The University of Edinburgh.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do my current PhD if it wasn’t for the skills and knowledge I gained at the University of Southampton,â€? she says. “The University offered many opportunities to study the physics of light, which I am now using in my PhD.â€?

Helen’s PhD is addressing an unmet clinical need for quick and accurate diagnoses of lung infection and inflammation for patients in intensive care. It builds upon scientific advances that use fluorescent molecules and fibre optics to see inside the deepest parts of a patient’s lung. These molecules fluorescently label bacteria or features of disease in lung tissue and are delivered through small channels down a fibre bundle developed at the University of Bath. Helen’s research is helping overcome challenges in detecting these molecules by developing a fibred microscope that uses ratiometric imaging.

Astronomers have observed a red giant star breathing life into a dead companion in the birth of a rare binary system.

The puzzling finding, which was identified using the European Space Agency’s Integral space observatory, has been analysed using the SMARTnet community of global astronomers initiated by the University of Southampton.

Associate Professor Dr Poshak Gandhi, from Southampton’s Astronomy Group and co-author of the new study in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, has welcomed the revelation as a “great example of discoveries waiting to be made in the field of extreme astrophysicsâ€?.

Astronomers observed a flash of X-rays as winds emitted by the swollen red giant star revived the slow-spinning core of a neighbouring dead star.

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A highly luminous source of gamma rays, discovered in a collaboration including an astronomer from the University of Southampton, has attracted more than three quarters of a million views in the online NASA Visualisation Explorer series.

The dual star system, the most luminous known gamma-ray emitting binary, was found by an international team of scientists in late 2016 and has drawn in thousands of weekly viewers to the NASA website and app ever since. This makes it the space agency’s best performing visualisation of the past financial year.

Professor Malcolm Coe, from Southampton’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, coordinated outputs from one of several international telescopes in the five-year project, helping the collaboration combine observations “like pieces of a jigsawâ€? to explain the source of the unexpected flood of gamma rays. Specifically, Malcolm obtained data from telescopes at the South African Astronomical Observatory – an organisation with which the University has a long-standing partnership.

The team discovered the highly luminous gamma ray binary in a nearby galaxy known as the Large Magellanic Cloud. The system, named LMC P3, contains a massive star and a dead neutron star, the remains of a supernova explosion. In these gamma ray binaries, violent winds from the two stars collide to accelerate electrons to near the speed of light and boost optical and ultraviolet photons to gamma ray levels.

“We knew this phenomenon existed but what we found was the most luminous binary ever identified,â€? Malcolm says. “It is quite an amazing discovery – both stars are producing very strong stellar winds that combine to generate a large amount of radiation strewn across the electromagnetic spectrum. In comparison, our Sun is a very tame star. These are very violent conditions where stars are interacting in a dramatic way.

“Initially, we could see the gamma radiation but didn’t know what was producing it. The collaboration brought together observations and expertise from around the world like a jigsaw puzzle, with each academic contributing a different piece. This is research at the extreme edge of physics and I’m really pleased to see it having such a long-lived impact with the public. I’m simply blown away by these numbers.â€?

The international team that discovered the binary system is coordinated by lead investigator Robin Corbet from NASA and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. LMC P3 was found 163,000 light years away at the centre of the expanding cloud of debris from a supernova explosion. Its large star is 25 to 40 times the mass of our Sun and is orbited every 10.3 days by the neutron star. Observations of the changing emissions in the system will help scientists understand gamma ray processes that take place in many different types of objects.

Find out more about LMC P3 and other scientific discoveries across the universe through the NASA Virtualisation Explorer.

An international research team, including astronomers from the University of Southampton, has found new clues that help explain extreme interstellar objects that glow with X-ray light equal in energy to millions of suns.

The study of ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) tapped into data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to build understanding of how the sources can shine so brightly.

Astronomers have identified a fourth ULX as a neutron star through the project, the first to be discovered in the M51 Whirlpool Galaxy. Dr Matthew Middleton, from Southampton’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, has heralded the findings as a “major stepâ€? for the academic community.

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Astronomers from the University of Southampton have led the discovery of a huge cosmic explosion that took place 10.5 billion years ago, the oldest supernova ever studied.

The exploding star was detected as part of the Dark Energy Survey after rays of light travelled for three quarters of the Universe’s near 14 billion year history.

The international study, headed by lead author Dr Mathew Smith from Southampton’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, is learning more about dark energy through the mapping of several hundred million galaxies. The “extremely distant, extremely bright and extremely rareâ€? discovery, named DES16C2nm, has been published in The Astrophysical Journal.

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Researchers from the University of Southampton will seed the growth of the next generation of scientists in India and Nepal through a new foundation award selected by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).

Associate Professor Dr Poshak Gandhi, from Southampton’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, will led the one-year SITARE project alongside India’s Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) as he engages several hundreds of students with scientific workshops, training camps and study groups.

SITARE, which means ‘stars’ in Hindi and is short for the Southampton-IUCAA Training for Astronomical Research and Education, will start this spring and target students from all four corners of India and one university in Nepal. The project will tap into Science & Technology Facilities Council GCRF funding to address the UN’s global Sustainable Development Goal for Quality Education.

“India is constructing and operating massive infrastructure projects that are world leading in this field; however, in order to fully harness these opportunities, more advanced scientific and technical skills are required,â€? Poshak explains. “A lack of resources, plus the fact that many students are spread out across the country, means they don’t always have exposure to the latest research. Nepal sits in the lap of the Himalayas with some of the clearest observing sites in the world, making it a wonderful location for astrophysics research.

“The UK has expertise at the forefront of this field and the University of Southampton is a leader in time-domain astrophysics and is also involved in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) project. Through SITARE, I hope that we can generate some inspirational knowledge transfer, create interactions with leading role models and support potential future research ‘stars’ in astrophysics and other STEM subjects.â€?

In this initial pilot project, researchers from Southampton will hold a series of workshops in India and Nepal, leading an astrophysics and data science lecture series for up to 80 Bachelors and Masters-level students at each of several universities across the sub-continent.

Selected enthusiastic and talented students will be rewarded with longer training camps at the IUCAA and in Southampton, constituting a short research project, outreach activities and interactions with international peers.

The programme will then be sustained by asking international students to form study groups within their universities. The career paths of individuals under the project will also be tracked and evaluated so SITARE can be refined and expanded in future years.

The GCRF is a five-year £1.5 billion fund that tackles global challenges in the national interest. You can find out more about the fund and its awarded projects through the Research Councils UK website.