Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE200100201
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$530,000.00
Summary
A major upgrade to the Australia Telescope Compact Array. This project aims to upgrade the $150m CSIRO Australia Telescope Compact Array ("the telescope"), by replacing the signal processing electronics and doubling the bandwidth. This will significantly enhance the performance of the telescope, enabling more ambitious science by the 450 researchers and students who use it each year. For example, it will enable the telescope to study radio counterparts to Gravitational Wave sources, and it will ....A major upgrade to the Australia Telescope Compact Array. This project aims to upgrade the $150m CSIRO Australia Telescope Compact Array ("the telescope"), by replacing the signal processing electronics and doubling the bandwidth. This will significantly enhance the performance of the telescope, enabling more ambitious science by the 450 researchers and students who use it each year. For example, it will enable the telescope to study radio counterparts to Gravitational Wave sources, and it will enable it to make detailed observations of initial discoveries made with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder and other Australian telescopes. In short, it will enable Australian researchers to do more ambitious research, and make more discoveries, across broad areas of astrophysics.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE160100094
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$150,000.00
Summary
The Mopra Radio Telescope. The Mopra Radio Telescope:
This project aims to use Australia’s Mopra Radio Telescope – the largest millimetre-wave dish in the southern hemisphere – to complete a survey of the distribution of molecular gas across the southern Milky Way. The millimetre-wavelength sky holds the key for understanding molecular clouds in which stars are born, and the Mopra Telescope is the world’s most capable facility for imaging these clouds. The expected outcome is an order of magnit ....The Mopra Radio Telescope. The Mopra Radio Telescope:
This project aims to use Australia’s Mopra Radio Telescope – the largest millimetre-wave dish in the southern hemisphere – to complete a survey of the distribution of molecular gas across the southern Milky Way. The millimetre-wavelength sky holds the key for understanding molecular clouds in which stars are born, and the Mopra Telescope is the world’s most capable facility for imaging these clouds. The expected outcome is an order of magnitude improvement in the clarity of our view of this central component of the Galaxy. The project also aims to enable Mopra to serve as a key element in the Australian Long Baseline Array. The project aims to ensure Australian involvement in three grand design international endeavours.Read moreRead less
Masers: high resolution probes of star formation. The largest stars in the Galaxy play a vital role in the formation of
the atoms which make life on Earth possible. The birth of these stars
is shrouded in gas and dust through which only radiowaves penetrate.
In this project we will make observations of interstellar masers from
the hydroxyl and methanol molecules and through mathematical modelling
of molecular excitation and radiative transfer probe the physical,
chemical and evolution ....Masers: high resolution probes of star formation. The largest stars in the Galaxy play a vital role in the formation of
the atoms which make life on Earth possible. The birth of these stars
is shrouded in gas and dust through which only radiowaves penetrate.
In this project we will make observations of interstellar masers from
the hydroxyl and methanol molecules and through mathematical modelling
of molecular excitation and radiative transfer probe the physical,
chemical and evolutionary status of the high-mass stars associated
with the masers.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE110100055
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$275,000.00
Summary
Hidden Earths and distant Suns: a new optical astronomy observatory in Tasmania. This facility at the University of Tasmania will be a remotely operable 1.3 metre optical telescope with a suite of powerful scientific cameras. It will be used to hunt for Earth-like planets around other stars and to study the variability of stars like the Sun, helping to answer fundamental questions about the Universe and our place in it.
Radio Interferometer Studies of Compact Astronomical Sources. The giant black holes in the centres of distant galaxies that are the topic of this study are used to set the reference frame for geodesy on the earth. Remote and exotic as they are, they have real-world applications such as improving the positions available from GPS receivers and measuring continental drift. The signal processing equipment being developed for this new telescope is based on FPGA (field programmable gate array) chips ....Radio Interferometer Studies of Compact Astronomical Sources. The giant black holes in the centres of distant galaxies that are the topic of this study are used to set the reference frame for geodesy on the earth. Remote and exotic as they are, they have real-world applications such as improving the positions available from GPS receivers and measuring continental drift. The signal processing equipment being developed for this new telescope is based on FPGA (field programmable gate array) chips, that promise to revolutionize the data processing industry, from radar to cellular telephones to computer networks. The young scientists who are working on this project will go on to lead the commercial and industrial applications of this new technology.Read moreRead less
The scale and structure of the Milky Way. This project aims to use new Australian infrastructure to make the most accurate distance measurements to date in the southern Milky Way, completing the three-dimensional picture of our Galaxy. Australia's international standing in astronomy has led to it being one of the host countries for the square kilometre array project, which will bring significant economic and technological benefits to the country. This project builds upon Australia's astronomical ....The scale and structure of the Milky Way. This project aims to use new Australian infrastructure to make the most accurate distance measurements to date in the southern Milky Way, completing the three-dimensional picture of our Galaxy. Australia's international standing in astronomy has led to it being one of the host countries for the square kilometre array project, which will bring significant economic and technological benefits to the country. This project builds upon Australia's astronomical expertise and will provide the most accurate picture to date of the Milky Way. Astronomy provides unique opportunities for engaging the community in discussions of science and society and inspires students to study STEM subjects.Read moreRead less
A survey of the interstellar medium in the Milky Way and Magellanic Clouds using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder. Between the stars in the Milky Way there are clouds of gas and dust; old stars eject heavy elements into this interstellar medium, and new stars form when interstellar clouds collapse under their own gravity. This survey is making maps of the interstellar gas using spectral lines at radio wavelengths to trace the cycle of star formation.
Transient Astronomical Sources at Radio Frequencies. Australian radio telescopes are among the finest and most modern anywhere in the world, and they are the only such instruments that can study the Southern Hemisphere sky. The University of Tasmania operates two radio observatories, at Hobart, Tas, and Ceduna, SA, that are used together to detect astronomical pulses arriving simultaneously at the two sites. The techniques of interference suppression, dispersion searching, fast sampling over b ....Transient Astronomical Sources at Radio Frequencies. Australian radio telescopes are among the finest and most modern anywhere in the world, and they are the only such instruments that can study the Southern Hemisphere sky. The University of Tasmania operates two radio observatories, at Hobart, Tas, and Ceduna, SA, that are used together to detect astronomical pulses arriving simultaneously at the two sites. The techniques of interference suppression, dispersion searching, fast sampling over broad bandwidths, and high speed data transmission between Ceduna and Hobart that will be implemented in this project have direct applications in science and the communications industry. The students who will develop this equipment will carry over their expertise to the private sector.Read moreRead less
Structure and Evolution of High Brightness Temperature Cores of Quasars and Galaxies. Interstellar scintillation, ISS, is a revolutionary new and powerful technique which we will use to study the highest brightness temperature cores of radio quasars with unprecedented angular resolution, and probe the interstellar medium of our Galaxy in a way not previously possible. The combination of scintillation and conventional VLBI allows imaging with light-month to light-year resolution across the known ....Structure and Evolution of High Brightness Temperature Cores of Quasars and Galaxies. Interstellar scintillation, ISS, is a revolutionary new and powerful technique which we will use to study the highest brightness temperature cores of radio quasars with unprecedented angular resolution, and probe the interstellar medium of our Galaxy in a way not previously possible. The combination of scintillation and conventional VLBI allows imaging with light-month to light-year resolution across the known Universe. Scintillation observations are challenging basic synchrotron physics by uncovering quasar cores with temperatures possibly as high as 10^15 K, and lifetimes many times longer than theory. The Ceduna and Hobart telescopes are cornerstones of our scintillation and VLBI proposals.
Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE130101399
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$370,799.00
Summary
Eternal struggle: star formation and black hole activity in galaxies. The histories of black holes and stars in galaxies are intricately linked. This project will dissect the link between them by using supercomputer models and the world's best radio telescopes. Understanding this connection is key to figuring out how galaxies have evolved.