Using radio observatories in the UK and US and computer simulations, a team of astronomers have identified the youngest forming planet yet seen. Team leader Dr Jane Greaves of the University of St Andrews tells us about it.

MP3: Dr Jane Greaves Interview

The UK infrared telescope on Mauna Kea in Hawaii has been doing great work recently thanks to its brand new camera, the cannon shaped object in the picture below.  The camera is responsible for the UK Infrared Deep Sky Survey, which includes the deepest ever look at the infrared sky known as the Ultra Deep Survey (so that’s the UKIRT UKIDSS UDS, acronym fans). Highlights from this survey were presented at NAM today, and here’s a close up of just one object among the many thousands contained in the field. It is, of course, relatively nearby, but the red objects in the background are likely to be galaxies which are at least 10 billion light years away.   

Updates to this blog will start on Monday 31st March when the opening talks of the UK’s National Astronomy Meeting 2008 begin. There are many facets to this blog, which is aimed at covering the ins and outs of the astronomy news generated during the week of NAM. This blog utilises Flickr, YouTube and Twitter to keep the information flowing. You can directly access these via the links below,

Flickr Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/namblog

YouTube Channel: http://uk.youtube.com/user/namblog

Twitter: http://twitter.com/namblog

On the blog’s front page you will also find a list of upcoming events. If you are attending the conference these will show you useful dates and times for keynotes and social events during the week in Belfast.

If you want to email us, or have anything you think we should add to the blog then plese feel free to email us on namblog@orbitingfrog.com.

Enjoy NAM if you are attending, or just enjoy reading about it if you’re not. We’ll be updating soon.