Geophysical Journal International (GJI) is delighted to announce the three winners of its Student Author Awards for 2012: Joanne Adam, Kui Liu and David Marchant.

The winning articles (below) will be available with FREE ACCESS when they appear online.

• Azimuthal anisotropy beneath southern Africa, from very-broadband, surface-wave dispersion measurements, by Joanne Adam and Sergei Lebedev
• Effects of crustal thickness variations on surface-wave phase delays, by Kui Liu and Ying Zhou (in press)
• Inductive Source Induced Polarization, by David Marchant, Eldad Haber and Douglas W. Oldenburg (in press)

The Student Author Awards are designed to recognise and acknowledge the 'best papers' submitted to Geophysical Journal International by young scientists in the field. Manuscripts are short listed by the high profile Editorial Board and highlighted on the GJI homepage. To qualify, students must be the first author of the submission.

The 2012 winners will receive a cash prize and a certificate, and acknowledgement will be made at the American Geophysical Union meeting in December 2012 and the European Geophysical Union General Assembly meeting in 2013.

The RAS Library has implemented an enhanced catalogue of its printed collections, which replaces the previous online catalogue.

The RAS Library

The new catalogue enables users to find the library's resources more efficiently, with improved keyword and subject searching, clearer information on journal holdings and an attractive user-friendly interface. It also has the capacity to allow fully automated book lending for Fellows, and will provide a suitable platform for the electronic cataloguing of the Library's internationally significant collection of books printed before 1800. Other benefits include:

• Recent acquisitions are now immediately searchable, and included in a 'what's new' section on the catalogue home page.
• A regularly updated Library news section - keep up to date with currently available duplicate titles being offered to Fellows.
• The inclusion of records of freely available online journals and other relevant resources.
• A choice of using either a simple search or a guided search option, and the ability to email or download results.

If you would like to comment on the new catalogue, or would like any assistance in using it, please contact the Librarian. To view the catalogue, follow the links to 'Books and Journals' in the Library section of the website, or use this direct link.

Example query using the new catalogue (click to enlarge)

There are several vacancies arising on the RAS Council, for terms begining in May 2013. Please consider standing or nominating a colleague for one of these posts:

• President Elect (A or G)
• Vice President x2 (one A, one G)
• Secretary (A)
• Councillor x4 (one A, one G, and two A or G)

'A' signifies all areas of astronomy and astrophysics; whilst 'G' covers geophysics, solar-terrestrial physics and planetary sciences.

Please send in completed nomination forms (below) to the Executive Secretary by 30th November 2012. We will also welcome suggestions of suitable candidates for the position of President.

Nomination Form

Composition of Council

While parts of the world experience economic hardship, a team of Portuguese, UK, Japanese, Italian and Dutch astronomers has found an even bigger slump happening on a cosmic scale. In the largest ever study of its kind, the international team of astronomers has established that the rate of formation of new stars in the Universe is now only 1/30th of its peak and that this decline is only set to continue. The team, led by David Sobral of the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, publish their results in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

This diagram indicates the changing ‘GDP’ of the Universe over time. The new results indicate that, measured by mass, the production rate of stars has dropped by 97% since its peak 11 billion years ago. Credit: D. Sobral. Click for a high-resolution version.The accepted model for the evolution of the Universe suggests that stars began to form about 13.4 billion years ago, or around three hundred million years after the Big Bang. Many of these first stars are thought to have been monsters by today's standards, and were probably hundreds of times more massive than our Sun. Such beasts aged very quickly, exhausted their fuel, and exploded as supernovae within a million years or so. Lower mass stars in contrast have much longer lives and last for billions of years.

Much of the dust and gas from stellar explosions was (and is still) recycled to form newer and newer generations of stars. Our Sun, for example, is thought to be a third generation star, and has a very typical mass by today's standards. But regardless of their mass and properties, stars are key ingredients of galaxies like our own Milky Way. Unveiling the history of star formation across cosmic time is fundamental to understanding how galaxies form and evolve.

In the new study, scientists used the UK Infrared Telescope (UKIRT), the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and the Subaru telescope to carry out the most complete survey ever made of star-forming galaxies at different distances, with around ten times the data of any previous effort. With the range of distances, the time taken for the light to reach us means that we see identically selected galaxies at different periods in the history of the universe, so we can really understand how conditions change over time.

By looking at the light from clouds of gas and dust in these galaxies where stars are forming, the team are able to assess the rate at which stars are being born. They find that the production of stars in the universe as a whole has been continuously declining over the last 11 billion years, being 30 times lower today than at its likely peak, 11 billion years ago.

Dr Sobral comments: "You might say that the universe has been suffering from a long, serious "crisis": cosmic GDP output is now only 3% of what it used to be at the peak in star production!"

'If the measured decline continues, then no more than 5% more stars will form over the remaining history of the cosmos, even if we wait forever. The research suggests that we live in a universe dominated by old stars. Half of these were born in the 'boom' that took place between 11 and 9 billion years ago and it took more than five times as long to produce the rest. "The future may seem rather dark, but we're actually quite lucky to be living in a healthy, star-forming galaxy which is going to be a strong contributor to the new stars that will form.

'Moreover, while these measurements provide a sharp picture of the decline of star-formation in the Universe, they also provide ideal samples to unveil an even more fundamental mystery which is yet to be solved: why?"

Science contact

David Sobral

Tel: +31715278421

Mob: +351916700769 / +31652492051

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Media contact

Robert Massey

Royal Astronomical Society

Burlington House

Piccadilly

London W1J 0BQ

Tel: + 44 (0)20 7734 3307 x214

Mob: +44 (0)794 124 8035

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Images and captions (downloadable at high resolution)

1. This schematic diagram shows how the Universe is thought to have evolved from the Big Bang to the present day. Data from the UKIRT, VLT and Subaru observatories allowed the astronomers to take four precise and comparable snapshots of the Universe when it was, 2, 4, 6 and 9 billion years old, each containing hundreds of star-forming galaxies. By comparing the different snapshots, astronomers were able to accurately track what has changed over the last 11 billion years. Credit: Chandra / NASA / NOAO / KIPAC

http://home.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~sobral/FIG1.jpg

2. This diagram indicates the changing 'GDP' of the Universe over time. The new results indicate that, measured by mass, the production rate of stars has dropped by 97% since its peak 11 billion years ago. Credit: D. Sobral

http://home.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~sobral/FIG2_G.jpg

3. This diagram shows how the total mass of stars in the Universe should have changed over the last 11 billion years based on the new observations (lines) and how it actually did (symbols; different measurements by other teams). This provides an excellent agreement between both and strengthens the prediction of the new results that no more than a further 5% of stars will come into existence, even if we wait forever. Credit: D. Sobral

http://home.strw.leidenuniv.nl/~sobral/FIG3_G.jpg

Further information

The work, led by David Sobral (started while he was based at the University of Edinburgh and completed at Leiden University), was also done by Ian Smail (Durham University), Philip Best (University of Edinburgh), James Geach (McGill University, Canada), Yuichi Matchuda (Caltech, USA), John Stott (Durham University), Michele Cirasuolo (ATC and University of Edinburgh) and Jaron Kurk (MPA, Germany).

The research appears in "A large Hα survey at z=2.23, 1.47, 0.84 & 0.40: the 11 Gyr evolution of star-forming galaxies from HiZELS", D. Sobral, I. Smail, P. N. Best, J. E. Geach, Y. Matsuda, J. P. Stott, M. Cirasuolo, J. Kurk, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

A preprint of the paper is available from http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.3436

Notes for editors

The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS, www.ras.org.uk), founded in 1820, encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. The RAS organizes scientific meetings, publishes international research and review journals, recognizes outstanding achievements by the award of medals and prizes, maintains an extensive library, supports education through grants and outreach activities and represents UK astronomy nationally and internationally. Its more than 3500 members (Fellows), a third based overseas, include scientific researchers in universities, observatories and laboratories as well as historians of astronomy and others.

Follow the RAS on Twitter via @royalastrosoc

Ken Freeman, Duffield Professor of the Australian National University at Mt. Stromlo Observatory and Associate of the Royal Astronomical Society has won the Australian Prime Minister's Prize for Science. Prof. Freeman published a ground-breaking paper in 1970 suggesting that the visible stars, gas and dust in galaxies is only a small fraction of their mass and that the rest is 'dark matter'.

Prof. Ken Freeman. Credit: Prime Minister's Science Prizes / BearcageMore recently, in 2002 Prof. Freeman is credited as a founder of the field of galactic archaeology, determining the age and movement of stars in our own galaxy by analysing their chemical composition. That same year he was made an Associate of the RAS.

Prof. Freeman is awarded the Prime Minister's Prize for Science in recognition of these and his many other achievements over a career spanning 50 years.

Prime Minister's Prize for Science: details and full citation for Prof. Ken Freeman

The November digest of upcoming space and astronomy news events. This month sees a total solar eclipse visible from Australia and the South Pacific, the possible launch of the X-37B spaceplane and a major meeting on developing instrumentation for the European Extremely Large Telescope.

In this two day meeting, astronomers will gather at the Royal Astronomical Society to discuss the instruments that can be developed for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). This telescope, which will be constructed at Cerro Amarzones in the Chilean Andes, should be operational in the early 2020s. Once complete it will be the largest optical / infrared telescope in the world, with a mirror 39 metres in diameter. The conference will include presentations on the latest concepts for scientific instruments for the telescope, many of which will see major involvement by UK scientists.

Appropriately the meeting takes place 150 years after William Huggins obtained the first spectrum from a star other than the Sun, a result he presented at the RAS.

Bona fide members of the media who wish to attend this meeting should present their credentials at the registration desk for free admission.

RAS Specialist Discussion Meetings
https://www.ras.org.uk/events-and-meetings/ras-meetings

The E-ELT instrument roadmap: meeting home page
http://astro-conf.physics.ox.ac.uk/EELTRAS2012/

Media contact

Robert Massey
Royal Astronomical Society
Tel: +44 (0)20 7734 3307 x214
Mob: +44 (0)794 124 8035
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Earth and the Moon effectively make up a binary planet and are both thought to be a little more than 4500 million years old. The Earth, with its active geology and weather systems, now has little record of its early environment left. In contrast the Moon has a much more ancient surface and so allows scientists to better understand the shared early history of the two worlds and wider Solar System.

On 9 November, planetary scientists will come to the Geological Society to discuss how the lunar geological record can advance our understanding of our own planet and the conditions under which life was able to flourish here. Delegates at the meeting will discuss how future lunar exploration can help access this rich historical record.

Bona fide members of the media who wish to attend this meeting should present their credentials at the registration desk for free admission.

RAS Specialist Discussion Meetings
http://www.ras.org.uk/events-and-meetings/ras-meetings

Meeting programme
http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfbiac/RAS_Earth_Moon_Programme.pdf

Abstracts of talks and posters
http://www.homepages.ucl.ac.uk/~ucfbiac/RAS_Earth_Moon_Abstracts.pdf

Media contact

Robert Massey
(details above)

At 1 p.m. on Tuesday 13 November, Professor Matt Griffin of the University of Cardiff will give the latest RAS public lecture, on the Herschel Space Observatory. Herschel was launched by the European Space Agency in May 2009 and is the largest telescope ever placed in space, with a mirror 3.5 metres across. It observes the Universe in far infrared light, radiation with a wavelength between 100 and 1000 times that of the visible light we see with our eyes. Professor Griffin will describe the Telescope and its suite of scientific instruments, and present some of the spectacular images and scientific results that have already come from this remarkable spacecraft.

RAS public lectures
http://www.ras.org.uk/events-and-meetings/public-lectures

Media contact

Robert Massey
(details above)

13 November: Launch of X-37B spaceplane

The latest launch of the US Orbital Test Vehicle X-37B is set to take place on or after 13 November, when it will be carried aloft from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida atop an Atlas 5 rocket. Built for the US Air Force, the X-37B is a reusable robotic spaceplane designed to operate in Earth orbit for several months at a time, where it can carry out a variety of missions before making an autonomous landing.

US Air Force factsheet on X-37B
http://www.af.mil/information/factsheets/factsheet.asp?fsID=16639

13 November (14 November in some locations): Total solar eclipse: Northern Australia and South Pacific Ocean

The total solar eclipse of 1 August 2008, as seen from Gansu, ChinaA total eclipse of the Sun will take place on 13 November (London time), visible from a narrow track extending from Northern Australia across the South Pacific towards Chile. Depending on whether observers are east or west of the International Date Line, the event will take place on 13 or 14 November local time respectively.

Total solar eclipses take place when the Earth, Moon and Sun are aligned and the shadow of the Moon falls on the surface of the Earth. The Moon moves in front of the Sun, progressively blocking out more of the bright solar disk. Eventually observers directly within the lunar shadow briefly see totality, where the silhouette of the Moon completely covers the bright disk of the Sun, revealing the beautiful outer solar atmosphere or corona. After this the Moon moves slowly away from the Sun until the solar disk is visible in its entirety once again.

At the point of Greatest Eclipse, located in the ocean to the north east of New Zealand, totality lasts 4 minutes and 2 seconds. Observers away from this point but still within the path of totality will see a shorter event. The Australian city of Cairns is one of the largest settlements within the track and observers there will see 2 minutes of totality.

Away from the path of totality, the Moon will partially block out the disk of the Sun and only a partial eclipse can be seen. This will be visible in Papua New Guinea, the extreme eastern part of Indonesia, the eastern half of Australia, the whole of New Zealand, Polynesia, part of Antarctica and the southern part of Chile and Argentina.

Although eclipses of the Sun are spectacular events, they should NOT be viewed with the unaided eye except during the brief period of totality. Looking at the partially eclipsed Sun (visible before and after totality and from outside the total eclipse zone) without appropriate protection can cause serious and permanent damage to the eyes. The partial eclipse can be safely observed using purpose-designed solar filters available from reputable astronomical suppliers. Without these, the only safe ways to observe the Sun are to use a pinhole or telescope to PROJECT the Sun's image onto card (or to look at the natural dappled images that appear on the ground under trees in leaf through the same effect).

NASA Solar Eclipse guide
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/solar.html

HM Nautical Almanac Office: Eclipses Online
http://www.eclipse.org.uk

The member states of the European Space Agency (ESA), including the UK, will hold their Ministerial Council meeting in Naples from 20-21 November. This important event, often described as the 'Ministerial', will see negotations between the different ESA members to set the objectives and priorities for European space activity over the next few years.

ESA: Call for media

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMQDH52Q8H_UnitedKingdom_0.html

UK media contact

Matt Goodman
UK Space Agency
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Information on stars, planets, comets, meteor showers and other celestial phenomena is available from the British Astronomical Association (BAA), the Society for Popular Astronomy (SPA) and the Jodrell Bank night sky guide.

BAA
http://www.britastro.org

SPA
http://www.popastro.com

The Night Sky: Jodrell Bank
http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/astronomy/nightsky/

The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS, www.ras.org.uk), founded in 1820, encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. The RAS organizes scientific meetings, publishes international research and review journals, recognizes outstanding achievements by the award of medals and prizes, maintains an extensive library, supports education through grants and outreach activities and represents UK astronomy nationally and internationally. Its more than 3500 members (Fellows), a third based overseas, include scientific researchers in universities, observatories and laboratories as well as historians of astronomy and others.

Follow the RAS on Twitter via @royalastrosoc

The Royal Astronomical Society is gravely concerned by the sentencing of scientists accused of providing misleading advice and false reassurances in the days leading up to the April 6th, 2009 earthquake in L'Aquila, Italy. This verdict will seriously compromise the engagement of all scientists in issues of risk, particularly when uncertainties in scientific evidence preclude the type of definitive answer that is often demanded by politicians and the public.

The Society represents geophysicists in the UK, including many engaged in the study of natural hazards such as earthquakes. The characterization and understanding of earthquake hazards provide the underpinning for mitigation of their consequences. Italian geologists and geophysicists have carried out an extensive, and internationally respected, effort to catalogue historical earthquakes, to map active faults, to measure the accumulation of strain, and to identify the distribution of hazard. As a result, it was well known before 2009 that L'Aquila – a city that had been severely damaged by several earthquakes in the past – was one of the areas of Italy exposed to the greatest hazard (1).

Once seismic hazard has been recognized, the essential component in reducing risk is to reduce the vulnerability of buildings to shaking in earthquakes. The collapse of older masonry buildings made of stone and brick was the greatest cause of death in the L'Aquila earthquake. The accused scientists made it clear that strengthening such buildings was the priority in face of the known hazard (2).

The often confusing debate surrounding the trial, however, demonstrates that mitigation activities cannot be truly effective without a sustained programme of education that communicates to the public, to local authorities, and to policy makers the nature of the hazard, the risks to which communities are exposed, and the measures that can be taken to reduce those risks.

The victims of the L'Aquila earthquake, and their families, deserve a thorough investigation of all measures taken before the earthquake. Unfortunately this trial, by focusing blame on, and delivering harsh sentences to, scientists who were required to give advice in an uncertain and volatile situation, has impeded future efforts to overcome the multiple challenges involved in building resilience to earthquakes.

Further information

1. Italian Seismic Hazard Map
http://zonesismiche.mi.ingv.it

2. Minutes of the meeting of the Major Risks Commission, 31st March 2009 (note that this text is in Italian). http://speciali.espresso.repubblica.it/pdf/terremoto/verbale.pdf [Alternatively access the file from the RAS website minutes_cgr_310309.pdf]

Solar systems with life-bearing planets may be rare if they are dependent on the presence of asteroid belts of just the right mass, according to two US astronomers. Rebecca Martin, a NASA Sagan Fellow from the University of Colorado and astronomer Mario Livio of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore present the new research in a paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters.

This illustration shows three possible scenarios for the evolution of asteroid belts. In the top panel, a Jupiter-size planet migrates through the asteroid belt, scattering material and inhibiting the formation of life on planets. The second scenario shows our solar-system model: a Jupiter-size planet that moves slightly inward but is just outside the asteroid belt. In the third illustration, a large planet does not migrate at all, creating a massive asteroid belt. Material from the hefty asteroid belt would bombard planets, possibly preventing life from evolving. Illustration Credit: NASA, ESA, and A. Feild (STScI). Science Credit: NASA, ESA, R. Martin and M. Livio (STScI). Click for a larger image.They suggest that the size and location of an asteroid belt, shaped by the evolution of the Sun's protoplanetary disk and by the gravitational influence of a nearby giant Jupiter-like planet, may determine whether complex life will evolve on an Earth-like planet.

This might sound surprising because asteroids are considered a nuisance due to their potential to impact the Earth and trigger mass extinctions. But an emerging view proposes that asteroid collisions with planets may provide a boost to the birth and evolution of complex life.

Asteroids may have delivered water and organic compounds to the early Earth. According to the theory of punctuated equilibrium, occasional asteroid impacts might accelerate the rate of biological evolution by disrupting a planet's environment to the point where species must try new adaptation strategies.

The astronomers based their conclusion on an analysis of theoretical models and archival observations of extrasolar Jupiter-sized planets and debris disks around young stars. "Our study shows that only a tiny fraction of planetary systems observed to date seem to have giant planets in the right location to produce an asteroid belt of the appropriate size, offering the potential for life on a nearby rocky planet," said Martin, the study's lead author. "Our study suggests that our solar system may be rather special."

Martin and Livio suggest that the location of an asteroid belt relative to a Jupiter-like planet is not an accident. The asteroid belt in our solar system, located between Mars and Jupiter, is a region of millions of space rocks that sits near the "snow line," which marks the border of a cold region where volatile material such as water ice are far enough from the Sun to remain intact. At the time when the giant planets in our solar system were forming, the region just beyond the snow line contained a dense mix of ices, rock, and metals that provided enough material to build giant planets like Jupiter.

When Jupiter formed just beyond the snow line, its powerful gravity prevented nearby material inside its orbit from coalescing and building planets. Instead, Jupiter's influence caused the material to collide and break apart. These fragmented rocks settled into an asteroid belt around the Sun.

"To have such ideal conditions you need a giant planet like Jupiter that is just outside the asteroid belt [and] that migrated a little bit, but not through the belt," Livio explained. "If a large planet like Jupiter migrates through the belt, it would scatter the material. If, on the other hand, a large planet did not migrate at all, that, too, is not good because the asteroid belt would be too massive. There would be so much bombardment from asteroids that life may never evolve."

In fact, during the solar system's infancy, the asteroid belt probably had enough material to make another Earth, but Jupiter's presence and its small migration towards the Sun caused some of the material to scatter. Today, the asteroid belt contains less than one per cent of its original mass. Using our solar system as a model, Martin and Livio proposed that asteroid belts in other solar systems would always be located approximately at the snow line. To test their proposal, Martin and Livio created models of protoplanetary disks around young stars and calculated the location of the snow line in those disks based on the mass of the central star.

They then looked at all the existing space-based infrared observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope of 90 stars having warm dust, which could indicate the presence of an asteroid belt-like structure. The temperature of the warm dust was consistent with that of the snow line. "The warm dust falls right onto our calculated snow lines, so the observations are consistent with our predictions," Martin said.

The duo then studied observations of the 520 giant planets found outside our solar system. Only 19 of them reside outside the snow line, suggesting that most of the giant planets that may have formed outside the snowline have migrated too far inward to preserve the kind of slightly-dispersed asteroid belt needed to foster enhanced evolution of life on an Earth-like planet near the belt. Apparently, less than four per cent of the observed systems may actually harbour such a compact asteroid belt.

"Based on our scenario, we should concentrate our efforts to look for complex life in systems that have a giant planet outside of the snow line," Livio said.

Science contacts

Rebecca Martin
University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Mario Livio
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Tel: +1 410-338-4439
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Media contacts

Donna Weaver / Ray Villard
Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
Tel: +1 410-338-4493 / +1 410-338-4514
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it / This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Robert Massey
Royal Astronomical Society, UK
Tel: +44 (0)20 7734 3307 x214
Mob: +44 (0)794 124 8035
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Further information

The new work will appear today in: "On the formation and evolution of asteroid belts and their potential significance for life, Rebecca G. Martin and Mario Livio", Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters (published by Oxford University Press).The paper can be seen at http://mnrasl.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/10/27/mnrasl.sls003.full

For illustrations and more information about this study, visit:

http://hubblesite.org/news/2012/44
http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

Notes for editors

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, USA, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc., in Washington, D.C., USA.

The Royal Astronomical Society (RAS, www.ras.org.uk), founded in 1820, encourages and promotes the study of astronomy, solar-system science, geophysics and closely related branches of science. The RAS organizes scientific meetings, publishes international research and review journals, recognizes outstanding achievements by the award of medals and prizes, maintains an extensive library, supports education through grants and outreach activities and represents UK astronomy nationally and internationally. Its more than 3500 members (Fellows), a third based overseas, include scientific researchers in universities, observatories and laboratories as well as historians of astronomy and others.

Follow the RAS on Twitter via @royalastrosoc

Long-standing Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society Ian Ridpath has received the Klumpke-Roberts Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP) in recognition of his work in communicating astronomy to the wider public. Prof. William Gutsch, President of the ASP, presented the award at the RAS Ordinary Meeting on 12 October 2012.

Ian Ridpath receives the Klumpke-Roberts Award from ASP President Prof. William Gutsch. Credit: Q. StanleyThe ASP citation for Ian reads:

"The recipient of the Klumpke-Roberts Award for outstanding contributions to the public understanding and appreciation of astronomy is Mr. Ian Ridpath who, for three decades, has been one of the most respected and widely published authors in the popularization of astronomy. His contributions to astronomy education comprise a rich catalog of accessible books, articles, television and radio appearances and lectures. His many popular sky atlases and guides have gone through a number of editions and are considered models of clarity and facility of use, including the Collins Pocket Guide to Stars and Planets, The Monthly Sky Guide and several editions of Norton's Star Atlas."

The RAS Library has a small selection of duplicate copies of books. As the library has limited resources it is not able to keep more than one copy of the same book. The RAS is therefore offering these items to Fellows, free of charge.

The duplicate books shelf in the RAS Library. Click to enlarge.Fellows of the society are invited to browse these and take any items of interest. Titles range from popular science books and textbooks through to research monographs, as well as selected volumes of the Proceedings of the IAU. Hopefully Fellows will be able to offer these second copies a good home.

The duplicate books can be browsed in the Main Library, which is open from Monday to Friday from 10am to 5pm. For more details contact the Librarian.

At the time of writing, the following titles are available:

• Civilized life in the universe: scientists on intelligent extraterrestrials, George Basalla, Oxford University Press 2006
• Death by black hole: and other cosmic quandaries, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Norton c2007
• Earthquakes and tsunamis in the past : a guide to techniques in historical seismology, Emanuela Guidoboni and J. E. Ebel, Cambridge University Press 2009
• The emission-line universe: XVIII Canary Islands Winter School of Astrophysics (2006), Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Jordi Cepa (ed), Cambridge University Press 2008
• Extinction: how life on earth nearly ended 250 million years ago, Douglas H. Erwin, Princeton University Press c2006
• Extreme ocean waves, E. N. Pelinovskiæi and Christian Kharif (eds.), Springer c2008
• Flash! : the hunt for the biggest explosions in the universe, Govert Schilling, Cambridge University Press 2002
• Foundations of high-energy astrophysics, Mario Vietri, University of Chicago Press 2008
• The future of the Universe, A. J. Meadows, Springer 2007
• Geons, black holes and quantum foam: a life in physics, John Archibald Wheeler and Kenneth William Ford, Norton c2008.
• An introduction to nuclear astrophysics, Richard N. Boyd, University of Chicago Press 2008
• Meteorite hunter: the search for Siberian meteorite craters, Roy A. Gallant, McGraw-Hill c2002
• Models and methods of magnetotellurics, Mark Berdichevsky and V.I. Dmitriev, Springer 2008
• RS Ophiuchi (2006) and the recurrent nova phenomenon : proceedings of a workshop held at Keele University, Keele, United Kingdom, 12-14 June 2007, Aneurin Evans, M F Bode, T J O'Brien and M J Darnley (eds.), Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2008
• Proceedings of the IAU from the following symposia:
  • IAUS 235, Galaxy Evolution across the Hubble Time
  • IAUS 237, Triggered Star Formation in a Turbulent Interstellar Medium
  • IAUS 242, Astrophysical Masers & their Environments
  • IAUS 243, Star-Disk Interaction in Young Stars
  • IAUS 265, Chemical Abundances in the Universe: Connecting First Stars to Planets
  • IAUS 267, Co-evolution of Central Black Holes and Galaxies
  • IAUS 268, Light Elements in the Universe
• The solar tachocline, David W. Hughes, Robert Rosner and N. O. Weiss (eds.), Cambridge University Press 2007
• Three steps to the universe : from the sun to black holes to the mystery of dark matter, Richard and David Garfinkle, University of Chicago Press 2008
• Volcanoes and the environment, Joan Martí and Gerald Ernst (eds.), Cambridge University Press, 2005

Please check availability with the Librarian. More titles may become available, whilst existing titles are offered on a first-come, first-served basis.