A research team led by members of the Astronomy and Astrophysics group had to wait over 100 days for the sight of the first of confirmed neutron star merger to re-emerge from behind the glare of the sun.

They were rewarded with the first confirmed visual sighting of a jet of material that was still streaming out from merged star exactly 110 days after that initial cataclysmic merger event was first observed. Their observations confirm a key prediction about the aftermath of neutron star mergers.

Commenting on the 'blood moon' phenomenon, Professor Don Pollacco of the Astronomy and Astrophysics Group, said: “The moon, like all planets, gives out no light of its own, but instead shines by reflecting sunlight. Tonight the moon during its monthly orbit of the Earth will pass through the earth’s shadow. During this period as sunlight can no longer reach the moon you might expect it to be invisible but instead a small amount of sunlight reaches the moon after passing through the Earths atmosphere and this light is then reflected off the lunar surface making it visible to us on Earth.

“As the sunlight travels through our atmosphere on its way to the moon the redder wavelengths pass through relatively unhindered while the bluer wavelength are scattered (thats why the sky is blue) by dust suspended in the earths atmosphere. The red light reaches the moon and is then reflected back to us. So the redness of the moon actually tells us about the conditions in our atmosphere.

“Consequently during a lunar eclipse the moon always appears red. Often the moon will turn a blood red colour and be very striking. Tonights eclipse (if we can see it at all because the weather forecast is not promising) is that the moon will rise in full eclipse. So just after sunset the moon will be visible low down in the eastern sky and already be a blood red colour. The full moon often looks larger when near the horizon (an illusion), so tonights eclipse could look impressive.”

Commenting on the discovery of ancient organic molecules on Mars by NASA's Curiosity rover, Dr Daniel Bayliss, assistant professor in the Astronomy and Astrophysics group at the University of Warwick, said: "Today we learnt of the breakthrough discovery of organic compounds on Mars. This is so exciting because these compounds could be formed by living organisms. The quest now will be to try to find out the origins of these compounds. Evidence for life on Mars may tell us how easy or hard it is for life to start on other planets, which has far reaching implications for life elsewhere in our Galaxy.”

A team led by Marin Alexe has published new research in the journal Science that could literally squeeze more power out of solar cells by physically deforming each of the crystals in the semiconductors used by photovoltaic cells. The paper entitled the “Flexo-Photovoltaic Effect” was written by Professor Marin Alexe, Ming-Min Yang, and Dong Jik Kim.

A hot, metallic, Earth-sized planet with a density similar to Mercury - situated 339 light years away - has been detected and characterised by a global team of astronomers, including the University of Warwick.

Professor Andrew Levan – who played a significant role in the internationally acclaimed 2017 gravitational waves discovery that demonstrated the origin of gold – is announced as a Finalist in the Physical Sciences & Engineering category, winning $30,000.