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Building Europe’s largest solar telescope

We’re part of a project to build Europe’s largest solar telescope.
A montage image of the EST telescope on a hillside (left and right) with a close up image of a solar flare in the centre

The annual Gareth Roberts lecture returned on Wednesday 9 March with Dame Sue Ion - watch online

The Honorary President of the National Skills Academy for Nuclear (NSAN) and member of the ONR Independent Advisory Panel, Dame Sue Ion, delivered this year's annual Gareth Roberts Lecture on Wednesday 9 March at 4.30pm.
Gareth Roberts Lecture 2022 (image montage of Sue Ion with power station cooling towers and wind turbines)

Scientists unveil most accurate virtual representation of the Universe

An international team of researchers, including Professor Carlos Frenk, Professor Adrian Jenkins and Dr. John Helly from our Department of Physics, has produced the largest and most accurate computer simulation to date of our local patch of the Universe.
Virtual Universe

Professor Carlos Frenk elected to Royal Society Council

Congratulations to Professor Carlos Frenk who has been elected to the Council of the Royal Society.
Professor Carlos Frenk in light blue shirt and dark blue jacket smiles at the camera

Prof Simon Cornish to lead International Collaboration on “Developing Molecular Quantum Technologies”

Ultracold molecules hold great promise for a variety of quantum technologies, including a new generation of quantum computers and quantum simulators. Prof Simon Cornish will lead a new £1.6 million International Collaboration funded by EPSRC that aims to deliver this vision.
Simon Cornish

I'm a quasar get me out of here - growing supermassive black holes buried in galaxies

Quasars are extremely bright objects with massive black holes at their centres. Usually, quasars are obscured by donut-shaped rings of dust surrounding them.
Picture of hidden quasars in thick cloud of dust and gas

First-of-its-kind measurement of Universe’s expansion rate

Our physicists are part of an international team that has successfully used a first-of-its-kind technique to measure the expansion of the Universe.
A supernova surrounded by stars

RSE awards scholarship to Durham Undergraduate

The RSE is supporting personal and professional development for undergraduate astronomy students.
Selina Mather

Festive images created by trapping individual laser-cooled atoms

As a demonstration of single atom trapping, researchers in the Quantum Light and Matter research section have created and imaged festive arrangements of individual laser-cooled caesium atoms. Each bright pixel in their images corresponds to light captured from a single caesium atom cooled to a temperature a million times colder than room temperature and trapped in a tightly focussed laser beam called an optical tweezer.
Festive images - Angel Optical tweezer arrays

Department commemorates Alan Lotts' five decades in Physics

A retirement party was held for Alan Lotts on Friday 19th November to celebrate 5 decades of outstanding technical support to the astronomy group.
Aln Lotts retirement

Muons found to be faithful probes of exotic superconductors

Researchers in the Centre for Materials Physics have demonstrated that spontaneous magnetic fields, detected by implanting sub-atomic muons in superconducting materials, are likely to be intrinsic to an exotic, time-reversal symmetry broken, superconducting state.
Muon Superconductors

Prof Tom Lancaster co-writes new textbook, 'Muon Spectroscopy: An Introduction', published by Oxford University Press

Durham Physics Department's Prof Tom Lancaster is one of the authors of a new textbook on Muon Spectroscopy, which has just been published by Oxford University Press.
Image of Tom Lancaster and his new book cover, with the Oxford University Press logo
Cosmic Ray Cosmo Simulation

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