The Open University

Mars 2020: the hunt for life on the red planet is about to get serious

30 July 2020

Monica Grady, Professor of Planetary Sciences at The Open University, discusses the latest missions to Mars in the hope for more answers about if there has been, or is, life on the red planet. Next spring is going to be a busy time for Mars. In close succession, three spacecraft will arrive at the planet, […]

Five top tips for managing your personal finances during coronavirus

30 July 2020

Jonquil Lowe, Senior Lecturer in Economics and Personal Finance at The Open University, offers advice on how to manage your money through the coronavirus pandemic. When it comes to money, coronavirus has split the nation. Financial stress dominates for many of the 9.5 million employees on furlough, potentially facing unemployment as the scheme unwinds, and […]

OU launches bursaries for 50 new BAME students

29 July 2020

The Open University is offering ‘Open Futures Bursaries’ to support new OU students who identify as being from a Black, Asian, or other minority ethnic (BAME) background. Fifty bursaries of £1,000 are available to eligible new students for the academic year 2020/21, to be used towards study costs or other living expenses. Applications are open […]

I’ve been talking to conspiracy theorists for 20 years – here are my six rules of engagement

22 July 2020

Jovan Byford, Senior Lecturer in Psychology at The Open University discusses the rules he uses for talking about conspiracy theories. With prospects of a COVID-19 vaccine looking up, attention is also turning to the problem of anti-vax ideas. According to a recent survey, one in six Britons would refuse a COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes […]

Euclid space telescope’s camera a step closer to imaging galaxies

9 July 2020

The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Euclid mission to study more than a billion galaxies is a step closer to launch as its two instruments are now built and fully tested, including a massive optical digital camera delivered by an international consortium. Once Euclid is launched from French Guiana in 2022, the VIS instrument will be […]

International scientists discover a pair of dancing planets

2 July 2020

An international team of scientists, including Professor Carole Haswell and Dr Ulrich Kolb of The Open University (OU), have discovered two, giant planets interacting near each other, in a gravitational dance. The planets, detected by the Wide Area Search for Planets (WASP) project, feel each other’s gravity and, as a result, speed up and slow […]

Super-Earth planets detected orbiting nearby star

26 June 2020

A system of super-Earth planets – possibly rocky worlds, but larger than Earth – has been detected orbiting the nearby star Gliese 887. An international team of astronomers, including Professor Carole Haswell and Dr John Barnes of The Open University, made the discovery as part of Red Dots, a project to detect terrestrial planets close […]

Nkurunziza’s life and Burundian politics: beyond the mourning and controversies

24 June 2020

Astrid Jamar, Lecturer in Development at The Open University and Rene Claude Niyonkuru, Researcher at the Universite catholique de Louvain discuss President Pierre Nkurunziza – and his legacy – following his sudden death earlier this month at the age of 55. They explore how his personal and political trajectory was entangled with a long legacy […]

‘The OU helped me to become a published author!’

24 June 2020

“I always dreamed of becoming an author,” says OU graduate Shereen. “But it wasn’t something I realised again until I had taken time off from my banking career.” Shereen had been working in London’s Canary Wharf when she met her husband and took some time off to raise her family. After her break from banking, […]

Life inside Pluto? Hot birth may have created internal ocean on dwarf planet

23 June 2020

David Rothery, Professor of Planetary Geosciences at The Open University, discusses what it means to discover internal oceans on Pluto and other planets in the solar system. Pluto, along with many other dwarf planets in the outer solar system, is often thought of as dark, icy and barren – with a surface temperature of just […]

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