Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE160100014
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$550,000.00
Summary
VeloceCal: Hyper-Calibrating Australia's Planet Foundry. VeloceCal: hyper-calibrating Australia's planet foundry:
VeloceCal aims to deliver a hyper-calibration capability to Australia's premier high-resolution optical spectrograph, such that instrumental drifts will make an insignificant contribution to the system's Doppler velocity measurement capabilities. This would transform Australian capabilities for the measurement of masses (and so densities) for the lowest mass planets which will be em ....VeloceCal: Hyper-Calibrating Australia's Planet Foundry. VeloceCal: hyper-calibrating Australia's planet foundry:
VeloceCal aims to deliver a hyper-calibration capability to Australia's premier high-resolution optical spectrograph, such that instrumental drifts will make an insignificant contribution to the system's Doppler velocity measurement capabilities. This would transform Australian capabilities for the measurement of masses (and so densities) for the lowest mass planets which will be emerging from NASA's next-generation Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) from 2017 onwards. VeloceCal would play a pivotal role in determining whether the smallest planets found by TESS are terrestrial (like the Earth) or icy (like Neptune), and in unambiguously discovering terrestrial planets orbiting low-mass stars in habitable orbits.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE180100165
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$792,859.00
Summary
Veloce Verde+Azzuro - Tripling the Power of Australia's Planet Foundry. This project aims to better understand humanity’s place in the Universe, including questions such as whether we are alone or if our home in the Solar System is unique or common. This project will enable new observations using a revolutionary Australian facility, Veloce Verde+Azzuro. Moving beyond discovering habitable planets around dim red stars, it will enable science on the properties and system architectures of planets o ....Veloce Verde+Azzuro - Tripling the Power of Australia's Planet Foundry. This project aims to better understand humanity’s place in the Universe, including questions such as whether we are alone or if our home in the Solar System is unique or common. This project will enable new observations using a revolutionary Australian facility, Veloce Verde+Azzuro. Moving beyond discovering habitable planets around dim red stars, it will enable science on the properties and system architectures of planets orbiting stars like the Sun. It will deliver a ten-fold increase in collecting power for Sun-like stars, providing understanding of how exoplanetary systems, and our Solar System, were formed.Read moreRead less
Characterization of extrasolar planets using high-precision polarimetry. Close to a thousand exoplanets have been found since the discovery of a planet around a Sun-like star, 51 Peg in 1995. With the Kepler space telescope, we are now capable of finding Earth-size worlds around other stars. But how do we know if these Earth-like planets have all the right ingredients for life like ours to flourish? Polarimetry is a powerful method of exoplanet characterisation that could one day answer such que ....Characterization of extrasolar planets using high-precision polarimetry. Close to a thousand exoplanets have been found since the discovery of a planet around a Sun-like star, 51 Peg in 1995. With the Kepler space telescope, we are now capable of finding Earth-size worlds around other stars. But how do we know if these Earth-like planets have all the right ingredients for life like ours to flourish? Polarimetry is a powerful method of exoplanet characterisation that could one day answer such questions and can be applied, right now, to the giant planets. An innovative, portable polarimeter will be developed, that will be used to understand the atmospheric composition of exoplanets. Polarimetry is a promising method, which in the future may be the first method that can detect liquid water on extrasolar planets.Read moreRead less
Understanding other worlds: the composition, structure and evolution of exoplanet atmospheres. This project will advance our understanding of the rapidly growing number of planets being found around other stars. The project will develop new techniques to determine what their atmospheres are made of, how the planets form and evolve, and whether they have the potential to host life.
Supernovae as the origin of antimatter in our galaxy. This project aims to uncover the origin of the bulk of the antimatter in our Milky Way Galaxy. Astrophysicists have known for forty years that our Galaxy glows with gamma-rays emitted by the annihilation of huge numbers of positrons, the antimatter partners to electrons. Certain supernovae are the likely source of these positrons. To fully investigate this idea and its ramifications, this project will perform three-dimensional supercomputer s ....Supernovae as the origin of antimatter in our galaxy. This project aims to uncover the origin of the bulk of the antimatter in our Milky Way Galaxy. Astrophysicists have known for forty years that our Galaxy glows with gamma-rays emitted by the annihilation of huge numbers of positrons, the antimatter partners to electrons. Certain supernovae are the likely source of these positrons. To fully investigate this idea and its ramifications, this project will perform three-dimensional supercomputer simulations of thermonuclear supernova explosions. This project aspires to resolve a long-standing mystery in astrophysics and provide an exemplar for best usage of Australian investment in astronomy and supercomputing infrastructure.Read moreRead less
The next wave of asteroseismic discovery using NASA’s TESS mission. This project aims to make advances in astrophysics by capitalising on NASA’s upcoming Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission and recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence. Through an innovative approach to analyse big datasets, the project expects to generate new knowledge in the key areas of planet formation, stellar structure, and the Galaxy’s evolution. Outcomes include strong international links to leadin ....The next wave of asteroseismic discovery using NASA’s TESS mission. This project aims to make advances in astrophysics by capitalising on NASA’s upcoming Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission and recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence. Through an innovative approach to analyse big datasets, the project expects to generate new knowledge in the key areas of planet formation, stellar structure, and the Galaxy’s evolution. Outcomes include strong international links to leading institutions and enhanced capacity for Australia to be part of cutting-edge space exploration. The methods and skills developed by the project should provide significant benefits to other data-driven sciences and help build smarter business models and improved decision making in industry and government in our increasingly data-dependent economy.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE120100023
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$185,000.00
Summary
Detailed spectrophotometric/velocity mapping of galaxies and identifying transient Gamma-Ray Burst Sources (GRBs) and the first stars with the unique upgraded Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS) facility. This project will allow light from galaxies be more efficiently detected and analysed. In particular details of a galaxy's composition, rotation, recessional velocity and star formation history will be possible following extensive refurbishment of the Siding Spring Observatory's Wide Field Spectrog ....Detailed spectrophotometric/velocity mapping of galaxies and identifying transient Gamma-Ray Burst Sources (GRBs) and the first stars with the unique upgraded Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS) facility. This project will allow light from galaxies be more efficiently detected and analysed. In particular details of a galaxy's composition, rotation, recessional velocity and star formation history will be possible following extensive refurbishment of the Siding Spring Observatory's Wide Field Spectrograph and installation of new extremely sensitive charged couple device (CCD) detectors.Read moreRead less
Formation and evolution of planetary systems. This project aims to develop computer simulation methods and mathematical modelling to help solve the mystery of how planets form. The project should also produce world-first algorithms for combining the effects of radiation and hydrodynamics, which will have a wide application in astronomy, atmospheric science and engineering and constraints on the processes of planet formation. The anticipated outcome of the project is to pinpoint the regions where ....Formation and evolution of planetary systems. This project aims to develop computer simulation methods and mathematical modelling to help solve the mystery of how planets form. The project should also produce world-first algorithms for combining the effects of radiation and hydrodynamics, which will have a wide application in astronomy, atmospheric science and engineering and constraints on the processes of planet formation. The anticipated outcome of the project is to pinpoint the regions where the dust grains grow to form the building blocks of planets.Read moreRead less
The diversity of core-collapse supernovae. This project aims to develop a comprehensive picture of the explosions of massive stars as core-collapse supernovae using high-end computer simulations. Such explosions come in many varieties and arise from different classes of progenitor stars. This project seeks to thoroughly understand this diversity. It endeavours to provide simulations of supernovae powered by magnetic fields, supernovae that produce black holes, supernovae in binary systems, and t ....The diversity of core-collapse supernovae. This project aims to develop a comprehensive picture of the explosions of massive stars as core-collapse supernovae using high-end computer simulations. Such explosions come in many varieties and arise from different classes of progenitor stars. This project seeks to thoroughly understand this diversity. It endeavours to provide simulations of supernovae powered by magnetic fields, supernovae that produce black holes, supernovae in binary systems, and the most energetic neutrino-driven supernovae. The project also aspires to better link numerical simulations, observations of supernovae and their remnants, and the nucleosynthesis fingerprints that supernovae have left in the chemical history record of galaxies.Read moreRead less
A New Way to Calculate Mixing and Burning in Stars. This project aims to develop a new method for calculating mixing and burning in stars, by combining the results of supercomputer calculations with a novel 2-stream mixing idea. It will develop new techniques suitable for studying the long-term evolution of hot gases that are both mixing and burning at the same time. Expected outcomes will be advances in computational gas dynamics, a robust new model for mixing in stars, and an improved underst ....A New Way to Calculate Mixing and Burning in Stars. This project aims to develop a new method for calculating mixing and burning in stars, by combining the results of supercomputer calculations with a novel 2-stream mixing idea. It will develop new techniques suitable for studying the long-term evolution of hot gases that are both mixing and burning at the same time. Expected outcomes will be advances in computational gas dynamics, a robust new model for mixing in stars, and an improved understanding of the production of the heaviest elements. Benefits will include advances in computational gas dynamics, astronomical modelling, and strengthened research connections with astronomers and computational scientists in the UK and Sweden.Read moreRead less