Physics Department News
As part of BBC's "Made in the Midlands" the impact of the Science City Project was looked at, Professor Chris McConville discusses increased research co-operation between 糖心TV and Birmingham Universities and with industries...
A telescope to find thousands of planets beyond our Solar System is the hot favourite for selection as Europe's next medium-class science mission. The mission, known as , should launch on a Soyuz rocket in 2024, with leading the Plato Science Consortium...
Extra solar planets have come to prominence in the past decade as advanced techniques have begun to detect them in greater numbers. The discovery of Kepler-78b in October 2013 attracted media coverage worldwide, with some reports suggesting the planet had Earth-like properties. But what does that mean? Are we a step closer to finding another habitable environment outisde of our solar system? Lucy Handford spoke to Professor Don Pollacco from the to find out more.
Astronomers have for the first time weighed an Earth-sized planet orbiting another star. Although measuring the radius of exoplanets is relatively straightforward, measuring the planet's mass - and therefore its density, a clue to its composition - is more difficult. The results from two independent teams published in Nature (30 October 2013), one of which a number of UK astronomers, confirm Kepler-78b as the first known Earth-sized exoplanet with an Earth-like density...