Geophysical, Galactic, and Extra-Galactic Science with the AuScope and Australian Pathfinder Arrays. Two new radio telescope arrays are under construction in Australia. One is the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, near Geraldton. The other is a very long baseline array with antennae near Hobart, Katherine, and Yarragadee. These three antennae work together to observe radio sources far away across the universe. Their observations are used to establish a very accurate coordinate syste ....Geophysical, Galactic, and Extra-Galactic Science with the AuScope and Australian Pathfinder Arrays. Two new radio telescope arrays are under construction in Australia. One is the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, near Geraldton. The other is a very long baseline array with antennae near Hobart, Katherine, and Yarragadee. These three antennae work together to observe radio sources far away across the universe. Their observations are used to establish a very accurate coordinate system or reference frame on the earth, to which the global positioning system is aligned. This program will use these new radio telescope arrays to study the Milky Way and other galaxies, and to study continental drift and sea-level rise on the Earth.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100054
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$200,000.00
Summary
Next-generation robotic observatories for the remote Antarctic plateau. Australia's astronomers are exceptionally well placed to lead and to partner with major international programs in Antarctic astronomy. These bring Australian industry increased access to cutting-edge technology, and create business opportunities in the infrastructure and support of Antarctic research. This project aims to maintain Australia's lead in Antarctic astronomy and, with the inclusion of a new partnership with Jap ....Next-generation robotic observatories for the remote Antarctic plateau. Australia's astronomers are exceptionally well placed to lead and to partner with major international programs in Antarctic astronomy. These bring Australian industry increased access to cutting-edge technology, and create business opportunities in the infrastructure and support of Antarctic research. This project aims to maintain Australia's lead in Antarctic astronomy and, with the inclusion of a new partnership with Japan, to build upon our existing strong collaboration with China and the USA. Australia's participation in this program also ensures continued technology exchange, and builds our knowledge base in robotics, harsh-environment engineering and computational fluid dynamics, while creating important new astronomical opportunities.Read moreRead less
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL110100074
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,627,006.00
Summary
Meteorite fireballs - illuminating the origins of the solar system. Meteorites are ancient rocks, containing a record of what conditions were like when the solar system was young; but to understand that record we need to know where they come from. This project will deliver these data, providing us with a template to understand how our planetary system came into being.
Establishing the reference frame using astronomical and space-geodetic observations. Australia is increasingly dependent on spatial positioning and spatial data, yet mostly relies upon international agencies and research organisations to provide regular updates of coordinates and reference frame definition used on Earth. Improving the accuracy of the reference frame definition and our understanding of errors in the space-based measurements will provide new insights for studies of the Earth. The ....Establishing the reference frame using astronomical and space-geodetic observations. Australia is increasingly dependent on spatial positioning and spatial data, yet mostly relies upon international agencies and research organisations to provide regular updates of coordinates and reference frame definition used on Earth. Improving the accuracy of the reference frame definition and our understanding of errors in the space-based measurements will provide new insights for studies of the Earth. The research will yield results in studies of national significance, such as sea level rise, the effects of melting polar regions, and crustal deformation, as well as developing Australia's expertise in exploiting observations of the Earth from space.Read moreRead less
Massive black holes in dense star clusters. This project will be investigating the metamorphosis of dense star clusters containing millions of stars into massive black holes at the centres of galaxies. The research will be undertaken using the world's largest optical telescopes and one of the nation's fastest supercomputers.
“Beacons in the Night” unveiling how galaxies light up dark matter. How dark matter influences the formation and evolution of galaxies is to this day an outstanding question in astrophysics. To answer it, world-class facilities and a unique combination of observations and theory are required. This DP team, a world-class team of observers and theorists, will tackle this question by leveraging on two multi-million dollar projects: the MAGPI galaxy survey and the hydrodynamical simulations suite EA ....“Beacons in the Night” unveiling how galaxies light up dark matter. How dark matter influences the formation and evolution of galaxies is to this day an outstanding question in astrophysics. To answer it, world-class facilities and a unique combination of observations and theory are required. This DP team, a world-class team of observers and theorists, will tackle this question by leveraging on two multi-million dollar projects: the MAGPI galaxy survey and the hydrodynamical simulations suite EAGLE-XL. MAGPI will deliver exquisite kinematics for hundreds of galaxies in the middle ages of the Universe, providing a view to the effect of dark matter on galaxies at this critical time, while EAGLE-XL represents the technological frontier in simulations and provides the best interpretative framework for MAGPI.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150100618
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$354,000.00
Summary
Gas in the Cosmic Web: feeding and feedback of galaxies. This project aims to understand the complete cycle of gas in galaxies: from the process of feeding galaxies, going through star formation, to the process of outflowing gas from galaxies. This requires a full physical description of the inflow of gas from filaments going through the halo until reaching galaxies, the process of star formation in a multi-phase gas medium, and the effect energetic events have on the gas content of galaxies. Th ....Gas in the Cosmic Web: feeding and feedback of galaxies. This project aims to understand the complete cycle of gas in galaxies: from the process of feeding galaxies, going through star formation, to the process of outflowing gas from galaxies. This requires a full physical description of the inflow of gas from filaments going through the halo until reaching galaxies, the process of star formation in a multi-phase gas medium, and the effect energetic events have on the gas content of galaxies. This project in the field of extragalactic astrophysics is designed to complement major observational efforts in Australia, such as the Square Kilometre Array and its Pathfinder, as it will provide simulations with full physical descriptions of the neutral gas in the Universe.Read moreRead less
Beyond appearance: revealing the physics of galaxy transformation. This project aims to reveal the physical origin of the large variety of galaxies in the universe by utilising multi-wavelength observations of nearby galaxies combined with advanced data analysis techniques and cutting-edge numerical simulations. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of astrophysics by providing a physically-motivated foundation to the subjective and qualitative taxonomic scheme generally used ....Beyond appearance: revealing the physics of galaxy transformation. This project aims to reveal the physical origin of the large variety of galaxies in the universe by utilising multi-wavelength observations of nearby galaxies combined with advanced data analysis techniques and cutting-edge numerical simulations. The project expects to generate new knowledge in the area of astrophysics by providing a physically-motivated foundation to the subjective and qualitative taxonomic scheme generally used to understand how galaxies, and ultimately stars and planets, formed and evolve. Read moreRead less
Weighing the Giants: Using Galaxy Clusters to understand Dark Energy. This project seeks to reveal the nature of dark energy and thereby explain what is causing expansion of the Universe to accelerate. The project will develop new deep machine learning techniques to weigh galaxy clusters, and apply them to data from the SPT-3G experiment at the South Pole. By comparing theoretical predictions to the observed numbers and masses of galaxy clusters, the project will help determine whether the accel ....Weighing the Giants: Using Galaxy Clusters to understand Dark Energy. This project seeks to reveal the nature of dark energy and thereby explain what is causing expansion of the Universe to accelerate. The project will develop new deep machine learning techniques to weigh galaxy clusters, and apply them to data from the SPT-3G experiment at the South Pole. By comparing theoretical predictions to the observed numbers and masses of galaxy clusters, the project will help determine whether the acceleration is due to dark energy or a breakdown in general relativity. The data science training received by students and researchers on the project will also contribute to a highly skilled STEM workforce for Australia.
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Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130101252
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$369,024.00
Summary
New high precision, direct measurement of the dark matter distribution. How do you measure what you cannot see? Using a radically new and exquisitely sensitive technique called Direct Shear Mapping, which works by measuring the curvature of space-time around massive objects, this project will make the first ever direct measurements of the dark matter halos surrounding approximately 100 individual galaxies in the local Universe.