Astronomy
We have international programmes of observational, theoretical, laboratory-based and mission-based astronomy research, focusing on a number of the key science questions of European and UK astronomy, including:
- Do we understand the extremes of the Universe?
- How do galaxies form and evolve?
- What is the origin and evolution of stars and planets?
- How do we fit in?
We also carry out research in the area of astronomy education.
Each year we expect to recruit full-time postgraduate students to typically 3-5 advertised research projects, on fully funded studentships (providing fees and stipend). Part-time, self-funded postgraduate students on self-defined projects are only appointed in exceptional circumstances, where the projects closely match the interests and activities of staff members.
Astronomy is one of five research disciplines within the School of Physical Sciences and has close links with Planetary and Space Sciences and with The Centre for Electronic Imaging.
Key facts
- Astronomy is a highly productive, and internationally excellent research area within the OU, producing typically over 150 research papers a year and financially supported by STFC, UKSA, the European Commission and other funding bodies.
- Research students in Astronomy at the OU have opportunities to travel to our own telescopes abroad, to international observatories and to international conferences.
- As part of the Physical Sciences, postgraduate students in astronomy benefit from specific research skills training related to their subject areas (e.g. astronomical computing, statistics) in addition to their individual research project supervision, as well as general research training at faculty and University level.
- The OU Astronomers gather for a weekly Journal Club, which is an informal and informative gathering, discussing up to the minute developments in astronomy from the our own work, the journals and reports from international conferences.
- Astronomy is a priority area for OU-funded broadcasting, and there are often opportunities to become involved in BBC television or radio series. We regularly consult on BBC television series funded by the OU including Stargazing Live and Bang Goes The Theory.
- We also teach more Astronomy undergraduates than any other UK university, with over 40 years' experience specialising in distance education, taking students from no previous knowledge to undergraduate degrees and beyond.
Location
Our full-time research students are based at our Milton Keynes campus; for details of residence requirements for different modes of study see Full-time study and Part-time study.
Facilities
We have leading roles in many major international projects and facilities, including JWST programmes, LOFAR, JCMT Legacy Surveys, and the Vera C Rubin Observatory and LSST. We run the OpenScience Observatories, a collection of telescopes and other instruments on Mount Teide, Tenerife.
We are members of the UK SALT Consortium, which owns a 5 per cent share in the 11-metre Southern African Large Telescope. We are a partner in the SuperWASP consortium that operates two robotic sky-patrol camera systems (one in La Palma, one at Sutherland Observatory, South Africa), We are co-investigators on the forthcoming ESA Euclid space telescope and have involvement with the forthcoming ESA PLATO and ARIEL and Athena space telescopes.
We use many international facilities, from ground-based observatories (e.g. ALMA, AAO, ESO) to space telescopes (JWST, HST, Spitzer, XMM-Newton), and are involved in the planning and preparation for future international facilities.
Observational studies are complemented by state-of-the-art laboratories in astrochemistry which are integrated with European and US astrochemistry and planetary science laboratory networks. We are also a partner institution in the South East Physics Network (SEPNet), ensuring both a coordinated training plan for postgraduate students and rapid dissemination of their research findings to a very broad community.
All this research exploits the University’s IMPACT computing cluster for data analysis and modelling.
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