Published in Nature Astronomy, a team of international astronomers has discovered the highest total mass double white dwarf binary to date, located a mere 160 light years away from the Sun. Coming in at approximately 1.56 solar masses, the source is the first double white dwarf destined to undergo unstable mass transfer and explode as a type Ia supernova.

A study published today in Nature Astronomy, in which a researcher from the IAC has participated, outlines the discovery of an extremely rare type of binary system composed of two high mass white dwarfs. The two stars are so close together that they will eventually collide resulting in a supernova explosion which, due to its proximity to the Earth, will appear ten times brighter than the Moon.

University of Warwick astronomers have discovered an extremely rare, high mass, compact binary star system only ~150 light years away. These two stars are on a collision course to explode as a type 1a supernova, appearing 10 times brighter than the moon in the night sky.

An international group of astronomers has observationally demonstrated the profound effect that a star evolving through the planetary nebula phase can have on planetary bodies in orbit around it.

An international team of researchers, including staff from the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC), has discovered a planetary nebula that destroyed its own planetary system, conserving the remaining fragments in the form of dust orbiting its central star.

Training observing run on the INT of a group of students from Innsbruck University, Austria

A study led by James Munday (PhD student at the University of Warwick and support astronomer in the ING Studentship Programme 2022/2023) has recently been published that exploits optical photometry of HM Cancri, spanning more than 20 years. This long time-baseline has led to the determination of an incredibly precise orbital decay constraint for the system by timing the phasing of an optical modulation, which would not have been possible without the Isaac Newton Telescope, and the William Herschel Telescope.

Astronomers from The Netherlands, UK and Germany have developed a new method to find distant quasars (quasi-stellar objects) which better distinguishes them from other objects that look like them. Using machine learning techniques and spectroscopic data taken with the Isaac Newton Telescope (INT), the researchers discovered possibly the highest-redshift quasar ever observed with the INT.

An international team of astronomers led by Ignacio Negueruela (Universidad de Alicante, Spain) has discovered one of the most massive star clusters in the solar neighbourhood, signposted by dozens of stars sufficiently bright to be seen with a small backyard telescope.

ING is expanding its studentship programme and is advertising two extra places for the 2020/2021 call, to cover the period from now until the end of September 2021. This will be an exciting year for the ING students. Opportunities for INT observations are being expanded as the INT is increasingly operated in service mode, in response to travel restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition, the students will be able to take part in the commissioning of the WEAVE instrument on the WHT, planned to begin in January 2021.

The study of Near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) is driven by both scientific and practical reasons. Because of their proximity to our planet, they can provide key information regarding the delivery of water and organic-rich material to the early Earth, and the subsequent emergence of life. On the other hand, these small bodies of the Solar System have non-negligible long-term probabilities of colliding with the Earth, and can be targets of future space exploration.

The Pristine Survey allows astronomers to look for and research the oldest stars in our universe, with the goal of learning more about the young universe right after the Big Bang. Recently, the survey team reported on the discovery of a particularly metal-poor star, Pristine 221.8781+9.7844, in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Astronomers have discovered a new type of exotic binary star. In the system AR Scorpii a rapidly spinning white dwarf star powers electrons up to almost the speed of light. These high energy particles release blasts of radiation that lash the companion red dwarf star, and cause the entire system to pulse dramatically every 1.97 minutes with radiation ranging from the ultraviolet to radio. The research is published in the journal Nature on 28 July 2016.

A team of UK, French and Swiss astronomers has discovered two new Jupiter-sized extrsolar planets, WASP-1b (also named as Gara