Fifty years of space discovery

Now one of the largest academic Space Research Centres in Europe, the University of Leicester's SRC has long been at the forefront of space science. 2010 marks the 50th anniversary of space research in Leicester and the group which was established to study solar and stellar x-ray sources.

The concept of black holes - regions in space where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape - is one that has fascinated scientists and the general public since Einstein's theory of General Relativity showed they were (theoretically) possible. The Leicester team produced the first demonstration that massive black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, and, subsequently, that the high speed ejection of gas when black holes are over-fed can stop new star formation in the host galaxy.

Expanding human knowledge of the universe is something the Space Research Centre has led during the past half century. Leicester researchers have taken part in many successful space science missions with NASA, ESA and the space agencies of Germany and Japan.

Key now is Leicester’s role in the NASA SWIFT observatory studying Gamma Ray Bursts, providing SWIFT’s X-ray telescope camera, which measures the afterglows from the death throes of massive stars throughout the Universe. These observations enable the behaviour of matter to be studied under much more extreme conditions than occur on Earth, enhancing our understanding of massive stars; stars that are the chemical factories within which many of the elements in our bodies were made.

• Space Research Centre

Next story >>