UCL-Birkbeck Planetary Science

Part of the Your Universe Festival of Astronomy and Planetary Science this week for pre-booked schools & the public ✨ 🪐🌖 🔭 🧪

Family/public interactive exhibition Sat 14th March, 2-5pm at Birkbeck - further details & registration for free tickets via the YU website: www.ucl.ac.uk/your-univers...

The human exploration of the Moon... and beyond! UCL Your Universe Festival Panel Discussion, an audience conversation.

📣 Free event this Sat 14th March 6-8pm, London @ucl.ac.uk! "Human exploration of the Moon... and beyond!". A panel event of talks & discussion with Dr Christopher Riley, Dr Francisco Diego (UCL) and CPS colleague Prof Ian Crawford (Birkbeck). Register below 👇 🌖

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-human-...

Graphic promoting the 'Our Fragile Space' exhibition at the Royal Astronomical Society from 19 March - 10 May 2026.

Created and led by space photographer Max Alexander, the free exhibition highlights the grave and deepening issue of space junk and has achieved significant international acclaim.

📅 19 March - 10 May 2026
📍 Burlington House, London
ℹ️ ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...

🚨Announcement🚨

Want to learn more about the growing threat of space debris? 🛰️💥

We're delighted to be welcoming the ground-breaking photography exhibition 'Our Fragile Space' to the @royalastrosoc.bsky.social.

⤵️

Why Are Interstellar Comets So Weird? Part 1: The Strangers Blowing Through Town Imagine you live in a small town. Maybe it’s easy for you to imagine because you actually do. You’ve spent your whole life there. You know all the people, and all the people know you. Years go by. Decades. The same faces at the same corner store, the same routes to the same places, the same sky overhead. It’s comfortable. Predictable. You could walk the whole thing blindfolded and never trip.

Why Are Interstellar Comets So Weird? Part 1: The Strangers Blowing Through Town https://www.universetoday.com/articles/why-are-interstellar-comets-so-weird-part-1-the-strangers-blowing-through-town

MN Colibri delivers the Smile satellite and the Vega-C upper stage in Kourou, French Guiana.

Following the docking, the containers were carefully unloaded and taken by lorry to Europe's Spaceport, which lies just a few kilometres away from the town of Kourou. 📽️ 👇

🔭 🧪 ☀️

Clockwise, from top left: Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Uranus. None of the worlds is to scale, but all are imaged with JWST's near-infrared (NIRCam) instrument.

The giant planets of the Solar System, by JWST.

Interested in doing a PhD in space heritage? If so, this opportunity might be for you!

Dr Francisco Diego Dr Francisco Diego is a Lecturer (Teaching) at the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Spotlight on Dr Francisco Diego (UCL Physics & Astronomy), who has been at UCL for 43 years! Read about his passion for solar eclipses, developing public/school lectures and hosting the annual Your Universe Festival of Astronomy and Planetary Science: www.ucl.ac.uk/mathematical...

A desert landscape with a large volcanic land feature jutting out in the center. Above is a series of eclipse phases of the moon traveling from the top left downward toward the peak of the central volcanic landmark. The phases show the moon transitioning from a white full moon to a dark moon and into a red moon once it connects with the landmark in the image. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available.

🔭 Total Lunar Eclipse over Tsé Bit'a'í

Image Credit & Copyright: Satoru Murata; Text: Keighley Rockcliffe (NASA GSFC, UMCP, CRESST II)

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap26030...

Rows of people wearing orange lanyards in a House of Commons committee hearing. At the front is Catherine sporting her "I'm about to perform an appendectomy" mask and looking particularly snazzy.

Here is my run-down of today's Science, Information & Technology Committee hearing (House of Commons) where @jonbutterworth.bsky.social @si-wills.bsky.social & I argued for no funding cuts, & Prof. Michele Doughtery explained why they were needed. The public gallery again packed with physicists 🔭👩‍🔬⚛️

Fantastic to see the Exocast team back with another great podcast, introduced by Dr Andrew Rushby, Lecturer in Astrobiology at Birkbeck, University of London, and CPS colleague and board member 🤩 Give it a listen!

Exocast-80 b: Are giant planets friends or foes? With Dr Jonti Horner We sat around our virtual studio to chat with Queensland-based astronomer Jonti Horner, who works on planetary dynamics – both within our own solar system, and around others. As well as disco…

🚨After a long wait we have a brand new episode for you!
The team is talking with Dr Jonti Horner, a Queensland based astronomer who we ask the question: Are giant planets friends or foes? 🪐🥰🪐😵
Check us out wherever you get your podcasts!
www.exocast.org/exocast-80b/

Climate change and sustainability is part of the context for every school subject, and the brilliant UCL Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Education is continually creating new resources for teachers. Do share their fabulous new website with any teachers you know:

climateeducation.org.uk

TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE | MARCH 3, 2026 | GRIFFITH OBSERVATORY YouTube video by Griffith Observatory

If, like me, the #TrollClouds have ruined your #LunarEclipse experience, which has now commenced - tune into Griffith Observatory's live feed.

The music is great!

🌓🌎🌞 <-- lunar eclipse

🌎🌓🌞 <-- solar eclipse

🌎🌞🌗 <-- apocalypse

An evidence session with the Science, Innovation and Technology Committee (SITC) is happening this Wednesday, which will include @astroroyalscot.bsky.social (who has been an amazing voice for our community) and others.

committees.parliament.uk/event/26683/...

bsky.app/profile/astr...

The open letter is hosted on the @iop.org website, aiming to "stabilise the curiosity-driven grants line for physics areas within #STFC," & "protect the postdoctoral researchers, postgraduate research students, technicians, & specialist software & instrumentation teams"

www.iop.org/about/news/o...

Is UK science in jeopardy? Huge funding reforms spark chaos and anxiety Major reforms to the United Kingdom’s national research funding agency are aimed at boosting the nation's economy.

The peculiar construction of #STFC, funding national labs & international projects, alongside blueskies research (read: jobs for postdocs, fellows, students...), means it lacks the flexibility to respond to rising costs & shifting priorities within a flat budget. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Top academics warn UK physics cuts threaten effort to boost economy More than 50 heads of departments tell science minister that changes risk undermining crucial tech growth fields

UKRI funding changes are raising serious concern across the UK science community. More than 50 university physics leaders including all 23 Russell Group universities with physics facilities have warned that proposed cuts risk undermining innovation-led economic growth.
🔗 www.ft.com/content/a235...

🧬 The Origins of Life Analytical Centre at the University of Kent (UK) is one of the NEW Transnational Access Facilities available to support your planetary research

🚀 The Transnational Access Programme Call is now OPEN!
Apply NOW! 👉 www.europlanet.org/infrastructu...

How we made history by landing on a comet? YouTube video by European Space Agency, ESA

22 years ago today, we launched our comet chaser mission #Rosetta. ☄️

Discover how we made history with the first comet landing, in this video. 🧪🔭

youtu.be/QzVzcL3vqbg?...

@science.esa.int @operations.esa.int

Our brilliant UCL Mullard Space Science Laboratory team showcasing the work of department's researchers and technicians at the UCL200 celebration event! 🤩

#UCL200 #LoveUCL #science #SpaceScience #astronomy #MarsRover #PanCam #RosalindFranklin @luciegreen.bsky.social

A woman in deep concentration is holding a rope in a science classroom.

Are you new to teaching A level physics? Don't miss out on your chance to book onto our course on the 12 March.

This four day residential will teach you how to lead and support outstanding practical physics for post-16s.

👉 Sign up now: bit.ly/4rxGxXZ

#CPD #Teaching #SecondaryPhysics

We are pleased to announce that Rebecca Evernden has been appointed as Director of the new UK Space Agency. Rebecca is passionate about maximising the UK’s space potential, having worked in space… | ... We are pleased to announce that Rebecca Evernden has been appointed as Director of the new UK Space Agency. Rebecca is passionate about maximising the UK’s space potential, having worked in space for...

We are pleased to announce that Rebecca Evernden has been appointed as Director of the new UK Space Agency.

Rebecca is passionate about maximising the UK’s space potential, having worked in space for ten years.

Read more 👉
linkedin.com/feed/update/...

Giovanna Tinetti (left) and Giorgio Savini (right) in front the podium In the lecture theatre.

Machine learning slide to correct for instrument systematics and stellar activity. With a row of 10 faces of researchers involved in this research shown along the bottom of the slide.

Open Science slide highlighting the TauREx 3 open source software for exoplanet atmosphere simulation and retrieval. With photo of the research group involved.

Giovanna introduced by the Head of the Astrophysics Group Professor Giorgio Savini. UCL P&A exoplanet researchers past and present highlighted, including the role of machine learning and the creation of open source software, such as TauREx 3 for exoplanet atmosphere simulation & retrievals ✨

Screen in lecture theatre with title slide of Giovanna Tinetti’s Sir Robert Wilson Lecture 2026: Of Space Missions and Exoplanets, showing a background image with an artistic impression of the Ariel space telescope and exoplanets in a red colour-way. Giovanna is standing just to the right of the screen delivering her talk.

CPS colleague Professor Giovanna Tinetti @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social and @uclmaps.bsky.social delivers the prestigious UCL P&A Astrophysics Sir Robert Wilson Lecture 2026: “Of Space Missions and Exoplanets”, which this year forms part of the UCL200 celebrations 🤩 🛰️ 🪐

Students passing through the main library entrance barriers.

The entrance to the Main Library has now reopened following the completion of the bicentennial refurbishment works. Read more here: www.ucl.ac.uk/library/news...

Really looking forward to this! Come join me in London or online.