Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans

@astroroyalscot

Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Professor of Astrophysics, Edinburgh University. Author of How to Design a Universe. @astronomerroyal on insta (She/her)

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Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jul 8

4. Who is accountable and who is responsible? We're just as confused as the committee....

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jul 8

3. Kit Malthouse: "Is STFC on its own?" "If they decide that there's gonna be a huge impact on the physics base, that they have to cut all these jobs, you're not gonna ride to the rescue?"

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jul 8

2. Liz Kendall's message to the community (is positive, but not a reflection of our experience on the ground).

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jul 8

On display this morning, parliamentary scrutiny at its very best with @chionwurah.bsky.social and her committee questioning Secretary of State Liz Kendall about the STFC funding cuts. Worth watching in full, but here are some of the highlights! 1: Doctoring the minutes!

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jul 7

If this leaked info is to be trusted, we'll soon be adding #SaveJodrellBank to #SaveUKAstronomy🔭. I fear this is UKRI "rolling the pitch" to prepare us for the official announcement of unpleasant news😔 There is still a little glimmer hope though: A DSIT spokesperson said: "This is speculation".

A gorgeous sunset image of the iconic Lovell radio telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory.

The prioritisation decisions approved by Dsit are also likely to include the scaling back of several UK-based research facilities supported by STFC, RPN understands.

These include e-Merlin, an array of seven radio telescopes, of which the Lovell is one, headquartered at the Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire.

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jul 6

It's a day of fab asteroid news! 🤩 Image drop from yesterday's Japanese Space Agency JAXA high-speed close flyby of asteroid #Torifune (~450m across). This is the extension mission of #Hayabusa2, after its successful 2020 asteroid-sample collection from Ryugu. Next stop: another asteroid in 2031 🤩🔭🧪

Looks a little bit like two misshapen Ferrero Rocher chocolates stuck together, but it's actually asteroid Torifune

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jul 6

🤩 image drop from Chinese Space Agency asteroid sample return mission #Tianwen-2 (Heavenly Questions-2)! It's now orbiting Kamoʻoalewa, just 18m across, looking for a place to land, drill, & return 100g back to Earth to see if this is a missing piece of the moon. Then it goes on to a comet 😮🧪🔭

A diagram of probe leaving earth (1), going to an asteroid and orbiting around it (2-4), heading back to Earth to drop off the sample (5-6) then carrying on to another comment (7-9). I don't read Chinese so I don't know what the captions say, but this is super-awesome!

An image of asteroid Kamo'oalewa seen from 20 km away. It looks like a tiny crumbly piece of concrete rock, but it's actually 18m across.
From: https://www.xinhuanet.com/20260706/eb8cbec6dfc94a0c84a24e6940334f1d/c.html

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jul 5

You will be getting a very special VIP copy Mike 🤗

This book would be full of mistakes if it wasn’t for the
feedback received from friends, family and colleagues who
kindly gave up their time to discuss early drafts with me.
Thanks go to Michael Butler, Prof. David Chalmers, Prof.
Mike Christie, Prof. Yvonne Elsworth, Prof. Richard Kenway,...

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jul 4

🔊Calling #Nottingham. Get yourself down to Speakers Corner on King Street today between 11am-2pm for #SoapboxScience. It's free. It's fun. Awesome science shared by awesome scientists! #SciComm 👩‍🔬

A schedule of female speakers covering topics from parasites that make you sleepy to can we predict responses to weight loss surgery using urine!

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jul 1

While UKRI ponders our fate it was deeply disappointing to see the 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿Royal Observatory MP responding to our concerns with "funding for STFC has not been cut". True, but flat-cash to cover rising UK facility electricity costs and inflation = cuts to physics and astronomy. #AnswerTheQuestion 😡🔭🧪

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jul 1

At today's UKRI board meeting, the fate of UK particle physics and astronomy will likely be decided. Have we done enough to convince the powers-that-be to halt the proposed funding cuts? 🤞 Read Prof. Hiranya Peiris in Nature today eloquently explaining why these cuts are wrong.🧪🔭⚛️ 📖: rdcu.be/friwM

Restructuring research funding as a choice between discovery and application gets the economics wrong, the evidence wrong and the people wrong.

A premise is gaining traction in science policy on both sides of the Atlantic: that fundamental and applied research are competing claims on the same budget, and that the balance must shift towards application. In the USA, the current administration has proposed cuts of billions of dollars to the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. In the UK, the national funding agency UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) is restructuring its portfolio around government growth priorities, with curiosity-driven research nominally protected but the grant lines that actually fund investigators under severe pressure. The language varies — ‘doing fewer things better’, ‘aligning research with industrial strategy’ — but the underlying logic is the same. Fundamental science, the argument goes, is a luxury that becomes dispensable when budgets are tight. This premise is wrong, and the consequences of acting on it are already visible.

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jun 30

🔊Cease your doomscrolling & start sky-surfing across @vrubinobs.bsky.social new "ocean of stars"! Behind all those sparkles are magical swirling galaxies & I've been having such a lovely time zooming in on them. I think you should too (slow to load but worth the wait) 🤗 🔭 🧪 👉 skyviewer.app/explorer

Lovely pretty galaxies - these ones are very swirly

teeming with galaxies all over the image

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jun 29

A big milestone for particle physics: Long Shutdown 3 at CERN has commenced! It's a case of out with the old, in with the new, and these upgrades are going to be pretty snazzy! ℹ️: home.cern/cern-bids-fa...

People in high-vis vests and hard hats look at lots of tubes and wires. I have no idea what is going on, but this is the CERN Alt Text:

The LHC is currently shut down. Teams will now dismantle 1.2 kilometres of the accelerator to install the new HiLumi LHC equipment. This will be connected to the equipment installed in the new HiLumi LHC galleries, such as the new cryogenic line, sections of which were delivered last spring (Image: CERN)

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jun 24

Erm... I might have just got a little bit too carried away on the BBC World Service, waxing lyrical about the gorgeousness of the @ec-euclid.bsky.social image of the heart of the Milky Way: "swirling golden cloudy fuzziness" "the cosmos scattered with glitter" 😂 ☺️🔭 📷: www.esa.int/Science_Expl...

From ESA: A dense field of tiny stars fills this square image taken by the European Space Agency’s Euclid space telescope. The lower and central areas are dominated by bright yellow and gold colours, forming a textured background similar to fine glitter or sand. Dark brown and black patches cut irregularly through the yellow regions, like ink stains or clouds of smoke. Toward the upper left, the colours shift to purple and reddish tones, blending gently into the surrounding star field. Small blue points of light are scattered across the image.

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jun 24

The President @jim-wild.bsky.social sums this up perfectly:

Jim Wild, president of the Royal Astronomical Society, told RPN that the proposals to manage the cuts “will come on top of damage already done to future projects and early career researchers, and risk driving a generation of talent out of UK science”. They “look set to confirm the worst fears of the PPAN community”.

“Vital capabilities will be lost through unpopular and deeply harmful decisions,” Wild added.

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jun 21

Did I manage to squeeze in a reference to the wonders of modern-day astronomy ( #SaveUKAstronomy ) on #BBCR4 while talking about #solstice Stonehenge? Of course I did! The ELT observatory, the size of a football stadium: we're still searching to understand our place in the Universe! 📷: @eso.org

The ELT under construction (cranes and a skeleton structure), silhouetting the moon.

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jun 21

Lesser-known-fact: the summer #solstice is a moment in time that delivers the longest day/shortest night in the North. At 9:24am (BST) the North Pole will be at its most-tilted towards the Sun. Me & the druids will be on #BBCR4 Broadcasting House later on to celebrate 🤗🔭🧪 📷: National Maritime Museum

The main diagram shows the Earth's annual rotation around the Sun, surrounded by a zodiacal scale that gives the names, symbols and images of the signs of the zodiac. The seasons and the positions of the equinoxes and solstices are marked. Text at the corners describes the Zodiac and the Earth, and a longer text at the bottom explains the Phenomena of the Seasons.

From: https://collections.rmg.co.uk/media/501/182/l1073_001.jpg

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jun 20

A full-on week, fighting to #SaveUKAstronomy & PPAN from 30% funding cuts. There were highs (👇hanging out with fab-folk) & lows (@ukri.org trying to erase history in old Council minutes) but the amazing support & ❤️ from the wonderful wide astro-community makes it all worth it. Onwards and upwards 💪🔭

A group of smiling individuals outside Westminster.

Professor Brian Cox CBE (centre) is joined by, from left, Dr Robert Ferdman, Dr Estifa'a Zaid, Dr Becky Smethurst, Dr Melissa Uchida, Professor Catherine Heymans, Professor Chris Lintott, Dr Harry Cliff, RAS President Professor Jim Wild, Professor Jon Butterworth, Dr Linda Cremonesi and Professor Nina Hatch.
Credit
Nick Willoughby/Royal Astronomical Society

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jun 19

🫣

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jun 14

Obligatory #selfie from the East Coast Main Line, rocking the I'm-about-to-sand-your-floors look 😷! Heading back to Westminster to ask MPs for their help in halting the impending catastrophic funding cuts to UK astro and particle physics. #SaveUKAstronomy 🔭

Catherine looking a little tired (it was the Scotland match last night) in a 3M Aura mask with the blurred landscape out the train window.

A view down to Berwick upon Tweed. The sea is in the background, houses in the foreground and a river with an arching bridge crossing it.

Pensive cloudy skies, green meadow, and Holy island in the sea in the middle.

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jun 13

Anyone want their name in the stars? A little SD-card of names will be attached to the awesome Nancy Grace Roman space telescope before launch and anyone can sign-up to be on it. 🤩🧪⚛️🔭 ✍️: my.nasa.gov/specialevent...

The panel on the side of the telescope. It reads

NASA's first chief of astronomy, Nancy Grace Roman, persevered through barriers and made powerful space telescopes a reality. She envisioned a world where everyone had access to, and enthusiasm for, science. This observatory is a continuation of her legacy and her dream.

Nancy Grace Roman: 1925-2018

Black and white image of Nancy Grace Roman in awesome stylish 70's specs next to a model of a satellite.

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jun 10

The last time the two Astronomer Royals were at loggerheads was back in the 1990s. The Royal Greenwich & Royal Edinburgh Observatories were pitted against each other in a battle where only one would survive. 🔭 Read all about it in Ian Robson's Observatory Wars: 📖: www.obsmag.org/issues/publi...

The Royal Observatory Edinburgh, at night

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jun 6

Space projects running ahead of schedule? This is rare! Huge celebratory high-5's all round to the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team, due for early launch this August 🥳 This beast will discover >100,000 planets orbiting distant stars and so so much more 🤩🧪🔭🛰️ ℹ️: science.nasa.gov/blogs/roman/...

Two tiny people in clean-room gear (top to toe in white) look up at a huge piece of kit with solar panels on the side. This is the Nancy Grace Roman telescope.

Upon arrival at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, the Optical Telescope Assembly for the agency’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope was lifted out of the shipping fixture and placed with other mission hardware in Goddard’s largest clean room.

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jun 5

🫡Salutes to the ISS-crew! Good news - all is well again on the ISS, for now. Great to see such international collaboration and astronaut safety taking priority. The ISS is sadly an aging leaky ship & as it gets closer to the 2030 de-commissioning, I fear we'll see this type of alarm more often.

Roscosmos has paused Friday’s structural repair efforts inside the Zvezda service module transfer tunnel, known as PrK, as more measurements and data is assessed. Given this development, NASA has instructed the crew members inside the Dragon spacecraft to end the safe haven procedures and return to planned operations aboard the International Space Station. We look forward to working with Roscosmos on a collaborative approach to address the leaks.

The majestic international space station with large solar panels, orbiting above our blue planet.

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jun 4

A lovely day out in #York today talking to a super curious and engaged audience at the @yorkfestofideas.bsky.social. We discussed Science, Art, AI and aliens 🤗. The festival runs for another week, with loads of events. Worth checking out if you're in the area!

Catherine selfie with some old fallen down church in the background.

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· Jun 1

So the big Brian tweeted this out to his 3M followers over on the other site - and even though it is a cesspit of doom over there - the comments are so supportive. A lot of love out there for physics and astronomy (albeit from a biased subset of Brian's lovely mega-fans) 🤩🔭⚛️

Screenshot of a tweet from Prof Brian Cox

This is indeed a superb letter from The Astronomer Royal of Scotland. “Someone, somewhere, has taken the decision to defund astrophysics research in the UK, but no-one seems quite sure who that was, or why.” I agree - my colleagues in particle physics have also tried, without success, to discover who owns the decision to damage physics research in the UK, perhaps irreparably, at a time when our economy desperately needs the skills and knowledge we develop and teach.
@UKRI_News
need to get a grip urgently and fix the problem someone, somewhere, has created.

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· May 31

Reposting for the Sunday morning reading crowd with a free-to-read link that isn't behind the Nature paywall! 🔭⚛️🧪👩‍🔬 📖: rdcu.be/floXQ

All the evidence points to a healthy, world-class research community underpin-ning a key innovation pipeline from which future transformative technology and break-through science will emerge.Yet, despite all this success, 30% funding cuts have been proposed for UK astrophysics research

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· May 31

My apologies for not doing this in the first place Claire. Free to read version: rdcu.be/floXQ

Screengrab of a Nature World View paper "A change in UK policy jeopardises the future of UK astrophysics"

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· May 30

Hot news from the summit at @eso.org Paranal: MOONS has a new home! 🥳 Built in Edinburgh, this beast has 1000 robotic eyes, ready to capture & analyse the light collected from millions of stars in the Milky Way and millions of galaxies in the early Universe. Huge congrats to the MOONS team! 🧪🔭

The MOONS instrument (a huge blue box) is being lifted by gigantic crane onto the UT1 (“Antu”) Nasmyth platform at the Very Large Telescope in Paranal. The dry arid Atacama desert can be seen in the background.

A before and after shot of the Moons instrument with a person standing in front of it. The top shot is the real world - today. The bottom shot is a computer rendition made many years ago at the start of the design and development. They look almost exactly the same (although the real-world person is slightly taller than their virtual counterpart).

Astronomer Royal for Scotland | Catherine Heymans@astroroyalscot· May 29

If you haven't already, please support our campaign by writing to your MP to tell them that funding fundamental physics is crucial and important for both science and the economy. 🔭 ℹ️: ras.ac.uk/news-and-pre...