School of Physics and Astronomy

Astronomers found a mysterious blast of radio waves while searching for fast radio bursts (FRB) from deep space, but it turned out to be an emission from NASA's inactive Relay 2 satellite.

Initially detected by the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) in June 2024, this 'pseudo-FRB' lasted less than 30 nanoseconds, much shorter than most FRBs, yet powerful enough to drown out all other signals from the sky.

Despite nearly 20 years of study, astronomers don't actually know what generates FRBs. One plausible theory involves a 'magnetar'—a highly magnetized neutron star. Relay 2, one of the first communications satellites, was launched in 1964. Just three years later, with its mission concluded and both of its main instruments out of order, Relay 2 had already turned into space junk.

Located just 2,800 miles from Earth, the proximity of the signal posed a challenge for astronomers, as the closest FRB is estimated to be 30,000 light-years away. Astronomers later realized that the signal appeared bright to the telescope because it was closer than the astronomical signals they had been looking for.

The defunct satellite was not initially thought to be responsible for the signal due to its ceased operations and outdated systems.

Researchers from Australian institutes, Curtin University and ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, as well as the University of Edinburgh, were involved in the study. The discovery that the signal source was not a FRB was disappointing for some, however, Dr Marcin Glowacki from the School’s Institute for Astronomy found value in the finding and explains:

It was like an interesting puzzle for us to localize this result from such a relatively close object to what we are used to! It certainly took some time and effort, as we had to adjust how we measured the signal with ASKAP to account for it being so close. It's like how phone cameras can struggle to focus on something very close to them. While we are mostly interested in astrophysical systems, this discovery is important for monitoring satellites in the future with ASKAP and other radio telescopes.

The observation appears to be an amazing chance discovery. However, this opens up an entirely new mystery: how could Relay 2 manage to emit a signal that had a brightness similar to an FRB?

Astronomers are not entirely sure, but Dr Glowacki explains some theories:

One theory is electrostatic discharge (ESD)—a build-up of electricity that results in a spark-like flash. Another is that a micrometeorite had struck the satellite and produced a cloud of charged plasma, right as ASKAP was observing the part of the sky it was in.

Another question to consider is, are other fast radio bursts actually 'pseudo-FRBs'? The biggest clue that an FRB is not an artificial signal is its dispersion measure - how far signals have travelled. This is due to ionized electrons slowing the signal at lower frequencies as FRBs travel through space, encountering plasma.

The 'pseudo-FRB' highlights the potential for satellites to mimic celestial phenomena, ruling out most FRBs as satellite signals due to their distinct galaxy-hosting origin points. Unlike distant FRBs, nearby signals lack characteristic time delays caused by ionized electrons. While researchers plan to scrutinize other satellite signals, this episode underscores challenges in distinguishing terrestrial from cosmic sources. Despite the rare occurrence and clear FRB dispersion measures, astronomers agree that vigilance is necessary to prevent future misidentifications.

A team of researchers has discovered a powerful new method to control magnetic behaviour in ultra-thin materials - an advance that could lead to faster, smaller, and more energy-efficient technology, from computer memory to next-generation electronics.

The study, published in Nature Materials, introduces a way to precisely tune magnetism by using the natural structure of a material called CrPS₄, a stable and flexible compound just a few atoms thick. This breakthrough opens a window into the invisible world of atomic-scale magnetism, solving a long-standing scientific problem and providing a new platform for designing smart magnetic devices.

What’s the big deal?

You’ve probably heard of magnets sticking to your fridge, but magnetism is also the core of how digital memory works. In computers, tiny magnetic regions are used to store information - whether a ‘bit’ is a 0 or a 1 depends on the direction of its magnetic field.

One way scientists control these magnetic fields is through something called exchange bias - a tiny shift in the magnetic behaviour that helps keep the memory stable and prevents data loss. But until now, this effect was tricky to study and even harder to control because it happens at buried, imperfect interfaces between different materials.

A new solution from a single material

The new research flips the script. Instead of stacking different materials on top of each other, the team discovered they could achieve the same control within a single material. In ultra-thin flakes of CrPS₄, layers of atoms naturally form regions with different magnetic properties - some behave like antiferromagnets (AFM), which have opposing magnetic directions and cancel each other out, and others act like ferromagnets (FM), where all the spins align.

Dr Elton Santos from the School’s Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems said:

These regions line up side by side like lanes on a highway. The border between them forms a perfect interface, allowing us to study and control magnetic behaviour with incredible precision.

How did they do it?

The team used a cutting-edge imaging technique called nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centre magnetometry - a kind of ultra-sensitive magnetic ‘microscope’ that uses diamond sensors to visualize tiny magnetic fields. With this, they could see how the magnetic domains formed, interacted, and shifted at the boundaries between different layers of CrPS₄.

They found that by changing the arrangement of these layers, they could turn the magnetic bias on or off, like flipping a switch. It’s a controllable, reversible process - something that could be very useful for future technologies.

Why it matters

This discovery doesn’t just deepen our understanding of magnetism - it lays the groundwork for building smarter, smaller, and more reliable magnetic devices. It could help engineers design ultra-compact memory chips, reconfigurable sensors, or even quantum devices based on magnetic principles.

And since CrPS₄ is stable in air and easy to work with, it’s an ideal candidate for real-world applications, not just lab experiments.

Dr Santos explains:

This work gives us a transparent and reliable platform to understand and engineer magnetism at the atomic scale. It opens the door to a whole new class of magnetic technologies.

Edinburgh astronomers and visitors to Dynamic Earth joined a global audience in witnessing the debut of live images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.

‘First look’ event

Held on the evening of 23 June, the ‘First Look’ event offered a rare opportunity to glimpse the Universe as seen by one of the most advanced astronomical facilities ever built. The Edinburgh event was part of an international series celebrating the observatory’s initial imaging milestones.

From the dramatic setting of Dynamic Earth’s Planetarium, visitors experienced the images on the 360-degree viewing screen. Professor Catherine Heymans, Astronomer Royal for Scotland, and expert astronomers from the University of Edinburgh attended the event and shared their insights into how the images will help us understand our Universe better, chronicle its evolution, and delve into the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter.

Professor Catherine Heymans said:

This was an awe-inspiring moment in the history of astronomy. To see the very first images from the Rubin Observatory alongside members of the public, students, and fellow scientists was just fabulous.

Nebula and galaxies

The Trifid and Lagoon nebulas image below combines 678 separate images taken by the Rubin Observatory in just over seven hours of observing time. Combining many images in this way clearly reveals otherwise faint or invisible details, such as the clouds of gas and dust that comprise the Trifid nebula (top right) and the Lagoon nebula, which are several thousand light-years away from Earth.

The second image shows a small section of the Observatory's total view of the Virgo cluster. Visible are two prominent spiral galaxies (lower right), three merging galaxies (upper right), several groups of distant galaxies, many stars in the Milky Way galaxy and more.

Edinburgh’s involvement

Visit the link below to learn about the Rubin Observatory mission and involvement from University of Edinburgh colleagues.

On 23 June 2025 the first images from the Vera C. Rubin Observatory will be revealed to the world in a ‘First Look’ event and Edinburgh researchers are looking forward to their role in the decade of great science that will follow.

Located on a mountaintop in Chile, the NSF-DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory pairs one of the world’s biggest telescopes with the largest digital camera ever made. Over the next decade this astronomical discovery machine will conduct the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST), an ultra-wide, high-definition time-lapse record of our Universe – a cosmic movie.

Rubin is unique: its mirror design, camera size and sensitivity, telescope speed, and computing infrastructure are each in an entirely new category. This combination will enable it to produce a huge dataset that will advance knowledge across astronomy, from the nearest asteroids to the most distant quasars. By repeatedly scanning the southern sky, Rubin can detect celestial sources that have moved or changed, and it will issue millions of alerts regarding such events every night for a decade.

While Rubin is a US facility, its operation will rely on contributions from researchers around the world. The UK is the second largest international contributor, with an investment of £23 million to date by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) supporting scientific and technical preparation for the LSST in the UK. These contributions will earn access to the LSST dataset by astronomers from LSST:UK, an umbrella organisation comprising all the UK’s university astronomy groups.

The University of Edinburgh plays a key role in LSST:UK, through a collaboration between the Institute for Astronomy (IfA) and the Edinburgh Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC).

EPCC’s Advanced Computing Facility hosts the cloud computing system at the heart of LSST:UK activities. Named after Scottish mathematician and astronomer Mary Somerville, the Somerville cloud will host the UK’s Independent Data Access Centre, which will hold a copy of multi-Petabyte LSST dataset and a range of analysis tools for extracting science from it. Somerville is also home to Lasair, an alert broker that will classify the events in the Rubin alert stream, identifying rare events like supernovae amongst the much larger population of variable stars.

IfA astronomers are also developing a range of analysis algorithms - to detect and characterise thousands of comets and asteroids and use the properties of the ten billion galaxies in the LSST to constrain the nature of the 'dark energy' believed to be causing the expansion of the Universe to accelerate – while EPCC researchers are part of the UK Data Facility, which will take a quarter of the LSST data processing workload, comprising more than 1.5 million images over the ten years of the survey.

Fifteen team members at the University are contributing to different aspects of the project, with key contacts listed below.

Bob Mann, Professor of Survey Astronomy in the IfA and LSST:UK Project Leader commented:

The arrival of the First Look images shows that the Rubin system is working well, so we can be confident that we are at the start of a decade of astronomical discovery with the LSST. I am proud that the UK is taking a key role within the international LSST community and that Edinburgh researchers are so prominent within the LSST:UK Consortium. Local expertise in a range of scientific and technical areas will secure Edinburgh a place at the forefront of the scientific exploitation of this unique dataset over the coming decade or more.

The observatory was named after Dr Vera C. Rubin (1928-2016) - a pioneering American astronomer whose work profoundly changed the way we understand the Universe. Her most significant contribution to science was providing convincing evidence for the existence of unseen dark matter in the Universe.

Dynamic Earth are holding a ‘First Look Live’ event where you can join Professor Catherine Heymans, Astronomer Royal for Scotland, and expert astronomers from the University of Edinburgh to see the very first images from the Rubin Observatory. A livestream of the first images will be shared by the Rubin Observatory. The links for these can be found below.

CBE in King’s Birthday honours marks career spent in research and government service.

A physicist who is an expert in infectious diseases in animals is being recognised in the King’s birthday honours.

Rowland Kao, Professor of Veterinary Epidemiology and Data Science at the Roslin Institute within the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, and Personal Chair at the School of Physics and Astronomy, is being made a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire for his services to science and technology, specifically his work in mathematics and infectious disease dynamics.

Professor Kao completed undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in physics, and has a career in infectious disease research which spans three decades. He commented:

Physicists use mathematics but they also learn to respect the messiness of real world data – and that combination is ideal for helping us to understand the fundamental processes that drive how diseases spread and how to control them.  

His focus is on understanding the movement and spread of infectious diseases among and between populations of wildlife, livestock and people. He has applied this to the understanding of key diseases including tuberculosis and Covid-19.

Professor Kao has worked at the Roslin Institute since 2017 and the School of Physics and Astronomy since 2022. He also serves as Chair of the UK Government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Science Advisory Council (SAC), and took up this role in 2025 having served as a member of the SAC from 2018 to 2024.

Previously, Professor Kao has held appointments at the Universities of Glasgow and Oxford, and what was formerly the Institute for Animal Health, now the Pirbright Institute.

Professor Kao said:

I am honoured to be chosen for this award, and am especially pleased to see this recognition for animal science research. This underscores the importance of research in infectious animal diseases, and recognises its contribution to public health, through the wider efforts of many researchers and collaborators. I am continually thankful for the hard work, skills, and creativity that colleagues and collaborators bring to everything I do, and am indebted to them for making it a pleasure.

Why are the environments of Northeast Iceland captivating to astrobiologists? Discover the fascinating projects from a recent fieldtrip which shed light on these environments.

The extreme environments of Northeast Iceland emulate those seen on extra-terrestrial moons and planets, and therefore offer a unique look into exoplanet habitability.

A team of nine researchers from the School of Physics and Astronomy and School of Chemistry took part in a recent fieldtrip near Akureyri in North East Iceland. In this article they share details of their projects.

The researchers are part of the UK Centre for Astrobiology (UKCA), which seeks to explore the limits of life, the potential for life elsewhere in the universe, and the ability to detect biosignatures on otherwise barren worlds. This fieldtrip was designed to advance these goals and was generously funded in this endeavor by the David and Claudia Harding Foundation.

Research projects

The colour of exoplanets

The next generation of space telescopes will be designed to measure the “colour” of exoplanets – how much light they reflect at different wavelengths. Much of Iceland is composed of primitive minerals likely to occur on exoplanets, with minimal plant coverage. By exploring these areas, this project aims to marry ground-based sampling in these regions with satellite infrared “colour” measurements of Iceland, and so learn lessons for interpreting future telescope observations of exoplanets.

Clay communities

An investigation is taking place into the microbial communities that inhabit clays in cold Icelandic basalts. Understanding the capabilities of these organisms and their preservation potential in clays has applications to understanding the habitability of newly emerging volcanic environments on Earth and the biogeochemical processes that occur in weathered basaltic materials. This research will have application to volcanic terrains on Mars, including the preservation potential of life in Martian clays which are widely reported across the planet’s surface.

Biomorphs in basaltic terrains

Basaltic rocks are known to weather into products such as palagonite and smectite. Studies of the microbial communities inhabiting such products have showed the presence of non-biological features that were similar to the morphology of microorganisms. A range of life-like forms are also known to develop in mineral deposits formed around hot spring pools. Studies into the biological-like structures in basaltic and hydrothermal environments might offer insight into how life might arise elsewhere.

Plastics in Extreme Environments

Approximately 15% of marine litter ends up at coastlines, with plastics accounting for 60–95% of this debris. With nearly 5,000 km of coastline and a significant coastal population, Iceland is particularly susceptible to this coastal plastic pollution. Interestingly, the materials which make up much of this plastic debris, nylon and polyethylene (used in gillnets and buoys for example), are used in space exploration – nylon is used in space suits, and polyethylene for food packaging and radiation shielding for spacecraft.

Cryo-environments – Permafrost

Permafrost and cryosphere environments are at particular risk from climate change, warming at up to four times the global average. Current models assume that permafrost must first thaw before microbes can resume their metabolisms. However, it has been shown that some microbes can maintain an active liquid cytoplasm far below the freezing point of the external environment. Psychrophilic microorganisms from collected samples will be analysed to understand the biophysics that enable life in sub-zero environments.

The Astronomy Royal for Scotland shares her life and work on The Life Scientific.

BBC Radio 4 is set to air an episode of The Life Scientific exploring the life and work of astrophysicist and Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Professor Catherine Heymans.

Hosted by theoretical physicist Professor Jim Al-Khalili, the programme will be broadcast on Radio 4 at 09:00 BST on Tuesday 3 June, and repeated at 21:00 BST on Wednesday 4 June.

Professor Heymans studied for an MPhys in Astrophysics at the University of Edinburgh, then completed her PhD at the University of Oxford. Her research career, which has included leading several international collaborations, seeks to shed light on the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter – elusive entities that together account for more than 95 per cent of the Universe.

In 2021, Professor Heymans was appointed Astronomer Royal for Scotland. Created in 1834, the position was originally held by the director of the Royal Observatory, Edinburgh. Since 1995, however, it has been awarded as an honorary title. As the eleventh Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Professor Heymans focuses on sharing her passion for astronomy with people from all walks of life across Scotland.

Astronomers have made a startling discovery about a new type of cosmic phenomenon.

The discovery of an object, a long-period transient (LPT), known as ASKAP J1832-0911, has been seen to emit pulses of radio waves and X-rays for two minutes every 44 minutes.

LPTs are a relatively new class of astrophysical objects that are known to emit radio waves in a periodic fashion – unusually slowly compared to most periodic radio objects. However, this is the first time such objects have been detected in X-rays.

Currently, there is no clear explanation for what causes the signals, or why they ‘switch on’ and ‘switch off’ at such long, regular and unusual intervals.

Astronomers from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), in collaboration with international teams, made the discovery. They hope that this latest discovery may provide insights into the sources of similar mysterious signals observed across the sky.

The team discovered ASKAP J1832-0911 by using the ASKAP radio telescope on Wajarri Country in Australia, owned and operated by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO. They correlated the radio signals with X-ray pulses detected by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was coincidentally observing the same part of the sky.

Dr Marcin Glowacki from the School’s Institute for Astronomy was involved in the collaboration. Using observations of ASKAP J1832-0911 and the surrounding Milky Way galaxy taken from South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope, he looked for hydrogen gas located between the LPT and Earth. When the LPT is ‘on’ it is so bright that observations found the Milky Way gas blocking out some of that radio light. By detecting this gas within the LPT signal, he was able to place a lower limit on how far away this unusual object is, which was important to rule out association with other objects in that part of the sky. 

Explanations for the LPT include the possibility of the object being a magnetar (the core of a dead star with powerful magnetic fields), or a pair of stars in a binary system where one of the two is a highly magnetised white dwarf (a low-mass star at the end of its evolution).

However, even those theories do not fully explain what is being observed. This discovery could indicate a new type of physics or new models of stellar evolution.

Come along to our Open Days to find out more about studying at the University of Edinburgh and the School of Physics & Astronomy.

Our Open Days will take place on Friday 20th June, Saturday 4th October and Saturday 25th October 2025.

At the School of Physics & Astronomy you will get the chance to find out more about our Undergraduate degree programmes, meet academics and students, and tour our physics labs.

Please check the University of Edinburgh Open Day pages to find out more and book your place.

Congratulations to Dr Gediminas Sarpis, who has received recognition for his outreach in high energy particle physics.

Dr Gediminas Sarpis has been awarded the Institute of Physics (IOP) High Energy Particle Physics Science in Society Prize for his exceptional contributions to public engagement and outreach.

The IOP recognised Dr Sarpis for his “pioneering work in communicating high energy particle science via multidisciplinary collaborations, and to disadvantaged and overlooked communities”.

Dr Sarpis commented:

I’m grateful to the IOP for recognising the value of this work, and also to the University of Edinburgh for supporting my outreach and public engagement.

Dr William Barter, a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow in the School of Physics and Astronomy who works closely with Dr Sarpis, added:

This award is testament to the incredible effort and work that Gediminas has shown in sharing our scientific research. He has worked with many different communities – including residents of Edinburgh and prisoners across Europe.

Notable previous recipients of the award include Professor Brian Cox and the University of Edinburgh’s Dr Alan Walker.