Noise-free Cryogenic Wavefront Sensing. This project aims to optimise the prototype adaptive optics technology for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) by leveraging past investment in adaptive optics instrumentation and shortwave infrared detector systems. This project expects to generate significant improvements in GMT performance, with ten times greater image resolution than the Hubble Space Telescope and current estimates of >90% sky coverage, compared with ~50% coverage for current technology ....Noise-free Cryogenic Wavefront Sensing. This project aims to optimise the prototype adaptive optics technology for the Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) by leveraging past investment in adaptive optics instrumentation and shortwave infrared detector systems. This project expects to generate significant improvements in GMT performance, with ten times greater image resolution than the Hubble Space Telescope and current estimates of >90% sky coverage, compared with ~50% coverage for current technology. Expected outcomes of this project include the development of a highly trained workforce and continued international collaboration in the field of high-technology sensor systems. This contribution to the GMT will provide significant benefits—it will change the way we view the Universe.Read moreRead less
Modelling star formation and feedback in the interstellar medium. Star formation is such a highly complex process in which turbulence, gravity, chemical evolution, magnetic fields and stellar feedback are coupled together that numerical models are needed to study star formation in detail. This project aims to combine them in a self-consistent model, enabling the most detailed comparison with observations possible to date.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120102940
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
The chemical composition of stars: high-precision spectroscopy with three-dimensional model stellar atmospheres. The determination of stellar chemical compositions is important in astrophysics because it allows us to address the question: how do planets, stars, and galaxies evolve? This project will apply the latest generation of three-dimensional stellar models to the interpretation of stellar spectra and to the derivation of elemental abundances in stars.
Adolescent stars and planets in our neighbourhood from Gaia and FunnelWeb. This project aims to understand how infant stars in their stellar nurseries reach adulthood in the Galactic disk, and link stellar birth to the presence and evolution of adolescent planetary systems. The billion dollar Gaia satellite will change the study of stellar adolescence, with data beginning to flow with an initial public release this year. FunnelWeb – the largest star survey of its kind, covering the entire Southe ....Adolescent stars and planets in our neighbourhood from Gaia and FunnelWeb. This project aims to understand how infant stars in their stellar nurseries reach adulthood in the Galactic disk, and link stellar birth to the presence and evolution of adolescent planetary systems. The billion dollar Gaia satellite will change the study of stellar adolescence, with data beginning to flow with an initial public release this year. FunnelWeb – the largest star survey of its kind, covering the entire Southern sky – will augment this data. This project will combine these datasets, identifying the birthplace of the majority of nearby adolescent stars in the Southern sky and helping to discover and characterise their planetary systems. The results relating to the origin and Galactic context of our solar system are of broad public interest.Read moreRead less
Revealing the history of the Milky Way Galaxy through precision stellar spectroscopy. How did the Milky Way Galaxy form? The answer to this fundamental question lies in the chemical compositions of stars. Enormous investments by the Australian and international community into state-of-the-art facilities and surveys will yield a 1 million star sample for chemical analysis. To fully harvest the information from those surveys requires stellar chemical composition measurements of the highest possibl ....Revealing the history of the Milky Way Galaxy through precision stellar spectroscopy. How did the Milky Way Galaxy form? The answer to this fundamental question lies in the chemical compositions of stars. Enormous investments by the Australian and international community into state-of-the-art facilities and surveys will yield a 1 million star sample for chemical analysis. To fully harvest the information from those surveys requires stellar chemical composition measurements of the highest possible precision. This project aims to use recently pioneered analysis techniques that have led the field of chemical abundance measurements in stars to the unprecedented precision level of 2 per cent (a five-fold improvement) to chart the evolution of our Galaxy over cosmic time.Read moreRead less
Dynamic stars: atmospheres, evolution and asteroseismology. By developing state-of-the-art stellar atmosphere and evolution models, the project will endeavour to answer some of the key outstanding questions in stellar astrophysics including how magnetic fields are manifested in stars, how stars are affected by convection, how oscillations are excited in stars and how old the most ancient stars in the Milky Way are. The project will endeavour to make obsolete the free parameters that have hampere ....Dynamic stars: atmospheres, evolution and asteroseismology. By developing state-of-the-art stellar atmosphere and evolution models, the project will endeavour to answer some of the key outstanding questions in stellar astrophysics including how magnetic fields are manifested in stars, how stars are affected by convection, how oscillations are excited in stars and how old the most ancient stars in the Milky Way are. The project will endeavour to make obsolete the free parameters that have hampered stellar modelling for the past half-century. Using unique stellar models the project aims to provide rich legacy resources for countless studies in modern astronomy and provide the necessary theoretical underpinning for ambitious Australian-led Milky Way surveys, such as GALAH and SkyMapper, and international satellite missions such as Kepler, TESS and PLATO.Read moreRead less