Latest News | Swinburne https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news.rss.category.astronomy.xml
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New JWST low-mass galaxy observations could help settle scientific debate about early universe origins
New JWST low-mass galaxy observations could help settle scientific debate about early universe origins
International researchers have made a major astronomical breakthrough, revealing that small galaxies are very likely at the origin of reionization.
International researchers have found that small galaxies are very likely at the origin of reionization Swinburne led the use of the James Webb Space Telescope to obtain the first spectra of very low-mass galaxies Their observations could help settle a long-running scientific debate about the drivers of reionization International researchers have made a major astronomical breakthrough, revealing that small galaxies are very likely at the origin of reionization – a crucial period in the early universe where neutral hydrogen transformed into ionized gas. A paper published in Nature has used the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to obtain the first spectra of very low-mass galaxies less than a billion years after the Big Bang. Their observations could help settle a long-running scientific debate about the drivers of reionization and could be essential to understanding the formation of the very first galaxies. Swinburne University of Technology is the only Australian university as part of the international collaboration, led by Associate Professor Ivo Labbe. Co-author, JWST Australian Data Centre Senior Scientist, and Swinburne Laureate Postdoctoral Research Associate in Galaxy Spectral Modelling Dr Themiya Nanayakkara says he is thrilled with the outcomes of this global research involving the Paris Astrophysics Institute (Sorbonne University/CNRS), and universities in Pittsburgh and Texas. “This work makes a strong case for smaller galaxies to be the driving force behind reionizing the universe. While the number of energetic photons produced by these small galaxies may come as a shock to many, the cosmological implications are also profound.” Reionization, which occurred some 500 to 900 million years after the Big Bang, marks a crucial period in the history of the universe. It represents the transformation of neutral hydrogen – which predominated the universe – into ionized gas and marks the end of the ‘Dark Ages’ in cosmic history. Scientists have been arguing what drove the reionization of the universe for a long time. Confirmation of the hypothesis relating to low-mass galaxies has proven particularly difficult, given their low luminosity. The study achieved this technological feat through the unique combination of JWST sensitivity and the gravitational lensing effect of the Abell 2744 cluster, making nearby galaxies act like cosmic magnifiers, distorting space and amplifying the light of background galaxies. The team wants to extend this study to a larger scale, to confirm that this location is representative of the average distribution of galaxies in the universe. “We have now entered uncharted territory with the JWST,” says Dr Nanayakkara. “This work opens up more exciting questions that we need to answer in our efforts to chart the evolutionary history of our beginnings."
29 February 2024 11:35
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2024/02/New-JWST-low-mass-galaxy-observations-could-help-settle-scientific-debate-about-early-universe-origins/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2024/02/New-JWST-low-mass-galaxy-observations-could-help-settle-scientific-debate-about-early-universe-origins/
Astronomy
false
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Using AI to enhance satellite imagery to monitor our planet
Using AI to enhance satellite imagery to monitor our planet
A new method to assess different satellite designs using a powerful AI technique to more cheaply monitor our planet from space has been discovered.
An international team led by Swinburne has developed a new method to assess different satellite designs using a powerful AI technique The AI-powered method reduces the cost of Earth Observation satellites while keeping the quality of images high Designing and operating Earth observation satellites typically involves trade-offs between the size, cost and quality A new method to assess different satellite designs using a powerful AI technique to more cheaply monitor our planet from space has been released. Thanks to an international team led by Swinburne University of Technology and leading provider of global Earth observation data, Planet Labs, the AI-powered method reduces the cost of Earth Observation satellites while keeping the quality of images high. Traditionally, designing and operating Earth observation satellites involves trade-offs between the size, cost and quality of different hardware options. Dr Steve Petrie, Earth Observation Research Fellow at Swinburne, was part of the team developing the innovative method. “We used AI to compensate for compromises limitations in satellite hardware that degrade the quality of images,” he says. “The glass lens was the most difficult component to compensate for, suggesting that satellite designers should not compromise on the quality of the lens relative to the quality of other components.” Taking images of the Earth's surface is important for many applications, from monitoring climate change and biodiversity loss, to tracking extreme events like bushfires and floods. Lowering the cost of Earth observation satellites will allow better tracking of these important phenomena. Professor Alan Duffy, Swinburne Pro Vice-Chancellor of Flagship Initiatives says, “the new method demonstrates how AI can enhance images of Earth beyond the limits of the satellites themselves”. “This provides higher-quality data with potentially lower-cost satellites and can help drive the uptake of Earth Observation as a tool for everything from agriculture to mining.” “Swinburne is proud of the close collaborations it has nurtured with industry. This project is a wonderful example that brings together the best of Swinburne’s Space Technology and Industry Institute researchers as well as leading Earth Observation companies like Planet Labs and EY to show how space can be used to help Earth.” Dr Petrie hopes that the research collaboration with Planet Labs and EY can be further developed on future satellite-focused research projects. “The project gave us experience in using AI to enhance satellite images, and those techniques can potentially be used across several Swinburne projects that involve satellite imagery.”
27 February 2024 09:20
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2024/02/using-AI-to-enhance-satellite-imagery-to-monitor-our-planet/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2024/02/using-AI-to-enhance-satellite-imagery-to-monitor-our-planet/
Astronomy
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‘Beyond what’s possible’: new JWST observations unearth mysterious ancient galaxies
‘Beyond what’s possible’: new JWST observations unearth mysterious ancient galaxies
A paper published in Nature details findings using new data from the James Webb Space Telescope challenges our understanding of how galaxies form.
Our understanding of how galaxies form and the nature of dark matter could be completely upended A paper published in Nature details findings using new data from the James Webb Space Telescope Distinguished Professor Karl Glazebrook led the study and the international team Our understanding of how galaxies form and the nature of dark matter could be completely upended, after new observations of a stellar population bigger than the Milky Way from more than 11 billion years ago that should not exist. A paper published in Nature details findings using new data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The results finds that a massive galaxy in the early universe – observed 11.5 billion years ago (a cosmic redshift of 3.2) – has an extremely old population of stars formed much earlier – 1.5 billion years earlier in time (a red shift of around 11). The observation upends current modelling, as not enough dark matter has built up in sufficient concentrations to seed their formation. Swinburne University of Technology’s Distinguished Professor Karl Glazebrook led the study and the international team who used the JWST for spectroscopic observations of this massive quiescent galaxy. “We’ve been chasing this particular galaxy for seven years and spent hours observing it with the two largest telescopes on earth to figure out how old it was. But it was too red and too faint, and we couldn’t measure it. In the end, we had to go off earth and use the JWST to confirm its nature.” The formation of galaxies is a fundamental paradigm underpinning modern astrophysics and predicts a strong decline in the number of massive galaxies in early cosmic times. Extremely massive quiescent galaxies have now been observed as early as one to two billion years after the Big Bang which challenges previous theoretical models. Distinguished Professor Glazebrook worked with leading researchers all over the world, including Dr Themiya Nanayakkara, Dr Lalitwadee Kawinwanichakij, Dr Colin Jacobs, Dr Harry Chittenden, Associate Professor Glenn G Kacprzak and Associate Professor Ivo Labbe from Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. “This was very much a team effort, from the infrared sky surveys we started in 2010 that led to us identifying this galaxy as unusual, to our many hours on the Keck and Very Large Telescope where we tried, but failed to confirm it, until finally the last year where we spent enormous effort figuring out how to process the JWST data and analyse this spectrum.” Dr Themiya Nanayakkara, who led the spectral analysis of the JWST data, says, “we are now going beyond what was possible to confirm the oldest massive quiescent monsters that exist deep in the Universe.” “This pushes the boundaries of our current understanding of how galaxies form and evolve. The key question now is how they form so fast very early in the Universe and what mysterious mechanisms leads to stopping them forming stars abruptly when the rest of the Universe doing so.” Associate Professor Claudia Lagos from the University of Western Australia node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) was crucial in developing the theoretical modelling of the evolution of dark matter concentrations for the study. “Galaxy formation is in large part dictated by how dark matter concentrates,” she says. “Having these extremely massive galaxies so early in the Universe is posing significant challenges to our standard model of cosmology. This is because we don't think such massive dark matter structures as to host these massive galaxies have had time yet to form. More observations are needed to understand how common these galaxies may be and to help us understand how truly massive these galaxies are." Distinguished Professor Glazebrook hopes this could be a new opening for our understanding of the physics of dark matter. “JWST has been finding increasing evidence for massive galaxies forming early in time. This result sets a new record for this phenomenon. Although it is very striking, it is only one object. But we hope to find more; and if we do this will really upset our ideas of galaxy formation.”
15 February 2024 10:13
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2024/02/beyond-whats-possible-new-jwst-observations-unearth-mysterious-ancient-galaxies/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2024/02/beyond-whats-possible-new-jwst-observations-unearth-mysterious-ancient-galaxies/
Astronomy
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The Solar System used to have nine planets. Maybe it still does? Here’s your catch-up on space today
The Solar System used to have nine planets. Maybe it still does? Here’s your catch-up on space today
Some of us remember August 24 2006 like it was yesterday. It was the day Pluto got booted from the exclusive “planets club”.
Analysis for The Conversation by Centre of Astrophysics and Supercomputing Dr Sara Webb and Co Director Space Technology and Industry Institute Dr Rebecca Allen Some of us remember August 24 2006 like it was yesterday. It was the day Pluto got booted from the exclusive “planets club”. I (Sara) was 11 years old, and my entire class began lunch break by passionately chanting “Pluto is a planet” in protest of the information we’d just received. It was a touching display. At the time, 11-year-old me was outraged – even somewhat inconsolable. Now, a much older me wholeheartedly accepts: Pluto is not a planet. Similar to Sara, I (Rebecca) vividly remember Pluto’s re-designation to dwarf status. For me, it wasn’t so much that the celestial body had been reclassified. That is science, after all, and things change with new knowledge. Rather, what got to me was how the astronomy community handled the PR. Even popular astronomers known for their public persona stumbled through mostly unapologetic explanations. It was a missed opportunity. What was poorly communicated as a demotion was actually the discovery of new exciting members of our Solar System, of which Pluto was the first. The good news is astronomers have better media support now, and there’s a lot of amazing science to catch up on. Let’s go over what you might have missed. Pluto didn’t meet the criteria of a fully fledged planet. But there may still be a 9th planet in our Solar System waiting to be found. Image: Shutterstock A throwback to a shocking demotion Pluto’s fate was almost certainly sealed the day Eris was discovered in 2005. Like Pluto, Eris orbits in the outskirts of our Solar System. Although it has a smaller radius than Pluto, it has more mass. Astronomers concluded that discovering objects such as Pluto and Eris would only become more common as our telescopes became more powerful. They were right. Today there are five known dwarf planets in the Solar System. The conditions for what classifies a “planet” as opposed to a “dwarf planet” were set by the International Astronomical Union. To cut a long story short, Pluto wasn’t being targeted back in 2006. It just didn’t meet all three criteria for a fully fledged planet: it must orbit a star (in our Solar System this would be the Sun) it must be big enough that gravity has forced it into a spherical shape it must be big enough that its own gravity has cleared away any other objects of a similar size near its orbit. The third criterion was Pluto’s downfall. It hasn’t cleared its neighbouring region of other objects. So is our Solar System fated to have just eight planets? Not necessarily. There may be another one waiting to be found. Is there a Planet Nine out there? With the discovery of new and distant dwarf planets, astronomers eventually realised the dwarf planets’ motions around the Sun didn’t quite add up. We can use complicated simulations in supercomputers to model how gravitational interactions would play out in a complex environment such as our Solar System. In 2016, California Institute of Technology astronomers Konstantin Batygin and Mike Brown concluded – after modelling the dwarf planets and their observed paths – that mathematically there ought be a ninth planet out there. Their modelling determined this planet would have to be about ten times the mass of Earth, and located some 90 billion kilometres away from the Sun (about 15 times farther then Pluto). It’s a pretty bold claim, and some remain sceptical. One might assume it’s easy to determine whether such a planet exists. Just point a telescope towards where you think it is and look, right? If we can see galaxies billions of light years away, shouldn’t we be able to spot a ninth planet in our own Solar System? Well, the issue lies in how (not) bright this theoretical planet would be. Best estimates suggest it sits at the depth limit of Earth’s largest telescopes. In other words, it could be 600 times fainter than Pluto. The other issue is we don’t know exactly where to look. Our Solar System is really big, and it would take a significant amount of time to cover the entire sky region in which Planet Nine might be hiding. To further complicate things, there’s only a small window each year during which conditions are just right for this search. That isn’t stopping us from looking, though. In 2021, a team using the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (a millimetre-wave radio telescope) published the results from their search for a ninth planet’s movement in the outskirts of the Solar System. While they weren’t able to confirm its existence, they provided ten candidates for further follow-up. We may only be a few years from knowing what lurks in the outskirts of our planetary neighbourhood. The ACT sits at an altitude of 5,190 meters in Chile’s Atacama desert. Here, the lack of atmospheric water vapour helps to increase its accuracy. Image: NIST/ACT Collaboration Finding exoplanets Even though we have telescopes that can reveal galaxies from the universe’s earliest years, we still can’t easily directly image planets outside of our Solar System, also called exoplanets. The reason can be found in fundamental physics. Planets emit very dim red wavelengths of light, so we can only see them clearly when they’re reflecting the light of their star. The farther away a planet is from its star, the harder it is to see. Astronomers knew they’d have to find other ways to look for planets in foreign star systems. Before Pluto was reclassified they had already detected the first exoplanet, 51 Pegasi B, using a radial velocity method. This gas giant world is large enough, and close enough to its star, that the gravitational tug of war between the two can be detected all the way from Earth. However, this method of discovery is tedious and challenging from Earth’s surface. So astronomers came up with another way to find exoplanets: the transit method. When Mercury or Venus pass in front of the Sun, they block a small amount of the Sun’s light. With powerful telescopes, we can look for this phenomenon in distant star systems as well. In August, the TESS telescope took this snapshot of the Large Magellanic Cloud (right) and the bright star R Doradus (left). Image: NASA/MIT/TESS We do this via the Kepler space telescope and the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). Both have observed tens of thousands of stars and discovered thousands of new planets – dozens of which are about the same size as Earth. But these observatories can only tell us a planet’s size and distance from its star. They can’t tell us if a planet might be hosting life. For that we’d need the James Webb Space Telescope. Looking for life The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has just wrapped up its first year and a half of science. Among its many achievements is the detection of molecules in the atmospheres of exoplanets, a feat made possible by the transit method. One of these exoplanets, WASP-17, is also known as a “hot Jupiter”. It seems to have been plucked from a page in a sci-fi novel, with evidence for quartz nanocrystals in its clouds. Meanwhile, the super-Earth K2-18b (a Kepler find) shows signs of methane and carbon dioxide. But while such discoveries are amazing, the magic ingredient necessary for life still eludes us: water vapour. The field of planetary studies is evolving and 2024 looks promising. Maybe JWST will finally produce signs of water vapour in an exoplanet atmosphere. Who knows, we might even have a ninth planet surprise us all, filling the void left by Pluto. Stay tuned for exciting science to come. Small bodies on the very fringes of our Solar System are essentially invisible to us – but advanced new techniques and technologies are changing this. Image: NASA/Jasmin Moghbeli This article was originally published on The Conversation.
22 January 2024 14:17
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2024/01/the-solar-system-used-to-have-nine-planets-maybe-it-still-does-heres-your-catch-up-on-space-today/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2024/01/the-solar-system-used-to-have-nine-planets-maybe-it-still-does-heres-your-catch-up-on-space-today/
Astronomy
false
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Biggest Swinburne space stories of 2023
Biggest Swinburne space stories of 2023
The superstar team at Swinburne University of Technology were part of some of the biggest space moments of the year
The team at Swinburne were part of some of the biggest space science moments of 2023 Highlights include Swinburne and W. M. Keck Observatory forming a historic scientific partnership to unlock new era of space discovery, Swinburne researchers tracing a powerful radio signal to a galaxy billions of lightyears away, and many more. What a stellar year of space science! In 2023, the superstar team at Swinburne University of Technology were part of some of the biggest space moments of the year: Swinburne and W. M. Keck Observatory form historic scientific partnership to unlock new era of space discovery In 2023, Swinburne became the first organisation outside the United States to join the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaiʻi as a scientific partner. The new partnership doubles the number of observing nights for Swinburne researchers and provides Swinburne with a vote in setting science and technology priorities for the Observatory. The partnership will substantially increase Swinburne’s opportunities to lead high-impact science for the next decade, and was launched with a special message from the US Ambassador to Australia, Caroline Kennedy. Located 4,200 metres above sea level on the dormant volcano Mauna Kea, the Keck telescopes have provided some of the most spectacular views of the universe ever obtained. Astronomers baffled by repeat explosions 100 billion times energy of the Sun Astronomers were baffled by a mysterious and extremely bright event in the distant universe, nicknamed the ‘Tasmanian Devil’. A report, published in Nature, describes a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient that’s been observed to explode repeatedly and emit more energy than a supernova. Swinburne’s Professor Jeff Cooke led observations using the W. M. Keck Observatory twin telescopes in Hawaii. He says an event like this has never been witnessed before, and the mechanism behind this massive amount of energy is still unknown. ASTRO 3D research lab reaches gender parity in just five years How can research agencies achieve gender parity? Swinburne’s Professor Emma Ryan-Weber is Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3D (ASTRO 3D), an Australian astronomy lab that achieved 50 per cent women in just five years – as outlined in a paper published in Nature Astronomy . Professor Ryan-Weber says the success offers a model for other organisations where gender equality has remained stubbornly low. Find out how the ASTRO 3D team did it. We traced a powerful radio signal to the most distant source yet – a galaxy billions of lightyears away In research featured in The Conversation, Swinburne’s Professor Ryan Shannon and colleagues explain how they’ve found the most distant fast radio burst ever detected: an 8-billion-year-old pulse that has been travelling for more than half the lifetime of the universe. Artist’s impression of a record-breaking Fast Radio Burst, passing from a distant host galaxy to the Milky Way. Image: ESO/M. Kornmesser A spectacular fireball just streaked across Melbourne – but astronomers didn’t see it coming Swinburne astrophysicist Professor Alan Duffy – an expert in the study of dark matter, space science and muon technologies, and the university’s inaugural Pro-Vice Chancellor (Flagship Initiatives) – analysed the ‘Melbourne fireball’. This bright light slowly streaking across the sky, captured the attention of millions and was covered in mainstream media and in The Conversation. Australia proves it’s a world leader in astronomy Professor Virginia Kilborn, Swinburne’s Chief Scientist and chair of the National Committee for Astronomy for the Australian Academy of Science, championed Australia's role in leading a new era of astronomy. Her analysis came off the back of the announcement that Australian astronomers are a step closer to detecting the gravitational wave background, a potentially monumental discovery. Australian astronomers find possible ‘fingerprints’ of gravitational waves Astronomers, led by Swinburne’s Dr Daniel Reardon, found the strongest evidence yet for low-frequency gravitational waves. The team used data collected from the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array collaboration, which has monitored a set of pulsars for nearly 20 years, looking for nanosecond pulse delays caused by gravitational waves. By compiling and analysing this large data set, Dr Reardon and team took another step towards detecting gravitational waves through the study of pulsars. Australian astronomer wins prestigious Shaw Prize in Astronomy Swinburne’s pioneering astrophysicist Professor Matthew Bailes won the prestigious 2023 The Shaw Prize in Astronomy. Professor Bailes shares the USD $1.2 million Shaw Prize – a precursor to the Nobel Prize – with Professor Duncan Lorimer and Professor Maura McLaughlin. Professor Bailes founded the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne in 1998, is the director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) and is a world leader in the study of pulsars, fast radio bursts and gravitation. Read more in The Age. ‘We just discovered the impossible’: how giant baby galaxies are shaking up our understanding of the early Universe In The Conversation, ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor Ivo Labbé reflected on the hunt to discover new types of galaxies using the very first images from the James Webb Space Telescope. He and fellow researchers were searching for intrinsically red galaxies in the first roughly 750 million years of cosmic history, which have previously been difficult to find. In one survey area, they found six candidate massive galaxies whose stellar mass density were much higher than anticipated from previous studies. NASA’s Webb uncovers new details in Pandora’s Cluster Associate Professor Ivo Labbé also helped reveal never-before-seen details in a region of space known as Pandora’s Cluster (Abell 2744). As co-principal investigator of the UNCOVER program, Associate Professor Labbé and a team of astronomers used cameras on NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope to capture the cluster with exposures lasting four to six hours, for a total of about 30 hours. The new view of Pandora’s Cluster displays roughly 50,000 sources of near-infrared light and stitches four Webb snapshots together into one panoramic image. According to Associate Professor Ivo Labbé, the research has revealed hundreds of distant lensed galaxies, which appear like faint arced lines in the image. Astronomers estimate 50,000 sources of near-infrared light are represented in this image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. It reveals three already large clusters of galaxies coming together to form a mega-cluster. Want to be part of the next generation of space discoveries? All Swinburne undergraduate students can study space science, microgravity science, space environment, data and visualisations, space entrepreneurship, space policy, space law and space technologies. Find out more.
15 January 2024 13:45
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2024/01/biggest-swinburne-space-stories-of-2023/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2024/01/biggest-swinburne-space-stories-of-2023/
Science|Technology|Astronomy
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Dark energy discovery a decade in the making: new supernova insights offer clues to the expansion of the universe
Dark energy discovery a decade in the making: new supernova insights offer clues to the expansion of the universe
Researchers at Swinburne University of Technology have contributed to a landmark study that complicates our understanding of the universe.
Researchers at Swinburne have contributed to a landmark study that complicates our understanding of the universe. The Dark Energy Survey (DES) represents the work of over 400 astrophysicists, astronomers and cosmologists from over 25 institutions. They found that the density of dark energy in the universe could have varied over time, according to a new complex theory. Researchers at Swinburne University of Technology have contributed to a landmark study that complicates our understanding of the universe. The Dark Energy Survey (DES) represents the work of over 400 astrophysicists, astronomers and cosmologists from over 25 institutions. DES scientists took data for 758 nights across six years to understand the nature of dark energy and measure the expansion rate of the universe. They found that the density of dark energy in the universe could have varied over time, according to a new complex theory. Dr Anais Möller from Swinburne University of Technology’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing was part of the team working on this revolutionary analysis, alongside Swinburne’s Mitchell Dixon, Professor Karl Glazebrook and Emeritus Professor Jeremy Mould. "These results, a collaboration between hundreds of scientists around the world, are a testament to power of cooperation and hard work to make major scientific progress,” says Dr Möller. “I am very proud of the work we have achieved as a team; it is an incredibly thorough analysis which reduces our uncertainties to new levels and shows the power of the Dark Energy Survey.” “We not only used state-of-the-art data, but also developed pioneering methods to extract the maximum information from the Supernova Survey. I am particularly proud of this, as I developed the method to select the supernovae used for the survey with machine learning.” In 1998, astrophysicists discovered that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, attributed to a mysterious entity called dark energy that makes up about 70 per cent of our universe. At the time, astrophysicists agreed that the universe’s expansion should be slowing down because of gravity. This revolutionary discovery, which astrophysicists achieved with observations of specific kinds of exploding stars, called type Ia (read “type one-A”) supernovae, was recognized with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011. Now, 25 years after the initial discovery, the Dark Energy Survey is a culmination of a decade’s worth of research from scientists worldwide who analysed more than 1,500 supernovas using the strongest constraints on the expansion of the universe ever obtained. This is largest number of type Ia supernovae ever used for constraining dark energy from a single survey probing large cosmic times. The outcome results are consistent with the now-standard cosmological model of a universe with an accelerated expansion. Yet, the findings are not definitive enough to rule out a possibly more complex model. “There is still so much to discover about dark energy, but this analysis can be considered as the gold standard in supernova cosmology for quite some time,” says Dr Moller. “This analysis also brings innovative methods that will be used in the next generation of surveys, so we are taking a leap in the way we do science. I’m excited to uncover more about the mystery that is dark energy in the upcoming decade.” Pioneering a new approach The new study pioneered a new approach to use photometry — with an unprecedented four filters — to find the supernovae, classify them and measure their light curves. Dr. Möller created the method to select these type Ia supernovae using modern machine learning. “It is very exciting times to see this innovative technology to harness the power of large astronomical surveys”, she says. “Not only we are able to obtain more type Ia supernovae than before, but we tested these methods thoroughly as we want to do more precision measurements on the fundamental physics of our universe.” This technique requires data from type Ia supernovae, which occur when an extremely dense dead star, known as a white dwarf, reaches a critical mass and explodes. Since the critical mass is nearly the same for all white dwarfs, all type Ia supernovae have approximately the same actual brightness and any remaining variations can be calibrated out. So, when astrophysicists compare the apparent brightnesses of two type Ia supernovae as seen from Earth, they can determine their relative distances from us. Astrophysicists trace out the history of cosmic expansion with large samples of supernovae spanning a wide range of distances. For each supernova, they combine its distance with a measurement of its redshift — how quickly it is moving away from Earth due to the expansion of the universe. They can use that history to determine whether the dark energy density has remained constant or changed over time. The results found w = –0.80 +/- 0.18 using supernovae alone. Combined with complementary data from the European Space Agency’s Planck telescope, w reaches –1 within the error bars. To come to a definitive conclusion, scientists will need more data using a new survey. DES researchers used advanced machine-learning techniques to aid in supernova classification. Among the data from about two million distant observed galaxies, DES found several thousand supernovae. Scientists ultimately used 1,499 type Ia supernovae with high-quality data, making it the largest, deepest supernova sample from a single telescope ever compiled. In 1998, the Nobel-winning astronomers used just 52 supernovae to determine that the universe is expanding at an accelerating rate.
11 January 2024 13:44
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2024/01/dark-energy-discovery-a-decade-in-the-making-new-supernova-insights-offer-clues-to-the-expansion-of-the-universe/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2024/01/dark-energy-discovery-a-decade-in-the-making-new-supernova-insights-offer-clues-to-the-expansion-of-the-universe/
Astronomy|Science
false
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Astronomers baffled by repeat explosions 100 billion times the energy of the Sun
Astronomers baffled by repeat explosions 100 billion times the energy of the Sun
Astronomers are baffled by a mysterious and extremely bright event in the distant Universe, nicknamed the ‘Tasmanian Devil’.
Astronomers are baffled by a mysterious and extremely bright event in the distant Universe, nicknamed the ‘Tasmanian Devil’ The Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT) emits more energy than a supernova The research has been published in Nature Astronomers are baffled by a mysterious and extremely bright event in the distant Universe, nicknamed the “Tasmanian Devil”, which has been observed to explode repeatedly and emit more energy than hundreds of billions of stars like our Sun. The report, published in Nature, describes a Luminous Fast Blue Optical Transient (LFBOT) monitored in a new way and shown to have unusual behaviour. LFBOTs are rare, extremely powerful events – more powerful than a supernova – that evolve on timescales of just a few days, fading away rapidly. However, this LFBOT continued to explode with supernova-like energies many times, well after its initial burst and fade. “An event like this has never been witnessed before,” said co-author of the paper Professor Jeff Cooke from Swinburne University of Technology and the ARC Centre of Excellence in Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav). He led observations using the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii as part of this work. When LFBOTs explode, “they emit more energy than an entire galaxy of hundreds of billions of stars like the Sun. The mechanism behind this massive amount of energy is currently unknown,” Professor Cooke said. “But in this case, after the initial burst and fade, the extreme explosions just kept happening, occurring very fast – over minutes, rather than weeks to months, as is the case for supernovae.” “Amazingly, instead of fading steadily as one would expect, the source briefly brightened again, and again, and again,” Cornell University Assistant Professor Anna Ho, lead author on the paper said. “LFBOTs are already a kind of weird, exotic event, so this was even weirder,” Assistant Professor Ho said. Data from the multiple observatories, including one with a high-speed camera, detected at least 14 irregular and highly-energetic bursts over a 120-day period. “However, these bursts are likely only a fraction of the total number”, Assistant Professor Ho said. The LFBOT event, which occurred on 7 September 2022, is puzzling according to Professor Cooke. “It pushes the limits of physics because of its extreme energy production, but also because of the short duration bursts. Light travels at a finite speed. As such, how fast a source can burst and fade away limits the size of a source, meaning that all this energy is being generated from a relatively small source.” The current theory is that a black hole or neutron star formed by the initial explosion is accreting an immense amount of matter and causing the subsequent intense bursts. The W.M. Keck Observatory observations were part of a larger program of 15 observatories around the world used to monitor this LFBOT, with the Keck visual wavelength observations coordinated to occur simultaneously with X-ray observations taken by the NASA Chandra Space Telescope. “These are important to help understand the nature of this source, how these massive stars transition during their death process, and to help find more events to understand how common they are in the Universe,” Professor Cooke said. Swinburne recently joined the W. M. Keck Observatory as a scientific partner, doubling the number of observing nights for researchers and providing Swinburne with a vote in setting science and technology priorities for the Observatory. This is the first Keck partnership of its kind with an institution outside the United States.
16 November 2023 10:45
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/11/astronomers-baffled-by-repeat-explosions/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/11/astronomers-baffled-by-repeat-explosions/
Astronomy
Research,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Swinburne and W. M. Keck Observatory form historic scientific partnership to unlock new era of space discovery
Swinburne and W. M. Keck Observatory form historic scientific partnership to unlock new era of space discovery
Swinburne has become the first organisation outside the United States to join the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaiʻi as a scientific partner.
Swinburne has become the first organisation outside the United States to join the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaiʻi as a scientific partner The new partnership doubles the number of observing nights for Swinburne researchers and will provide Swinburne with a vote in setting science and technology priorities for the Observatory The partnership will substantially increase Swinburne’s opportunities to lead high-impact science for the next decade Swinburne University of Technology has become the first organisation outside the United States to join the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaiʻi as a scientific partner. The new scientific partnership doubles the number of observing nights for Swinburne researchers and will provide Swinburne with a vote in setting science and technology priorities for the Observatory. New instrumentation and software development projects will build capability in cutting-edge technologies at Swinburne and within Australia. The announcement builds on Swinburne’s 15-year association with the Observatory through a strategic agreement with Caltech under which Swinburne researchers have been able to demonstrate outstanding scientific results. These include: Cosmic telescope reveals inner workings of two proto-galaxies New stars create space pollution Fossil from the Big Bang discovered with giant telescope Swinburne has an established track record in world-class astronomy and astrophysics and is at the forefront of space and aerospace research and technology, a sector that is projected to be worth US $1.1 trillion by 2040. Swinburne astronomers can operate the telescopes remotely from a control room more than 9000 kilometres away, built with a generous donation from the Eric Ormond Baker charitable fund. The formation of the new scientific partnership with Keck Observatory will substantially increase Swinburne’s opportunities to lead high-impact science for the next decade. “This historic agreement will help to secure Australia’s future as a global leader in astronomy and space technology,” says Swinburne Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Pascale Quester. “Space is one of Swinburne’s flagship areas. With deep industry partnerships, our researchers and students are bringing people and technology together to build a better world. “With access to significantly more observing nights, Swinburne’s astronomers can take leadership roles in high-impact science programs, working with the world’s best scientists at Caltech, University of California, NASA, University of Hawai‘i, and elsewhere, to lead the next generation of major discoveries.” Keck Observatory Interim Director Rich Matsuda says: "We are excited to welcome Swinburne University of Technology as a scientific partner. Their values, vision, and strong commitment to serving the global astronomy community aligns with our mission, and we look forward to working together on the quest to uncover exciting, fundamental knowledge about universe that has yet to be revealed.” The United States Ambassador to Australia, Her Excellency Caroline Kennedy offered her congratulations on the new partnership in a video message. “Australia and the US have such a strong history of partnership in space. We couldn’t do it without Australia, and I can’t wait to see all the discoveries that are going to come from this exciting partnership,” Ambassador Kennedy says. About W. M. Keck Observatory The twin Keck I and II telescopes, each 10 metres in diameter, are located on top of Maunakea, at a height of some 4,200 metres above sea level, or roughly ‘halfway to space’ in terms of the Earth’s atmosphere. They are the world’s largest and among the most productive ground-based observational facilities at optical and near-infrared wavelengths.
03 November 2023 09:17
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/11/swinburne-and-wm-keck-observatory-form-historic-scientific-partnership/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/11/swinburne-and-wm-keck-observatory-form-historic-scientific-partnership/
Astronomy
Research,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
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Space is getting crowded with satellites and space junk. How do we avoid collisions?
Space is getting crowded with satellites and space junk. How do we avoid collisions?
Reports this week suggest a near-collision between an Australian satellite and a suspected Chinese military satellite. Meanwhile, earlier this month, the US government issued the first ever space junk fine. The Federal Communications Commission handed a US$150,000 penalty to the DISH Network, a publicly traded company providing satellite TV services.
Analysis for The Conversation by Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing Dr Sara Webb and SmartSat Professorial Chair Professor Chistopher Fluke Reports this week suggest a near-collision between an Australian satellite and a suspected Chinese military satellite. Meanwhile, earlier this month, the US government issued the first ever space junk fine. The Federal Communications Commission handed a US$150,000 penalty to the DISH Network, a publicly traded company providing satellite TV services. It came as a surprise to many in the space industry, as the fine didn’t relate to any recent debris – it was issued for a communications satellite that has been in space for more than 21 years. It was EchoStar-7, which failed to meet the orbit requirements outlined in a previously agreed debris mitigation plan. The EchoStar-7 fine might be a US first, but it probably won’t be the last. We are entering an unprecedented era of space use and can expect the number of active satellites in space to increase by 700% by the end of the decade. As our local space gets more crowded, keeping an eye on tens of thousands of satellites and bits of space junk will only become more important. So researchers have a new field for this: space domain awareness. Three types of orbit, plus junk Humans have been launching satellites into space since 1957 and in the past 66 years have become rather good at it. There are currently more than 8,700 active satellites in various orbits around Earth. Satellites tend to be in three main orbits, and understanding these is key to understanding the complex nature of space debris. Types of orbits around Earth classified by altitude (not to scale). Image: Pexels/The Conversation, CC BY-SA The most common orbit for satellites is low Earth orbit, with at least 5,900 active satellites. Objects in low Earth orbit tend to reside up to 1,000km above Earth’s surface and are constantly on the move. The International Space Station is an example of a low Earth orbit object, travelling around Earth 16 times every day. Higher up is the medium Earth orbit, where satellites sit between 10,000 and 20,000km above Earth. It’s not a particularly busy place, but is home to some of the most important satellites ever launched – they provide us with the global positioning system or GPS. Finally, we have very high altitude satellites in geosynchronous orbit. In this orbit, satellites are upwards of 35,000km above Earth, in orbits that match the rate of Earth’s rotation. One special type of this orbit is a geostationary Earth orbit. It lies on the same plane as Earth’s equator, making the satellites appear stationary from the ground. Visualisation of The European Space Agency’s Space Debris Office statistics on space debris orbiting Earth (as of January 8 2021). As you can tell, Earth’s surrounds are buzzing with satellite activity. It only gets more chaotic when we factor in space junk, defined as disused artificial debris in orbit around Earth. Space junk can range from entire satellites that are no longer in use or working, down to millimetre-wide bits of spacecraft and launch vehicles left in orbit. Latest estimates suggest there are more than 130 million pieces of space debris, with only 35,000 of those large enough (greater than 10cm) to be routinely tracked from the ground. How do we track them all? This is where space domain awareness comes in. It is the field of detecting, tracking and monitoring objects in Earth’s orbit, including active satellites and space debris. We do much of this with ground-based tracking, either through radar or optical systems like telescopes. While radar can easily track objects in low Earth orbit, higher up we need optical sensors. Objects in medium Earth orbit and geostationary orbit can be tracked using sunlight reflected towards Earth. For reliable and continuous space domain awareness, we need multiple sensors contributing to this around the globe. Below you can see what high-altitude satellites can look like to telescopes on Earth, appearing to stay still as the stars move by. Tracking two Optus satellites 16km apart, using EOS’ 0.7m deep space telescope at Learmonth, Western Australia. Source: EOS - Electro Optic Systems. Australia’s role in space awareness Thanks to our position on Earth, Australia has a unique opportunity to contribute to space domain awareness. The US already houses several facilities on the west coast of Australia as part of the Space Surveillance Network. That’s because on the west coast, telescopes can work in dark night skies with minimal light pollution from large cities. Furthermore, we are currently working on a space domain awareness technology demonstrator (a proof of concept), funded by SmartSat CRC. This is a government-funded consortium of universities and other research organisations, along with industry partners such as the IT firm CGI. We are combining our expertise in observational astrophysics, advanced data visualisation, artificial intelligence and space weather. Our goal is to have technology that understands what is happening in space minute-by-minute. Then, we can line up follow-up observations and monitor the objects in orbit. Our team is currently working on geosynchronous orbit objects, which includes active and inactive satellites. EchoStar-7 was just one example of the fate of a retired spacecraft – the FCC is sending a strong warning to all other companies to ensure their debris mitigation plans are met. Inactive objects in orbit could pose a collision risk to each other, leading to a rapid increase in space debris. If we want to use Earth’s space domain for as long as possible, we need to keep it safe for all. Acknowledgment: The authors would like to thank Sholto Forbes-Spyratos, military space lead at CGI Space, Defence and Intelligence Australia, for his contribution to this article. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
20 October 2023 14:39
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/10/space-is-getting-crowded-with-satellites-and-space-junk-how-do-we-avoid-collisions/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/10/space-is-getting-crowded-with-satellites-and-space-junk-how-do-we-avoid-collisions/
Science|Astronomy
false
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We traced a powerful radio signal to the most distant source yet – a galaxy billions of lightyears away
We traced a powerful radio signal to the most distant source yet – a galaxy billions of lightyears away
Every day and night, hundreds of thousands of intense, brief flashes of radiation suddenly flicker on and then off all across the sky. These “fast radio bursts” are invisible to the naked eye, but to a radio telescope many almost outshine everything else in the sky for a few thousandths of a second.
Analysis for The Conversation by Australian Research Council Future Fellow, Associate Professor Ryan Shannon Every day and night, hundreds of thousands of intense, brief flashes of radiation suddenly flicker on and then off all across the sky. These “fast radio bursts” are invisible to the naked eye, but to a radio telescope many almost outshine everything else in the sky for a few thousandths of a second. Since the first such burst was spotted in 2006, we have found that nearly all of them come from distant galaxies. Most bursts pass unnoticed, occurring outside the field of view of radio telescopes, and never occur again. In new research published in Science, we have found the most distant fast radio burst ever detected: an 8-billion-year-old pulse that has been travelling for more than half the lifetime of the universe. Seizing the opportunity Astronomers are fascinated by fast radio bursts for two reasons. The first is that their cause is unknown. The bursts are a trillion times more energetic than the things that look most like them: rotating neutron stars called pulsars, in our own galaxy. The second reason is that the bursts provide a new tool to study other aspects of the cosmos. Fast radio bursts let us study the “cosmic web” of matter floating in the space between galaxies. This matter is very hot, diffuse gas and almost invisible, but it subtly slows down fast radio bursts as they pass through it. (This is ordinary matter, the same kind that makes up stars, planets and humans, not the invisible “dark matter” that also lurks throughout the universe.) The degree to which bursts slow down correlates with the distance they have travelled. In 2020, analysis of fast radio bursts revealed that the cosmic web actually contains more than half of the normal matter in the universe – which astronomers had previously thought was “missing”. The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), the radio telescope used to discover and localise FRB 20220610A. Image: CSIRO In search of the extreme More distant and extreme fast radio bursts promise to reveal further secrets about the universe, so astronomers are on the hunt. I lead a team doing just that, using the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope. On June 6 2022, our team detected and pinpointed a very bright burst with a high degree of slowing (known officially as “FRB 20220610A”). Our initial calculations suggested it might be the most distant ever found. However, there was a possibility that the burst was closer than we thought – or that it might come from a distant galaxy too faint to be seen with an optical telescope. We turned to one of the world’s most powerful optical observatories to search for the host galaxy: the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. The observatory’s four telescopes are equipped with cutting-edge cameras and spectrographs that can identify faint host galaxies and study their properties in detail. At the position pinpointed by ASKAP as the source of the burst, initial images revealed faint smudges of light that looked like a distant galaxy. Analysing the spectrum of light from the galaxy showed it was strongly “redshifted”, meaning the emission from the burst has doubled in wavelength as it stretched out on its journey through the expanding universe. The redshift had a value just over 1, which shows the burst was emitted more than 8 billion years ago, when the universe was less than half its present age. This confirmed that FRB 20220610A had broken the record for the most distant fast radio burst. Host galaxy of FRB 20220610A, as observed by the Very Large Telescope in Red (R-band) optical light. The black circle shows the position of the FRB as measured by ASKAP. Image: Lachlan Marnoch (Macquarie Univesity/ASTRO-3D) Pushing the limits of the universe Like Olympic athletes, astronomers (including me) enjoy breaking records. Beyond personal satisfaction, however, this detection can also be used to explore the two fundamental questions about fast radio bursts. First, the burst has the most energy of any that has been securely pinpointed to a location. It is more energy than our Sun puts out in 30 years, and approaches what we believe are fundamental physical limits. The upper limit on the amount of energy any one fast radio burst can carry may be determined by quantum mechanical effects. At a certain point, the burst’s surge of radio photons may meet resistance from a sea of “virtual” electrons and positrons which British physicist Paul Dirac predicted in 1930. Our discovery also demonstrates the potential for fast radio bursts to study the composition of the distant universe. As we look back in time, we see the structure of galaxies changes a great deal. Bursts in distant galaxies may allow us to study the detailed structure of their hosts. Delving deeper in the cosmos We now know that energetic bursts exist in the distant universe. As new and upgraded telescopes join the hunt for fast radio bursts, we are likely to see many more tracked down to their host galaxies. We are currently building a new fast radio burst search system for ASKAP which will make it five times more sensitive, enabling us to push the frontier of our research further out into the universe. And in the future, ultra-sensitive radio telescopes such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be able to detect bursts at ever greater distances. These detections will be used to map the structure of the universe and resolve the tale of a modern astronomical mystery. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
20 October 2023 11:27
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/10/we-traced-a-powerful-radio-signal-to-the-most-distant-source-yet-a-galaxy-billions-of-lightyears-away/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/10/we-traced-a-powerful-radio-signal-to-the-most-distant-source-yet-a-galaxy-billions-of-lightyears-away/
Astronomy|Technology
false
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Swinburne researchers celebrate ARC early career funding success
Swinburne researchers celebrate ARC early career funding success
Swinburne University has been awarded over $1.26M of funding for three successful Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards (DECRA).
Three Swinburne researchers have received Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards from the Australian Research Council The funded projects by will understand how galactic outflows shape galaxy formation and evolution, devise new models and search algorithms for big data, and discover the origins and implications of cosmic explosions The DECRA scheme supports early-career researchers to focus on their area of expertise for three years Swinburne University has been awarded over $1.26M of funding for three successful Australian Research Council (ARC) Discovery Early Career Researcher Awards (DECRA). Three talented Swinburne researchers, Dr Shivani Bhandari, Dr Lu Chen and Dr Rebecca Davies, have been awarded this year. The trio will commence their research fellowships in 2024. Professor Karen Hapgood, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, congratulated the awardees. “These three successful projects are a testament to Swinburne's outstanding capabilities in our flagship research areas of Space and Aerospace, and Digital Capability. Swinburne is delighted to see the ARC recognise and support our early career researchers in achieving high quality research that creates real-world impact,” she said. The DECRA scheme supports early career researchers to focus on their area of expertise for three years. Swinburne’s success rate in this round was an impressive 21.4 per cent, compared to a 19.6 per cent success rate overall. The Awards build on the university’s recent ARC success in securing a $5 million Swinburne-led ARC Research Hub For Future Digital Manufacturing and $1.75 million in ARC Future Fellowship grants, taking Swinburne’s recent ARC funding to over $8 million. Origins and implications of cosmic explosions Dr Shivani Bhandari aims to solve the origin of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), by studying a large sample of localised bursts detected with a new coherent FRB detection system called CRACO. CRACO has been deployed at the Australia Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), a world-class radio telescope located in outback Western Australia. Through her research, Dr Bhandari hopes to further contribute to Australia's ongoing leadership in the international FRB community. “I'm excited to use the brand-new detection system being installed at ASKAP to observe Fast Radio Bursts and learn about their mysterious origins. I'm also looking forward to returning to my alma mater, Swinburne,” she said. “Being a DECRA fellow will allow me to further grow as a researcher, steering me in the right direction for a successful career in astrophysics. It’s an honour to receive such a prestigious prize. I am overjoyed and driven!” Dr Bhandari said. Dr Bhandari was awarded $390,627 for the project. Devising new models and search algorithms for big data Dr Lu Chen’s research focuses on data science and aims to drive significant advances in understanding big data. His project will devise novel, cohesive multipartite subgraph models and corresponding efficient search algorithms. The novel theories and algorithms he uncovers will benefit organisations who deal with heterogeneous data, as found in e-commerce, cybersecurity, health and social networks. Under the DECRA scheme, researchers are eligible to apply within five years of the conferral date of their PhD or equivalent research higher degree. The 2024 fellowships marked Dr Chen’s last chance at achieving DECRA funding. “The relief of seeing ‘funded’ was tangible,” he said. “With DECRA's support, I can delve into pressing problems that demand focus and patience to solve. These might not yield numerous papers, but their results can be revolutionary." “Beyond the scope of DECRA, I'm deeply intrigued by the P vs. NP conundrum in computer science, a noted Millennium Prize Problem. While most consider efficient solutions unlikely for NP-hard problems, I'm optimistic that they do exist.” Dr Chen was awarded $428,847 for the project. Galactic outflows: pushing the distance frontiers Dr Rebecca Davies will conduct research to push the frontiers of our knowledge of galactic outflows: a key physical process shaping galaxy formation and evolution. Using cutting-edge facilities such as the new, high-profile James Webb Space Telescope, Dr Davies expects to build the first holistic picture of galactic outflows in the distant past, when present-day galaxies were still taking shape. Among the innovations that may emerge from Dr Davies’ research are a novel framework for measuring outflow properties and a new understanding of the physics of distant outflows. “I feel incredibly honoured to have been awarded a DECRA fellowship. This award will be transformational for me as an early career researcher, allowing me to undertake ambitious projects and build my own astrophysics research group at Swinburne,” Dr Davies said. “I’m excited about using data from big telescopes like Keck and James Webb to uncover the mysteries of distant galaxies and discover how they spread gas and life-critical elements throughout the Universe.” Dr Davies was awarded $441,700 for the project.
31 August 2023 14:53
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/08/Swinburne-researchers-celebrate-ARC-early-career-funding-success/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/08/Swinburne-researchers-celebrate-ARC-early-career-funding-success/
Astronomy|Science
false
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A spectacular fireball just streaked across Melbourne – but astronomers didn’t see it coming
A spectacular fireball just streaked across Melbourne – but astronomers didn’t see it coming
The first hours after a fireball sighting are like a detective mystery. Last night around midnight, people across Melbourne took to social media to report sightings of a bright light slowly streaking across the sky.
Analysis for The Conversation by Pro Vice-Chancellor Flagship Initatives, Professor Alan Duffy The first hours after a fireball sighting are like a detective mystery. Last night around midnight, people across Melbourne took to social media to report sightings of a bright light slowly streaking across the sky. Video footage clearly shows the fireball break apart, with these fragments in turn burning up, meaning this object was big. An unexpected piece of space junk There have been reports across Victoria of a loud explosion. Known as sonic booms, such sounds imply the pieces survived long enough to enter the lower atmosphere – otherwise they wouldn’t be audible from the ground. In turn, this tells us at least a part of this fireball was dense. Additionally, the glow of the fireball had clearly discernible colours, particularly orange, in some videos. This tells us the object isn’t a space rock, but is human-made, with a significant amount of plastics or metals burning up (familiar to anyone in high school chemistry class burning materials in the Bunsen burner). So, it’s likely we just witnessed several tonnes of space junk – anything humans have put into orbit that isn’t under our control any longer – re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. However, nothing was predicted for reentry on the global space debris tracking site SatView. According to an early analysis by US-based astronomer Jonathan McDowell, the fireball may have been the third stage of a Soyuz 2 rocket carrying the navigation satellite GLONASS-K2. This was launched by Roscosmos (the Russian space agency) on August 7 from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome about 800km north of Moscow. The incredible brightness of the fireball is thanks to the tremendous speed at which objects re-enter Earth’s thin upper atmosphere, 25,000 kilometres per hour or more. When you rub your hands together, they get warm from the friction between them. Do that a thousand times faster and you can start to imagine them glowing white hot from the heat. If the friction is between the metal of the space junk and Earth’s thin atmosphere at an altitude of 100km, we can get a very bright glow. You can help astronomers with the details To help us confirm what the fireball was and where it came from, we need witnesses to download the Fireballs in the Sky App and recreate the passage of that trail as best they can. From all those sightings we can triangulate the trajectory and determine where any surviving pieces might have landed and try to collect them. Reports so far are conflicting and we need more data. It appears it came into the atmosphere from the north-west across Victoria to Tasmania in the south-east, but it’s too soon to tell what its exact path was. Most space junk doesn’t make it to Earth. The incredible heat of 5,000 Kelvin or greater generated by the re-entry burns up almost all such pieces. Some hardier engine blocks can make it to the ground, however, which is why alerts about space junk re-entering the atmosphere are sent out to aircraft in particular. However, space junk travels so fast, even a very small mistake in the calculation of the re-entry will have it show up hundreds of kilometres away instead. For most purposes, such warnings are not as helpful as they could be. To improve this system, we need better tracking stations on the ground and advances in the modelling of the interaction between space junk and the upper atmosphere to improve our forecasts. Thankfully buildings, let alone people, are tiny targets relative to the vast unpopulated reaches of land and sea. While there have been reported hits, these are thankfully incredibly rare, making space junk hardly a danger for us on Earth. As astronomers now rush to work out the details of this beautiful fireball, it also marks a spectacular opening for Australia’s National Science Week, with thousands of live talks explaining science as widely as possible, just like this event. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
08 August 2023 15:36
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/08/a-spectacular-fireball-just-streaked-across-melbourne-but-astronomers-didnt-see-it-coming/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/08/a-spectacular-fireball-just-streaked-across-melbourne-but-astronomers-didnt-see-it-coming/
Astronomy
false
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Australia proves it's a world leader in astronomy
Australia proves it's a world leader in astronomy
The recent announcement that Australian astronomers have made a scientific breakthrough - detecting the gravitational wave background - is further evidence that we are a world leader in the field of astronomy.
OPINION: Professor Virginia Kilborn is Swinburne’s Chief Scientist, and chair of the National Committee for Astronomy, for the Australian Academy of Science, the body responsible for delivering the astronomy decadal plan. The recent announcement that Australian astronomers have made a scientific breakthrough, and are a step closer to detecting the gravitational wave background - is further evidence that we are a world leader in the field of astronomy. With a long history of radio, optical, multi-wavelength and multi-messenger observations, Australian astronomers have made many incredible discoveries. Professor Brian Schmidt was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics (2011) for discovering the accelerating expansion of the universe. Swinburne University’s Professor Matthew Bailes won the prestigious Shaw prize (with a $1.2M USD award) this year for identifying mysterious Fast Radio Bursts using Australia’s Parkes Murriyang Telescope. And the Australian and international astronomers (CSIRO) who potentially detected gravitational waves after a 15-year program of observations will lead to a new way of observing the nature of the fabric of the Universe. It’s an exciting time for Australian astronomers to come together in Sydney for the Astronomical Society of Australia’s Annual Scientific meeting – a week-long opportunity to share new results, make new connections, and celebrate astronomy achievements. On the final day of the conference, the community will start planning for the next Decadal Plan in Astronomy. The strategy that drives this planning document will help set Australia’s course for the next 10 years, bringing together researchers to solve the biggest mysteries of the Universe. The decadal plan also highlights the broader benefit of astronomy to society, including education outcomes and industry engagement. Australia’s astronomical leadership is no accident. It is anchored by Australia’s long history in astronomy via First Nations people, who for at least 65,000 years have developed an intimate knowledge of the night sky. Over the last century, Australia has invested in world-class facilities, which have allowed prize-winning discoveries, and trained generations of students and research fellows in advanced scientific methodologies, including radio receivers and electronics, optical systems and instrumentation, data processing and advanced imaging methodologies. The knowledge of astronomy is embedded in the ancient Law stories carried by Aboriginal people over vast periods of time. Image: Yanjirlpirri Jukurrpa – Seven Sisters Dreaming Radio astronomy began in Australia post WWII – with CSIRO radio engineers making the first radio astronomy observations surveying the radio waves produced by the Sun in 1945. In the 1960s, the Parkes – now Murriyang – radiotelescope began operations in New South Wales. Still a world-class facility, Murriyang has been at the forefront of discovery, including the Fast radio bursts, but also finding thousands of pulsars – rapidly rotating neutron stars produced when a large star dies. Pulsars have enabled us to finely test Einstein’s theory of General Relativity, which still holds. As a researcher, I myself spent four years travelling regularly to Parkes in the late 1990s, to help map the whole southern sky in hydrogen – the fuel for stars – finding thousands of galaxies and clouds. And of course Murriyang has played a crucial role providing links to NASA spacecraft, including the famous moon landing in 1969. The 1960s also saw the Anglo-Australian Observatory, AAO, built at Siding Spring in NSW. With a mirror 4m in diameter, this was one of the best optical telescopes of the time. The AAO has stayed at the forefront of astronomy, continually upgrading the giant telescope, including the capacity to determine the redshift – a measure of distance – to hundreds of thousands of galaxies via an innovative robot fibre-optic device. Image: Anglo-Australian Telescope We are now moving to a new era in astronomy, with even larger telescopes, and the requirement for large international teams collaborating to conduct astronomical surveys, and build and maintain new instruments. Australia is once again leading this new era, co-hosting one of the most ambitious telescope projects in the world, the Square Kilometre Array, which is being built in remote Western Australia and South Africa. This telescope will enable astronomers to detect radio waves from the earliest times in the Universe, helping us to understand where we came from – and where are we going. But for optical astronomy, we have reached the limits of what the Australian landmass can offer. In order to improve our images of deep space, we need three things – bigger telescopes, for these telescopes to be built on higher mountains (or in space) to avoid as much of the obscuring atmosphere as we can, and for the telescope to be on a Western seaboard (or mid-ocean island) to take advantage of typical weather patterns. Given Australia’s highest mountain is only about 2,000m tall, Australia needs to use overseas observatories to have access to state-of-the-art telescopes on more elevated sites. For example, Swinburne University has an agreement with the Keck telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawai’i, and researchers around Australia are using space telescopes such as HST and JWST. Most critically for the astronomy community, the Australian government signed a strategic partnership in 2017 with the European Southern Observatory (ESO), providing access to their largest optical telescopes in Chile and ensuring Australia stays at the forefront of this science. This agreement runs until 2027, and the community is starting to work closely under the guidance of the Department of Industry, Science and Resources to start to consider the case for full membership of ESO. The continued engagement with ESO will provide countless opportunities for scientific discovery, enable education and outreach and help drive research translation and commercialisation opportunities for Australian industry. ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) against a beautiful night on Cerro Paranal. Image: ESO Photo Ambassador/Babak Tafreshi Given our history of research breakthroughs, imagine what else Australian astronomers might discover over the next decade. We’ll be able to see deeper into the beginnings of the Universe using what will soon be the largest telescope in the world, aptly named the Extremely Large Telescope, study stars and planets in greater detail than ever – and explore the extreme regimes of the Universe such as gravitational waves, testing fundamental physics and understanding how galaxies like our own Milky Way formed and evolved. We head into developing the next the Decadal Plan knowing our long history of achievement in this field will allow Australia to continue to be a scientific powerhouse in astronomy whilst using astronomy for the benefit of the community.
11 July 2023 14:35
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/07/australia-proves-its-a-world-leader-in-astronomy/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/07/australia-proves-its-a-world-leader-in-astronomy/
Astronomy
false
-
Australian astronomers find possible ‘fingerprints’ of gravitational waves
Australian astronomers find possible ‘fingerprints’ of gravitational waves
Astronomers using data collected by CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope, Murriyang, have found their strongest evidence yet for low-frequency gravitational waves.
Astronomers, led by Swinburne’s Dr Daniel Reardon have found the strongest evidence yet for low-frequency gravitational waves The Parkes Pulsar Timing Array collaboration has collected data from a set of pulsars for nearly 20 years, looking for nanosecond pulse delays caused by gravitational waves By compiling and analysing this large data set, the team has taken another step towards detecting gravitational waves through the study of pulsars Astronomers using data collected by CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope, Murriyang, have found their strongest evidence yet for low-frequency gravitational waves. For nearly 20 years the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array collaboration has monitored a set of rapidly spinning stars that pulse like a lighthouse, called pulsars. They are looking for nanosecond pulse delays caused by gravitational waves to provide further evidence for Einstein’s general theory of relativity and build on our understanding of the Universe. By compiling and analysing this large data set, the team has taken another step towards detecting gravitational waves through the study of pulsars. Their latest results have been published today in The Astrophysical Journal Letters and Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia. In 1916 Albert Einstein proposed space-time as a four-dimensional fabric, and that events such as exploding stars and merging black holes create ripples – or gravitational waves – in this fabric. Almost a century later, in 2015, researchers from the LIGO and Virgo collaborations made the first direct observation of gravitational waves caused by the collision of two stellar-mass black holes. In contrast to these gravitational waves, which oscillate multiple times per second, the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array collaboration is searching for gravitational waves emitted by binary supermassive black holes at the centres of galaxies. These gravitational waves oscillate over timescales of many years. OzGrav and Swinburne University of Technology researcher Dr Daniel Reardon, who led the searches, said that as these gravitational waves pass through our galaxy and wash over the Earth, they will change the apparent rotation frequency of fast-spinning pulsars. “We can detect gravitational waves by searching for pulses that arrive earlier or later than we expect. Previous studies have shown an intriguing signal in pulsar timing array observations, but its origin was unknown,” Dr Reardon said. “Our latest research has found a similar signal among the set of pulsars we’ve been studying, and we now see a hint of the fingerprint that identifies this signal as gravitational waves. “Unlike stellar-mass bursts of gravitational waves, supermassive black holes take years or decades to complete their orbits, and so their signature takes a decade or more to emerge,” he said. Astronomers around the globe have been busy chasing this gravitational-wave signal by studying pulsars. Other collaborations in China (CPTA), Europe (EPTA), India (InPTA) and North America (NANOGrav) see a similar signal in their data; their results are also published today in several journal papers. CSIRO astronomer Dr Andrew Zic, who co-led the analysis, said that while it is exciting all the major collaborations are seeing hints of the waves the true test will come in the near future, when all of the data is combined into a global dataset.. “This signal could still be caused by things like variations in a pulsar’s rotation over a long period of time, or may simply be a statistical fluke,” Dr Zic said. “Our Parkes radio telescope, Murriyang, has an advanced receiver and an excellent view of the best pulsars in the southern sky, which are essential for this work. “The next step is to combine pulsar data sets collected by telescopes in both the northern and southern hemispheres to improve the sensitivity of our observations,” he said. Through the International Pulsar Timing Array consortium, the individual groups around the globe – including the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array collaboration in Australia – are working together to combine their data to better characterise the signal and confirm its origin. “The next stage of our research will combine the full power of the global array, and rule out any anomalies,” said Dr Zic. Using pulsars to confirm the detection of low-frequency gravitational waves will expand this emerging area of science, to be explored further by new instruments including the SKA telescopes currently being built in Australia and South Africa. The Parkes Pulsar Timing Array project is a combined effort from astronomers across several institutions in which pulsars are observed using CSIRO’s Parkes Radio Telescope, Murriyang CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope, Murriyang, is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility, which is funded by the Australian Government for operation as a National Facility managed by CSIRO – Australia’s national science agency. We acknowledge the Wiradjuri People as the Traditional Owners of the Parkes Observatory site. This research was undertaken with the support of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav). Headquartered at Swinburne University of Technology, OzGrav is a collaboration between several Australian universities including the University of Queensland, The Australian National University, The University of Sydney, Monash University, The University of Adelaide, The University of Western Australia and The University of Melbourne, and CSIRO.
29 June 2023 10:21
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/06/australian-astronomers-find-possible-fingerprints-of-gravitational-waves/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/06/australian-astronomers-find-possible-fingerprints-of-gravitational-waves/
Astronomy
Research,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Eyes in the sky: space weather forecasting
Eyes in the sky: space weather forecasting
Swinburne alum Andrew Jackling works at the Australian Space Weather Forecasting Centre in Adelaide, and monitors solar flares, geomagnetic activity, the ionosphere, and more.
Swinburne alum Andrew Jackling works for the Bureau of Meteorology at the Australian Space Weather Forecasting Centre in Adelaide Space weather forecasts are formed from imagery and data from satellites, and a myriad of other scientific instruments Part of the work is preparing for a one-in-a-hundred year space weather event, which may cause unforeseen damage to today’s technological world For most of us, checking our weather app to see if the Sun will be out is ingrained into our daily routine. But aside from providing us with warmth and light, the Sun is responsible for a less well-known type of weather – space weather. Swinburne alum Andrew Jackling works for the Bureau of Meteorology at the Australian Space Weather Forecasting Centre in Adelaide. Instead of determining if there is a sunny or rainy day ahead, Andrew’s work includes keeping an eye on events such as solar flares or coronal mass ejections, which can impact critical infrastructure on Earth such as our energy grid, communications, and the economy more broadly. Andrew was always interested in his field of work, studying astronomy, and majoring in astrophysics at an undergraduate level. In 2017, he completed his Master of Science (Astronomy) at Swinburne. However, his journey with Swinburne began much earlier. For his high school work experience in year 10, Andrew had the chance to work at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne. There, he met Professor Duncan Forbes, whom he credits for providing him with that important introduction to astrophysics. “I’ve got a lot to thank him for in terms of my journey. Duncan set me up to work with various astrophysicists and got me experience in the field which helped enormously.” How the forecasting works Space weather is monitored using numerous data sets and imagery from satellites. The space centre uses imagery from the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) and GOES satellites. The Learmonth Solar Observatory also provides important imagery of the Sun in certain wavelengths. Beyond imagery, there is a myriad of ground-based instruments that are used to measure the impacts of space weather events. For example, a magnetometer network measures geomagnetic disturbances, while the ionosonde network measures ionospheric variations where Earth’s atmosphere meets space. “That’s just scratching the surface. There’s a lot of other instruments, particularly in Antarctica, we use to gather data. A little bit here, there, and everywhere,” says Andrew. There are three categories for space weather – R, G and S, as outlined in the Australian Space Weather Alert System. The categories detail radio blackouts (caused by solar flares), geomagnetic storms and solar radiation storms, respectively. Each space weather event also has scales from 0 to 5 – with 5 being the strongest events. Tracking all this data assists in forming the three-day space weather forecast, which can be accessed online. On shift for forecasting The Australian Space Weather Forecasting Centre has four space weather forecasters, and their shifts rotate each day. “There’s usually only ever one space weather forecaster on shift, so it’s all on you, your analysis is what counts.” Andrew would begin his shift analysing the last 24 hours of space weather and building a report. Equipped with eight monitors, he can easily observe any changes in the data that could impact the forecast. At a minimum for the rest of the day, he would monitor the space weather, issue warnings and respond to any customer enquiries for his eleven-and-a-half-hour shift. The centre runs 24/7, so forecasters are always on call to analyse any events. Powerful solar flares have the potential to create global transmission problems and world-wide blackouts Better safe than sorry In 1859, the world experienced its greatest solar storm, named ‘The Carrington Event’. An impressive solar flare and subsequent coronal mass ejection caused an unprecedented geomagnetic storm, with telegraph systems going haywire and auroral displays visible in the tropics. In 1989, the entire province of Quebec suffered an electrical blackout caused by a solar storm. Though these events are rare, Andrew highlights that these powerful space weather events could have extreme consequences for today’s world. “We haven’t seen a Carrington-scale space weather event in today’s modern interconnected society, where technology is so heavily relied upon. What we are doing is ensuring that Australia is best prepared as it can be for that one-in-a-hundred-year event.” “Making sure our main customers in defence, energy operators and aviation are adequately informed, puts Australia in the best position to respond to an event like that.”
14 June 2023 14:13
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/06/eyes-in-the-sky-space-weather-forecasting/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/06/eyes-in-the-sky-space-weather-forecasting/
Astronomy|Technology
false
-
Rocket launch alert! A uni club that lets you send tech to space
Rocket launch alert! A uni club that lets you send tech to space
Students from Swinburne University of Technology are celebrating as a tiny piece of technology with big potential was successfully launched today into the Earth’s orbit.
SMACCSAT1, the first satellite payload card created by the student-led Swinburne's Makers and Creators Club (SMACC), was launched on the SpaceX Transporter mission in the US Weighing only 80g, the device is designed to capture awe-inspiring images of Earth, perform gravitational measurements, and to carry out optical sky-to-ground communication trials The project is a milestone for students in Australia's burgeoning space industry and is made possible through industry collaboration with Australian space services company Skykraft Students from Swinburne University of Technology are celebrating as a tiny piece of technology with big potential was successfully launched today into the Earth’s orbit. SMACCSAT1, the first satellite payload card created by the student-led Swinburne's Makers and Creators Club (SMACC), was launched on the SpaceX Transporter mission in the US at 07:25 AEST on 13 June 2023, with students watching on live via video-link. The project has been made possible through industry collaboration with Australian space services company Skykraft and represents a meaningful moment for students in Australia's burgeoning space industry. Staff and students from Swinburne's Makers and Creators Club watched on as their creation, a satellite payload card, was launched on the SpaceX Transporter mission in the US. Dr Samuel Pinches, a postdoctoral researcher who supported the students during the project, shared his excitement about the launch. “Sending things to space is not only an incredible privilege, but this project has been a truly unique opportunity for Swinburne students to gain real experience in the process of designing space-grade hardware. For Australia’s space industry to flourish, we really need talented people with these critical skills”, he said. “It’s been phenomenal to see the students go from drawing-board to launch-pad over the past 12 months, including stopping by Skykraft’s HQ in Canberra to use their clean room facilities.” “It just shows the breadth of opportunities that are possible within Swinburne's culture of student engagement and industrial collaboration." Tiny technology, big potential SMACCSAT1, the brainchild of SMACC, is a payload card – a small square circuit board – weighing a mere 80g. Onboard this tiny slice of technology is a low power computer, a cellphone camera, as well as a range of sensors. The students designed this device to capture awe-inspiring images of Earth, perform gravitational measurements, and to carry out optical sky-to-ground communication trials. Rohan Ford, a Bachelor of Mechatronics student, who spearheaded the hardware and electronics development, has been eagerly awaiting the moment of launch for this student-led project. “This project has certainly been very challenging, but we also learned quite a lot along the way. Our team was beyond excited during the launch. Looking up at the sky and knowing that something you made is flying overhead in space, is pretty hard to beat!”, he said. The project has been made possible through industry collaboration with Australian space services company Skykraft. Skykraft, an Australian space services company, provided a position on their Block III satellites for the Swinburne club, offering students hands-on experience in space hardware development. Skykraft’s satellite constellation aims to revolutionise global air traffic control by providing global coverage of aircraft, even over oceans and remote areas. "This project is a shining example of the flexibility and inclusivity inherent in the Undergraduate Research Partnership Scheme initiated by Swinburne's School of Science, Computing and Engineering Technologies (SoSCET). It's all about creating meaningful connections between students and staff, and bringing a fresh, professional perspective to our degree programs,” said SoSCET Dean, Professor Alex Stojcevski. Students and experts are available for comment. Photos from the launch are also available.
13 June 2023 12:44
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/06/rocket-launch-alert-a-uni-club-that-lets-you-send-tech-to-space/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/06/rocket-launch-alert-a-uni-club-that-lets-you-send-tech-to-space/
Astronomy
Student News
false
-
Sun, Moon and Earth aligned: what it was like to witness the 2023 total eclipse at sea
Sun, Moon and Earth aligned: what it was like to witness the 2023 total eclipse at sea
Co-Director of Swinburne’s Space Technology and Industry Institute, Dr Rebecca Allen, travelled from Fremantle to the northwest cape of Exmouth, on board P&O Cruises’ specialist ‘Ningaloo King of Eclipses’ cruise to witness the 2023 total eclipse. She writes about her experience.
Co-Director of Swinburne’s Space Technology and Industry Institute, Dr Rebecca Allen, travelled from Fremantle to the northwest cape of Exmouth to witness the 2023 total eclipse. She writes about her experience. As the Co-Director of Swinburne’s Space Technology and Industry Institute, I am able to apply my background in astrophysics to help translate Swinburne’s cutting-edge research into ways to help grow Australia’s space industry, including finding amazing opportunities for our students. However, I will always have a passion for communicating the wonders of our Universe and getting to witness them firsthand. So when I was invited to be the Astronomical Society of Australia’s ambassador for P&O’s Ningaloo Eclipse Cruise, giving me the chance to see my first total solar eclipse and help produce a professional astronomy outreach program, I said yes immediately. I teamed up with Jackie Bondell, Education and Public Outreach Coordinator for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) and chair of the ASA’s Education and Public Outreach Committee. We worked to create a portfolio of diverse researchers and presenters and were honoured when Krystal DeNapoli agreed to join us to talk about Indigenous Astronomy. I don’t think the cruise line had ever had a 12 inch Dobsonian Telescope brought on board or considered how hard it would be to photograph an eclipse on a moving ship. Our cruise departed Monday 17 April, but the eclipse was not going to happen until around midday on 20 April so there was plenty of time for us to fill. Krystal and I were scheduled to speak the first day, so we didn’t have much time to get our sea legs before jumping on stage. Krystal’s talk was incredibly well received with copies of her book, Sky Country, selling out in minutes. I talked about the James Webb Space Telescope and the amazing science that our researchers, including Professor Karl Glazebrook, Dr Themiya Nanayakkara and Associate Professor Ivo Labbe, are undertaking. I also spoke about how Australians are using similar technology and techniques to study Earth and rapidly detect dangerous events such as bushfires. Total solar eclipses are special for a few reasons. Our Moon is just the right size and distance that it occasionally eclipses the Sun during a new Moon (the phase of the Moon where the Moon appears completely in shadow because the Sun is behind it from Earth’s point of view). But we don’t get a total eclipse every new Moon because the Earth-Moon distance changes, and the Moon isn’t always in the correct plane of its orbit to totally block the Sun’s light. When this alignment comes together we get an eclipse… but they only last seconds to minutes. As Earth is mostly water, the path of totality rarely crosses a highly populated location. It can be decades to centuries before crossing the same place again. Observing an eclipse by ship is advantageous because you can move to the best location to capture the longest period of totality (when the Sun is completely covered by the Moon and is safe to look at). If you look at the map below you can guess where we tried to be. To have stability for photographers we opted for a location a bit closer to land, but within the 60 second zone. The days flew by, with our talks and presentations receiving fantastic feedback. On Thursday morning the ship was bustling early on with guests staking out ideal places to view and capture the eclipse. Matt Dodds, an educator, outreach program coordinator, and astrophotographer (@stargazingadventures) and his mentee, Lachlan Wilson (@astrolach), a seventeen-year-old award winning astrophotographer, were positioned in the middle of the deck between the swimming pools where they could capture the entire event. We headed to the back of the ship to a special area, where we made pin hole cameras with Jatz crackers (I had to keep my 18-month-old from eating them) and waited patiently as the sky slowly darkened. Over the course of about 90 minutes, we checked the eclipse’s progress with special viewers and even adapted a few to take pictures with our smartphones. At 11:20 we were informed over the PA system that the main event was almost here. The ship got dramatically quiet as the final minutes ticked by and we tried to be still so as not to disturb the photographers. Image credit: Lachlan Wilson @astrolach And then it happened, the Moon slipped in front of the Sun and for almost 60 seconds we sat in eery darkness as the Sun’s corona was on full display. And then it was over. I instantly understood the addiction of eclipse chasers seeking to experience this unique cosmic event. We watched as the Moon continued to make her way and reveal the Sun’s disk again. It was a perfect eclipse with not a cloud in the sky and we knew we had seen something special. Image credit: Matt Dodds, @stargazingadventures and Lachlan Wilson @astrolach I can’t wait until 2028 when the next solar eclipse will cross Australia from the tip of WA to Sydney with almost five minutes of totality. Dr Allen was a paid speaker on board P&O Cruises’ specialist ‘Ningaloo King of Eclipses’ cruise to witness the 2023 total eclipse.
02 May 2023 12:41
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/05/sun-moon-and-earth-aligned-what-it-was-like-to-witness-the-total-eclipse-at-sea/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/05/sun-moon-and-earth-aligned-what-it-was-like-to-witness-the-total-eclipse-at-sea/
Astronomy
Research,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
-
Humans are still hunting for aliens. Here’s how astronomers are looking for life beyond Earth
Humans are still hunting for aliens. Here’s how astronomers are looking for life beyond Earth
We have long been fascinated with the idea of alien life. The earliest written record presenting the idea of “aliens” is seen in the satiric work of Assyrian writer Lucian of Samosata dated to 200 AD.
Analysis for The Conversation by Dr Sara Webb from the Centre of Astrophysics and Supercomputing We have long been fascinated with the idea of alien life. The earliest written record presenting the idea of “aliens” is seen in the satiric work of Assyrian writer Lucian of Samosata dated to 200 AD. In one novel, Lucian writes of a journey to the Moon and the bizarre life he imagines living there – everything from three-headed vultures to fleas the size of elephants. Now, 2,000 years later, we still write stories of epic adventures beyond Earth to meet otherworldly beings (Hitchhiker’s Guide, anyone?). Stories like these entertain and inspire, and we are forever trying to find out if science fiction will become science fact. Not all alien life is the same When looking for life beyond Earth, we are faced with two possibilities. We might find basic microbial life hiding somewhere in our Solar System; or we will identify signals from intelligent life somewhere far away. Unlike in Star Wars, we’re not talking far, far away in another galaxy, but rather around other nearby stars. It is this second possibility which really excites me, and should excite you too. A detection of intelligent life would fundamentally change how we see ourselves in the Universe. In the last 80 years, programs dedicated to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) have worked tirelessly searching for cosmic “hellos” in the form of radio signals. The reason we think any intelligent life would communicate via radio waves is due to the waves’ ability to travel vast distances through space, rarely interacting with the dust and gas in between stars. If anything out there is trying to communicate, it’s a pretty fair bet they would do it through radio waves. The three radio facilities used in the Breakthrough Listen Initiative. Left to Right: 100m Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, 64m Murriyang (Parkes) Radio Telescope, 64-antenna MeerKAT array. Image: NRAO, CSIRO, MeerKAT Listening to the stars One of the most exciting searches to date is Breakthrough Listen, the largest scientific research program dedicated to looking for evidence of intelligent life beyond Earth. This is one of many projects funded by US-based Israeli entrepreneurs Julia and Yuri Milner, with some serious dollars attached. Over a ten-year period a total amount of US$100 million will be invested in this effort, and they have a mighty big task at hand. Breakthrough Listen is currently targeting the closest one million stars in the hope of identifying any unnatural, alien-made radio signals. Using telescopes around the globe, from the 64-metre Murriyang Dish (Parkes) here in Australia, to the 64-antenna MeerKAT array in South Africa, the search is one of epic proportions. But it isn’t the only one. Hiding away in the Cascade Mountains north of San Francisco sits the Allen Telescope Array, the first radio telescope built from the ground up specifically for SETI use. This unique facility is another exciting project, able to search for signals every day of the year. This project is currently upgrading the hardware and software on the original dish, including the ability to target several stars at once. This is a part of the non-profit research organisation, the SETI Institute. Space lasers! The SETI Institute is also looking for signals that would be best explained as “space lasers”. Some astronomers hypothesise that intelligent beings might use massive lasers to communicate or even to propel spacecraft. This is because even here on Earth we’re investigating laser communication and laser-propelled light sails. To search for these mysterious flashes in the night sky, we need speciality instruments in locations around the globe, which are currently being developed and deployed. This is a research area I’m excited to watch progress and eagerly await results. As of writing this article, sadly no alien laser signals have been found yet. Out there, somewhere It’s always interesting to ponder who or what might be living out in the Universe, but there is one problem we must overcome to meet or communicate with aliens. It’s the speed of light. Everything we rely on to communicate via space requires light, and it can only travel so fast. This is where my optimism for finding intelligent life begins to fade. The Universe is big – really big. To put it in perspective, humans started using radio waves to communicate across large distances in 1901. That first transatlantic signal has only travelled 122 light years, reaching just 0.0000015% of the stars in our Milky Way. The little blue dot in the centre of the square is the current extent of human broadcasts just in our own galaxy. Image: Adam Grossman/Nick Risinger Did your optimism just fade too? That is okay, because here is the wonderful thing… we don’t have to find life to know it is out there, somewhere. When we consider the trillions of galaxies, septillion of stars, and likely many more planets just in the observable Universe, it feels near impossible that we are alone. We can’t fully constrain the parameters we need to estimate how many other lifeforms might be out there, as famously proposed by Frank Drake, but using our best estimates and simulations the current best answer to this is tens of thousands of possible civilisations out there. The Universe might even be infinite, but that is too much for my brain to comprehend on a weekday. Don’t forget the tiny aliens So, despite keenly listening for signals, we might not find intelligent life in our lifetimes. But there is hope for aliens yet. The ones hiding in plain sight, on the planetary bodies of our Solar System. In the coming decades we’ll explore the moons of Jupiter and Saturn like never before, with missions hunting to find traces of basic life. Jupiter and the icy moon Europa. Concept art of the Europa Clipper mission currently under development. Image: NASA/JPL Mars will continue to be explored – eventually by humans – which could allow us to uncover and retrieve samples from new and unexplored regions. Even if our future aliens are only tiny microbes, it would still be nice to know we have company in this Universe. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
03 March 2023 16:28
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/03/Humans-are-still-hunting-for-aliens-Here-is-how-astronomers-are-looking-for-life-beyond-Earth/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/03/Humans-are-still-hunting-for-aliens-Here-is-how-astronomers-are-looking-for-life-beyond-Earth/
Astronomy
false
-
‘We just discovered the impossible’: how giant baby galaxies are shaking up our understanding of the early Universe
‘We just discovered the impossible’: how giant baby galaxies are shaking up our understanding of the early Universe
“Look at this,” says Erica’s message. She is poring over the very first images from the brand new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).
Analysis for The Conversation by ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor Ivo Labbe “Look at this,” says Erica’s message. She is poring over the very first images from the brand new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). It is July 2022, barely a week after those first images from the revolutionary super telescope were released. Twenty-five years in the making, a hundred to a thousand times more powerful than any previous telescope, one of the biggest and most ambitious scientific experiments in human history: it is hard to not speak in superlatives, and it is all true. The telescope took decades to build, because it had to be made foldable to fit on top of a rocket and be sent into the coldness of space, 1.5 million kms from Earth. Here, far from the heat glow of the Earth, JWST can detect the faintest infrared light from the distant universe. Little did I know that among the pictures is a small red dot that will shake up our understanding of how the first galaxies formed after the Big Bang. After months of analysis, my colleagues and I just published our results in Nature. Hunting new kinds of galaxies Erica and I are on the hunt to discover new types of galaxies. Galaxies that the venerable Hubble Space Telescope had missed, even after decades of surveying the sky. She and I go back 15 years. We met when she was a first-year student at a Californian liberal arts college and I was a freshly minted PhD straight out of university, just starting my first gig as a researcher in Los Angeles. JWST was only a distant rumor. Somehow, many years later, our paths crossed again, and now Assistant Professor Erica Nelson of the University of Colorado and I are finding ourselves at the tip of the spear attacking the first data of a very real JWST. “UFOs”, she calls the new galaxies, and I can read a giant grin between the lines: “Ultra-red Flattened Objects”, because they all look like flying saucers. In the colour images they appear very red because all the light is coming out in the infrared, while the galaxies are invisible at wavelengths humans can see. Infrared is JWST’s superpower, allowing it to spy the most distant galaxies. Ultraviolet and visible light from the first stars and galaxies that formed after the Big Bang is stretched out by the expansion of the universe as it travels towards us, so by the time the light reaches us we see it as infrared light. Impossibly early, impossibly massive galaxies All of Erica’s galaxies look like saucers, except one. I stare at the little red dot on the screen. That is no UFO. And then it hits me: this is something very different. Much more important. I run the analysis software on the little pinprick and it spits out two numbers: distance 13.1 billion light years, mass 100 billion stars, and I nearly spit out my coffee. We just discovered the impossible. Impossibly early, impossibly massive galaxies. At this distance, the light took 13 billion years to reach us, so we are seeing the galaxies at a time when the universe was only 700 million years old, barely 5% of its current age of 13.8 billion years. If this is true, this galaxy has formed as many stars as our present-day Milky Way. In record time. And where there is one, there are more. One day later I had found six. Astronomy’s missing link? Could we have discovered astronomy’s missing link? There has been a long-standing puzzle in galaxy formation. As we look out in space and back in time, we see the “corpses” of fully formed, mature galaxies appear seemingly out of nowhere around 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. These galaxies have stopped forming stars. Dead galaxies, we call them, and some astronomers are obsessed with them. The stellar ages of these dead galaxies suggest they must have formed much earlier in the Universe, but Hubble has never been able to spot their earlier, living stages. Early dead galaxies are truly bizarre creatures, packing as many stars as the Milky Way, but in a size 30 times smaller. Imagine an adult, weighing 100 kilos, but standing 6cm tall. Our little red dots are equally bizarre. They look like baby versions of the same galaxies, also weighing in at 100 kilos, with a height of 6cm. Too many stars, too early There is a problem, however. These little red dots have too many stars, too early. Stars form out of hydrogen gas, and fundamental cosmological (“Big Bang”) theory makes hard predictions on how much gas is available to form stars. To produce these galaxies so quickly, you almost need all the gas in the universe to turn into stars at near 100% efficiency. And that is very hard, which is the scientific term for impossible. This discovery could transform our understanding of how the earliest galaxies in the universe formed. The six galaxies and their surroundings in the sky. Image: NASA / ESA / CSA / I. Labbe The implication is that there is different channel, a fast track, that produces monster galaxies very quickly, very efficiently. A fast track for the top 1%. In a way, each of these candidates can be considered a “black swan”. The confirmation of even one would rule out our current “all swans are white” model of galaxy formation, in which all early galaxies grow slowly and gradually. Checking the fingerprints The first step to solve this mystery is to confirm the distances with spectroscopy, where we put the light of each of these galaxies through a prism, and split it into its rainbow-like fingerprint. This will tell us the distance to 0.1% accuracy. It will also tell us what is producing the light, whether it is stars or something else more exotic. By chance, about a month ago, JWST already targeted one of the six candidate massive galaxies and it turned out to be a distant baby quasar. A quasar is a phenomenon that occurs when gas falls into a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy and starts to shine brightly. This is really exciting on the one hand, because the origin of supermassive black holes in galaxies is not understood either, and finding baby quasars might just hold the key. On the other hand, quasars can outshine their entire host galaxy, so it is impossible to tell how many stars are there and whether the galaxy is really that massive. Could that be the answer for all of them? Baby quasars everywhere? Probably not, but it will take another year to investigate the remaining galaxies and find out. One black swan down, five to go. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
23 February 2023 10:03
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/02/how-giant-baby-galaxies-are-shaking-up-our-understanding-of-the-early-universe/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/02/how-giant-baby-galaxies-are-shaking-up-our-understanding-of-the-early-universe/
Astronomy|Technology
false
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NASA’s Webb uncovers new details in Pandora’s Cluster
NASA’s Webb uncovers new details in Pandora’s Cluster
Astronomers have revealed the latest deep field image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, featuring never-before-seen details in a region of space known as Pandora’s Cluster.
The latest deep field image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope reveals never-before-seen details in a region of space known as Pandora’s Cluster Astronomers used cameras on the JWST to capture the cluster with exposures lasting four to six hours, for a total of about 30 hours The new view of Pandora’s Cluster displays roughly 50,000 sources of near-infrared light Astronomers have revealed the latest deep field image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, featuring never-before-seen details in a region of space known as Pandora’s Cluster (Abell 2744). Webb’s view displays three already large clusters of galaxies coming together to form a megacluster. The combined mass of the galaxy clusters creates a powerful gravitational lens, a natural magnification effect of gravity, allowing much more distant galaxies in the early universe to be observed by using the cluster like a magnifying glass. Only Pandora’s central core has previously been studied in detail by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Now, as part of the “Ultradeep NIRSpec and NIRCam ObserVations before the Epoch of Reionization” (UNCOVER) program, astronomers from around the world are achieving a balance of breadth and depth that will open up a new frontier in the study of cosmology and galaxy evolution. Swinburne Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing Senior Research Fellow and co-principal investigator of the UNCOVER program Associate Professor Ivo Labbé says that they’ve revealed hundreds of distant lensed galaxies that appear like faint arced lines in the image. “Pandora’s Cluster, as imaged by Webb, shows us a stronger, wider, deeper, better lens than we have ever seen before. “My first reaction to the image was that it was so beautiful, it looked like a galaxy formation simulation. We had to remind ourselves that this was real data, and we are working in a new era of astronomy now.” The new view of Pandora’s Cluster stitches four Webb snapshots together into one panoramic image, displaying roughly 50,000 sources of near-infrared light. In addition to magnification, gravitational lensing distorts the appearance of distant galaxies, so they look very different than those in the foreground. The galaxy cluster “lens” is so large that it warps the fabric of space itself, enough for light from distant galaxies that passes through that warped space to also take on a warped appearance. University of Pittsburgh astronomer and other co-principal investigator Rachel Bezanson says that the ancient myth of Pandora is about human curiosity and discoveries that delineate the past from the future. “I think [this] is a fitting connection to the new realms of the universe Webb is opening up, including this deep-field image of Pandora’s Cluster. “When the images of Pandora’s Cluster first came in from Webb, we were honestly a little star struck. There was so much detail in the foreground cluster and so many distant lensed galaxies, I found myself getting lost in the image. Webb exceeded our expectations.” The UNCOVER team used Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) to capture the cluster with exposures lasting 4-6 hours, for a total of about 30 hours of observing time. Follow-up observation with the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIRSpec) will provide precise distance measurements and detailed information about the lensed galaxies’ compositions. These new insights into the early era of galaxy assembly and evolution can be expected in mid-2023. All the NIRCam photometric data has been publicly released so that other astronomers can become familiar with it and plan their own scientific studies with Webb’s rich datasets. “We are committed to helping the astronomy community make the best use of the fantastic resource we have in Webb,” says UNCOVER co-investigator Gabriel Brammer of the Niels Bohr Institute’s Cosmic Dawn Center at the University of Copenhagen. “This is just the beginning of all the amazing Webb science to come.”
16 February 2023 11:46
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/02/nasas-webb-uncovers-new-details-in-pandoras-cluster/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/02/nasas-webb-uncovers-new-details-in-pandoras-cluster/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
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Curious Kids: why do we think there is a possible Planet X?
Curious Kids: why do we think there is a possible Planet X?
There’s a good reason astronomers spend many hundreds of hours trying to locate a ninth planet, or “Planet X”. And that’s because the Solar System as we know it doesn’t really make sense without it.
Analysis for The Conversation by Dr Sara Webb from the Centre of Astrophysics and Supercomputing Why do we think there is a possible planet X? – Courtney, Year 5, Victoria Hi Courtney, what a great question! Our Solar System is a pretty busy place. There are millions of objects moving around – everything from planets, to moons, to comets and asteroids. And each year we’re discovering more and more objects (usually small asteroids or speedy comets) that call the Solar System home. Astronomers had found all eight of the main planets by 1846. But that doesn’t stop us from looking for more. In the past 100 years we’ve found smaller distant bodies we call dwarf planets, which is what we now classify Pluto as. The discovery of some of these dwarf planets has given us reason to believe something else might be lurking in the outskirts of the Solar System. Could there be a ninth planet? There’s a good reason astronomers spend many hundreds of hours trying to locate a ninth planet, or “Planet X”. And that’s because the Solar System as we know it doesn’t really make sense without it. Every object in our Solar System orbits around the Sun. Some move fast and some slow, but all move abiding by the laws of gravity. Everything with mass has gravity, including you and me. The heavier something is, the more gravity it has. A planet’s gravity is so large it impacts how things move around it. That’s what we call its “gravitational pull”. Earth’s gravitational pull is what keeps everything on the ground. Also, our Sun has the largest gravitational pull of any object in the Solar System, and this is basically why the planets orbit around it. It’s through our understanding of gravitational pull that we get our biggest clue for a possible Planet X. Unexpected behaviours When we look at really distant objects, such as dwarf planets beyond Pluto, we find their orbits are a little unexpected. They move on very large elliptical (oval-shaped) orbits, are grouped together, and exist on an incline compared to the rest of the Solar System. When astronomers use a computer to model what gravitational forces are needed for these objects to move like this, they find that a planet at least ten times the mass of Earth would have been required to cause this. If Planet X is real, it’s probably a gas giant like Neptune. Image: NASA/Caltech/R. Hurt (IPAC), CC BY It is super-exciting stuff! But then the question is: where is this planet? The problem we have now is trying to confirm if these predictions and models are correct. The only way to do that is to find Planet X, which is definitely easier said than done. The hunt continues Scientists all over the world have been on the hunt for visible evidence of Planet X for many years now. Based on the computer models, we think Planet X is at least 20 times farther away from the Sun than Neptune. We try to detect it by looking for sunlight it can reflect – just like how the Moon shines from reflected sunlight at night. However, because Planet X sits so far away from the Sun, we expect it to be very faint and difficult to spot for even the best telescopes on Earth. Also, we can’t just look for it at any time of the year. We only have small windows of nights where the conditions must be just right. Specifically, we have to wait for a night with no Moon, and on which the location we’re observing from is facing the right part of the sky. But don’t give up hope just yet. In the next decade new telescopes will be built and new surveys of the sky will begin. They might just give us the opportunity to prove or disprove whether Planet X exists. Astronomers explain their reason for thinking there is a ninth planet. Credit: California Institute of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
15 February 2023 12:31
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/02/curious-kids-why-do-we-think-there-is-a-possible-planet-x/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/02/curious-kids-why-do-we-think-there-is-a-possible-planet-x/
Astronomy
false
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Distant galaxy mirrors the early Milky Way
Distant galaxy mirrors the early Milky Way
The Sparkler galaxy provides a snapshot of an infant Milky Way as it grows over cosmic time.
A galaxy has been discovered that mirrors the very early version of the Milky Way Dubbed ‘The Sparkler’, the galaxy is embedded in a system of globular clusters and satellite galaxies and appears to be swallowing them as it grows The Sparkler was discovered using some of the first data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) A galaxy has been discovered that mirrors the very early version of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Dubbed ‘The Sparkler’, the galaxy is embedded in a system of globular clusters and satellite galaxies and appears to be swallowing them as it grows. The Sparkler was discovered by Swinburne’s Professor Duncan Forbes and Professor Aaron Romanowsky of San Jose State University, using some of the first data from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). Named for its two-dozen orbiting globular clusters, the Sparkler provides unique insight into the formation history of the Milky Way during its infancy. Globular clusters are dense collections of around a million stars. The Milky Way is currently host to around 200 globular clusters. The Sparkler can be found in the constellation of Volans in the southern sky. The galaxy and its system of globular clusters have been detected at a redshift of 1.38, which implies that we are seeing the galaxy around nine billion years ago, some four billion years after the Big Bang. The research examined the age and metallicity distribution of a dozen of the compact star clusters surrounding the Sparkler to determine that they resemble younger versions of the clusters now around the Milky Way. Several have old formation ages and are metal-rich, similar to those seen in the bulge of the Milky Way, and so are likely to be globular clusters. A couple of star clusters had intermediate ages and were metal-poor – these clusters are associated with the satellite galaxy that is being accreted onto the Sparkler galaxy; it appears to be swallowing up this satellite galaxy and its system of globular clusters, just like the Milky Way has done in the past. Although the Sparkler is currently only three per cent the mass of the Milky Way, it is expected to grow over cosmic time to match the Milky Way’s mass in the present-day Universe. The team will need deeper imaging to detect more clusters and satellites around the Sparkler. “We appear to be witnessing, firsthand, the assembly of this galaxy as it builds up its mass – in the form of a dwarf galaxy and several globular clusters,” says Professor Forbes. “We are excited by this unique opportunity to study both the formation of globular clusters, and an infant Milky Way, at a time when the Universe was only one third of its present age." Co-author Professor Aaron Romanowsky says, “The origin of globular clusters is a long-standing mystery, and we are thrilled that JWST can look back in time to see them in their youth.” The research was published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
07 February 2023 12:51
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/02/distant-galaxy-mirrors-the-early-milky-way/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/02/distant-galaxy-mirrors-the-early-milky-way/
Astronomy
false
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Protecting our night sky
Protecting our night sky
Swinburne Chief Scientist Professor Virginia Kilborn says without action, over the next decade the night sky as we know it will change drastically.
Opinion piece by Swinburne Chief Scientist, Professor Virginia Kilborn An abridged version was published in The Age When we think about preserving the natural environment, we aim to protect wilderness regions like forests and oceans. But rarely do we look up at the stars and think about space as a kind of pristine wilderness. Considering the millions of pieces of space junk now in orbit around Earth and the thousands of satellites being launched each year, it’s time to turn our attention to preserving the natural wonder of the night sky. Without action, over the next decade the night sky as we know it will change drastically. Where once we saw constellations of stars, we will see moving constellations of satellites - hundreds and maybe thousands of them moving across the sky. The magic of a shooting star will be lost. The constellations your parents once pointed out will be harder to find, and as Kamilaroi astrophysicist Krystal De Napoli has explained, the vital reference points that our First Nations astronomers have relied on for tens of thousands of years will no longer be visible. Astronomers are already dismayed as their view of the Universe is increasingly masked via optical and radio emissions from the thousands of objects overhead, making it more difficult to conduct paradigm-shifting research. When it comes to access to space, we are undergoing a technological revolution. Once the domain of multi-national companies and government agencies, the new space race is now dominated by agile and comparatively young companies taking advantage of small satellite technologies, such as ‘CubeSats’ – nanosatellites the size and shape of a Rubik's cube. Image credit: NASA These smaller satellites allow companies to quickly test new technologies in space and take less energy to launch to their lower altitude orbits. While they offer significant benefits to us on Earth, such as monitoring weather patterns and natural disasters, and providing internet access to remote communities, they are also less reliable, have higher failure rates, and shorter lifespans than previous satellites. We’re seeing the advantages of new design and advanced manufacturing technologies reducing the cost of sending satellites into orbit. But we should also be concerned about disposable space hardware going down the same path as other technologies did a generation ago, for example with the advent of low-cost plastics. Plastics have allowed for the development of low-cost products, but the lack of life-cycle planning means plastic waste pollution is prevalent across the planet. We need to avoid this short-term thinking when it comes to satellites. Rather than launching satellites designed for decades of use – for example the GPS navigation system, comprised of around 30 satellites – many companies are now planning for the launch of mega constellations of thousands of small satellites in Low Earth orbit. In the US alone, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is approving tens of thousands of satellites for launch. Astra has applied for 13,000 satellites, SpaceX has more than 3,000 satellites already launched and has sought approval for 9,000 more (but they’re looking at more than 30,000 in the future). Amazon has plans for over 3,000 more satellites, and Telesat plans for about 2,000 satellites with just a 10-year life span. While small Low Earth orbit satellites are designed to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere on the timescale of a decade or so, they deposit a higher concentration of aluminium than meteoroids. Over time, this will change the composition of the atmosphere. Whilst the weight of satellite debris currently entering the atmosphere is about 20 times less than that of meteoroids, satellites are mainly comprised of aluminium whilst meteoroids are less than 1 per cent of that element. The long-term effects of this change could include changing the albedo, or reflective nature of the atmosphere. With so many satellites in finite orbits above us, there is also an increasing danger of collisions – causing an increase in the amount of space debris orbiting Earth. NASA is currently tracking more than 27,000 pieces of space junk and estimate there could be half a million pieces larger than 1cm in size; and over 100 million pieces smaller than a centimetre. Actions are underway to tackle some of these issues. Here in Australia, space scientists, lawyers and policy experts from Swinburne University of Technology, EY, CSIRO’s Data61 and SmartCat CRC are urgently working on a regulatory framework for AI-enabled systems that can operate to avoid collisions, while other projects are looking to remove existing debris and defunct technology from orbit. Further afield, the International Astronomical Union has formed the Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference to work with technology companies and policymakers to ensure we preserve the night sky for research. There is a new voluntary sustainability rating being promoted by the World Economic Forum, and the FCC has recently changed the regulations regarding LEO satellite disposal, requiring a much quicker re-entry into the atmosphere to ensure these low orbits don’t clog up our sky. These are positive steps, but we need to go further and think about whether we need to launch thousands of satellites in the first place. The next frontier of space could involve sustainable fuels and the production of lighter and stronger materials with less waste. With better education, more research and worldwide regulation, we can find smarter ways to reuse, recycle and dispose of old technologies – as well as moderate how we launch the new. Finding better ways to do things now means both harnessing space to improve life on Earth and avoiding the destruction of one of our greatest assets – the night sky.
16 January 2023 11:30
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/01/protecting-our-night-sky/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/01/protecting-our-night-sky/
Astronomy
false
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What are gravitational waves?
What are gravitational waves?
To answer this we have to travel back in time, to the year 1916. This is the year famous physicist Albert Einstein published his general theory of relativity.
Analysis for The Conversation Curious Kids section by Dr Sara Webb from the Centre of Astrophysics and Supercomputing What are gravitational waves? – Millie, age 10, Sydney What a great question Millie! To answer this we have to travel back in time, to the year 1916. This is the year famous physicist Albert Einstein published his general theory of relativity. Einstein had figured out how to explain gravity within the Universe using maths. Gravity is the force that keeps us on Earth, and Earth orbiting around the Sun. Until 1916 there had been many theories to try and explain what gravity was and why it exists. But Einstein suggested that gravity was the bending of something called space-time. You can think of space-time like the fabric of the Universe. It’s what makes up the space we live in. Without it we wouldn’t have a Universe, and that wouldn’t be very fun. A space-time trampoline Curved space-time is responsible for the effects of gravity. A trampoline is a great way for us to picture this on a flat surface. Imagine you place a heavy bowling ball in the centre of a trampoline – its mass bends the fabric, and it creates a dip. Now, if we tried to roll a marble across the trampoline, it would roll inwards and around the bowling ball. That’s all gravity is: the distortion of the space-time fabric, affecting how things move. If a heavy thing like a bowling ball stretches the trampoline, a marble will roll towards it in a circle. Image: Author provided This is what Einstein’s famous equations helped to explain – how we can expect space-time to move under different conditions. We know that in the Universe, nothing stands still. Everything is always moving, and when objects speed up through space-time, they can create small ripples, just like a pebble in a pond. These ripples are what we call gravitational waves. Our Universe is likely full of these tiny waves, like an ocean with waves moving in all different directions. But unlike the ocean, gravitational waves are incredibly small and won’t be rocking Earth about. When first predicted by Einstein, he doubted if we’d ever be able to detect them because of how teeny tiny they should be. I would love to know what he would think today. Not only have we detected gravitational waves, but we’ve detected 90 unique events! This is one of the biggest achievements in physics, and how they did it was nothing short of amazing. Squeeze and stretch When a gravitational wave passes through Earth, it squeezes or stretches the whole planet in the direction it travels. If we tried to measure it with something like a ruler, the ruler would appear to be the same length because the numbers on the ruler would also be stretched or squeezed, and wouldn’t change. But scientists have a trick: they can use light, because light can only travel a certain distance over a certain time. If space is stretched out, the light has to travel a little bit farther, and takes longer. Vice versa for when space in squeezed. The trick to knowing if space has been squeezed or stretched is to measure it in two directions, and calculate the difference. Unfortunately for us it isn’t something that is easy to measure. The difference in the distance we’re looking for is 1,000 times smaller then a really tiny particle called a proton. To really blow your mind, our bodies have around 10 octillion protons (10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). It’s an insanely small change we needed to detect, but thankfully clever scientists and engineers figured out a way to do it, and you can learn more about these detectors in the video below. Gravitational waves have given us new eyes to our Universe, allowing us to “see” things like black holes and neutron stars crashing together – because we can finally detect the tiny ripples they create. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
12 January 2023 10:14
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/01/what-are-gravitational-waves/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2023/01/what-are-gravitational-waves/
Science|Astronomy
false
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10 times this year the Webb telescope blew us away with new images of our stunning universe
10 times this year the Webb telescope blew us away with new images of our stunning universe
It is no exaggeration to say the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) represents a new era for modern astronomy. Launched on December 25 last year and fully operational since July, the telescope offers glimpses of the universe that were inaccessible to us before.
Analysis for The Conversation by Centre of Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Distinguished Professor Karl Glazebrook and Dr Colin Jacobs It is no exaggeration to say the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) represents a new era for modern astronomy. Launched on December 25 last year and fully operational since July, the telescope offers glimpses of the universe that were inaccessible to us before. Like the Hubble Space Telescope, the JWST is in space, so it can take pictures with stunning detail free from the distortions of Earth’s atmosphere. However, while Hubble is in orbit around Earth at an altitude of 540km, the JWST is 1.5 million kilometres distant, far beyond the Moon. From this position, away from the interference of our planet’s reflected heat, it can collect light from across the universe far into the infrared portion of the electromagnetic spectrum. This ability, when combined with the JWST’s larger mirror, state-of-the-art detectors, and many other technological advances, allows astronomers to look back to the universe’s earliest epochs. As the universe expands, it stretches the wavelength of light travelling towards us, making more distant objects appear redder. At great enough distances, the light from a galaxy is shifted entirely out of the visible part of the electromagnetic spectrum to the infrared. The JWST is able to probe such sources of light right back to the earliest times, nearly 14 billion years ago. The Hubble telescope continues to be a great scientific instrument and can see at optical wavelengths where the JWST cannot. But the Webb telescope can see much further into the infrared with greater sensitivity and sharpness. Let’s have a look at ten images that have demonstrated the staggering power of this new window to the universe. 1. Mirror alignment complete Left: The first publicly released alignment image from the JWST. Astronomers jumped on this image to compare it to previous images of the same part of sky like that on the right from the Dark Energy Camera on Earth. Image: NASA/STScI/LegacySurvey/C. Jacobs Despite years of testing on the ground, an observatory as complex as the JWST required extensive configuration and testing once deployed in the cold and dark of space. One of the biggest tasks was getting the 18 hexagonal mirror segments unfolded and aligned to within a fraction of a wavelength of light. In March, NASA released the first image (centred on a star) from the fully aligned mirror. Although it was just a calibration image, astronomers immediately compared it to existing images of that patch of sky – with considerable excitement. 2. Spitzer vs MIRI This image shows a portion of the ‘Pillars of Creation’ in the infrared (see below); on the left taken with the Spitzer Space Telescope, and JWST on the right. The contrast in depth and resolution is dramatic. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech (left), NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI (right) This early image, taken while all the cameras were being focused, clearly demonstrates the step change in data quality that JWST brings over its predecessors. On the left is an image from the Spitzer telescope, a space-based infrared observatory with an 85cm mirror; the right, the same field from JWST’s mid-infrared MIRI camera and 6.5m mirror. The resolution and ability to detect much fainter sources is on show here, with hundreds of galaxies visible that were lost in the noise of the Spitzer image. This is what a bigger mirror situated out in the deepest, coldest dark can do. 3. The first galaxy cluster image SMACS 0723 galaxy cluster – from Hubble on the left, and JWST on the right. Hundreds more galaxies are visible in JWST’s infrared image. Image: NASA/STSci The galaxy cluster with the prosaic name of SMACS J0723.3–7327 was a good choice for the first colour images released to the public from the JWST. The field is crowded with galaxies of all shapes and colours. The combined mass of this enormous galaxy cluster, over 4 billion light years away, bends space in such a way that light from distant sources in the background is stretched and magnified, an effect known as gravitational lensing. These distorted background galaxies can be clearly seen as lines and arcs throughout this image. The field is already spectacular in Hubble images (left), but the JWST near-infrared image (right) reveals a wealth of extra detail, including hundreds of distant galaxies too faint or too red to be detected by its predecessor. 4. Stephan’s Quintet Hubble (l) and JWST (r) images of the group of galaxies known as ‘Stephan’s Quintet’. The inset shows a zoom-in on a distant background galaxy. Image: NASA/STScI These images depict a spectacular group of galaxies known as Stephan’s Quintet, a group that has long been of interest to astronomers studying the way colliding galaxies interact with one another gravitationally. On the left we see the Hubble view, and the right the JWST mid-infrared view. The inset shows the power of the new telescope, with a zoom in on a small background galaxy. In the Hubble image we see some bright star-forming regions, but only with the JWST does the full structure of this and surrounding galaxies reveal itself. 5. The Pillars of Creation The ‘Pillars of Creation’, a star-forming region of our galaxy, as captured by Hubble (left) and JWST (right). Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Joseph DePasquale (STScI), Anton M. Koekemoer (STScI), Alyssa Pagan (STScI) The so-called Pillars of Creation is one of the most famous images in all of astronomy, taken by Hubble in 1995. It demonstrated the extraordinary reach of a space-based telescope. It depicts a star-forming region in the Eagle Nebula, where interstellar gas and dust provide the backdrop to a stellar nursery teeming with new stars. The image on the right, taken with the JWST’s near-infrared camera (NIRCam), demonstrates a further advantage of infrared astronomy: the ability to peer through the shroud of dust and see what lies within and behind. 6. The ‘Hourglass’ Protostar The ‘hourglass protostar’, a star still in the process of accreting enough gas to begin fusing hydrogen. Inset: A much lower resolution view from Spitzer. Image: NASA/STScI/JPL-Caltech/A. Tobin This image depicts another act of galactic creation within the Milky Way. This hourglass-shaped structure is a cloud of dust and gas surrounding a star in the act of formation – a protostar called L1527. Only visible in the infrared, an “accretion disk” of material falling in (the black band in the centre) will eventually enable the protostar to gather enough mass to start fusing hydrogen, and a new star will be born. In the meantime, light from the still-forming star illuminates the gas above and below the disk, making the hourglass shape. Our previous view of this came from Spitzer; the amount of detail is once again an enormous leap ahead. 7. Jupiter in infrared An infrared view of Jupiter from the JWST. Note the auroral glow at the poles; this is caused by the interaction of charged particles from the sun with Jupiter’s magnetic field. Image: NASA/STScI The Webb telescope’s mission includes imaging the most distant galaxies from the beginning of the universe, but it can look a little closer to home as well. Although JWST cannot look at Earth or the inner Solar System planets – as it must always face away from the Sun – it can look outward at the more distant parts of our Solar System. This near-infrared image of Jupiter is a beautiful example, as we gaze deep into the structure of the gas giant’s clouds and storms. The glow of auroras at both the northern and southern poles is haunting. This image was extremely difficult to achieve due to the fast motion of Jupiter across the sky relative to the stars and because of its fast rotation. The success proved the Webb telescope’s ability to track difficult astronomical targets extremely well. 8. The Phantom Galaxy Hubble visible light (l), JWST infrared (r) and combined (middle) images of the ‘Phantom Galaxy’ M74. The ability to combine visible light information about stars with infrared images of gas and dust allow us to probe such galaxies in exquisite detail. Image: ESA/NASA These images of the so-called Phantom Galaxy or M74 reveal the power of JWST not only as the latest and greatest of astronomical instruments, but as a valuable complement to other great tools. The middle panel here combines visible light from Hubble with infrared from Webb, allowing us to see how starlight (via Hubble) and gas and dust (via JWST) together shape this remarkable galaxy. Much JWST science is designed to be combined with Hubble’s optical views and other imaging to leverage this principle. 9. A super-distant galaxy A ‘zoom in’ on a galaxy from one of the universe’s earliest epochs, when the universe was only about 300 million years old (the small red source visible in the centre of the right panel). Galaxies at this distance are impossible to detect in visible light as their emitted radiation has been ‘redshifted’ far into the infrared. Image: NASA/STScI/C. Jacobs Although this galaxy – the small, red blob in the right image – is not among the most spectacularly picturesque our universe has to offer, it is just as interesting scientifically. This snapshot is from when the universe was a mere 350 million years old, making this among the very first galaxies ever to have formed. Understanding the details of how such galaxies grow and merge to create galaxies like our own Milky Way 13 billion years later is a key question, and one with many remaining mysteries, making discoveries like this highly sought after. It is also a view only the JWST can achieve. Astronomers did not know quite what to expect; an image of this galaxy taken with Hubble would appear blank, as the light of the galaxy is stretched far into the infrared by the expansion of the universe. 10. This giant mosaic of Abell 2744 An image of the galaxy cluster Abell 2744 created by combining many different JWST exposures. In this tiny part of the sky (a fraction of a full Moon) almost every one of the thousands of objects shown is a distant galaxy. Lukas Furtak (Ben-Gurion University of the Negev) from images from the GLASS/UNCOVER teams This image (click here for full view) is a mosaic (many individual images stitched together) centred on the giant Abell 2744 galaxy cluster, colloquially known as “Pandora’s Cluster”. The sheer number and variety of sources that the JWST can detect is mind boggling; with the exception of a handful of foreground stars, every spot of light represents an entire galaxy. In a patch of dark sky no larger than a fraction of the full Moon there are umpteen thousands of galaxies, really bringing home the sheer scale of the universe we inhabit. Professional and amateur astronomers alike can spend hours scouring this image for oddities and mysteries. Over the coming years, JWST’s ability to look so deep and far back into the universe will allow us to answer many questions about how we came to be. Just as exciting are the discoveries and questions we can not yet foresee. When you peel back the veil of time as only this new telescope can, these unknown unknowns are certain to be fascinating. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
23 December 2022 16:18
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/12/10-times-this-year-the-webb-telescope-blew-us-away-with-new-images-of-our-stunning-universe/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/12/10-times-this-year-the-webb-telescope-blew-us-away-with-new-images-of-our-stunning-universe/
Astronomy
false
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Professor Brian Cox honoured at Swinburne
Professor Brian Cox honoured at Swinburne
Swinburne has awarded world-renowned scientist Professor Brian Cox CBE FRS an honorary Doctor of Science in recognition of his significant contribution as a global leader in communicating the world of astronomy, physics and astrophysics.
Swinburne has awarded world-renowned scientist Professor Brian Cox CBE FRS an honorary Doctor of Science This recognises his significant contribution as a global leader in communicating the world of astronomy, physics and astrophysics Professor Cox received his honorary doctorate in October and recorded a special message for graduating students World renowned scientist Professor Brian Cox CBE FRS has been awarded an honorary Doctor of Science by Swinburne University of Technology in recognition of his significant contribution as a global leader in communicating the world of astronomy, physics and astrophysics. Professor Cox was presented with his honorary doctorate by Swinburne Chancellor Professor John Pollaers and Swinburne Vice-Chancellor and President Professor Pascale Quester in October. In a recorded message Professor Cox urged Swinburne's 2022 graduands to carry with them the values of Swinburne. "It's not only to use your knowledge but it's to share your knowledge. It is vitally important that the ideas that you have been exposed to in whatever subject you've studied you try to spread out as widely as you can. So share the experience, the value of the experience that you have had," Professor Cox said. Professor Cox rose to prominence as a member of British rock bands in the early 1990s before transitioning to work as an experimental physicist, exploring the cutting edge of particle physics. He received his Doctorate in Physics from the University of Manchester, completing his thesis in 1998. In 2005, he was appointed as a professor of particle physics at Manchester University, a position that he still holds. As a broadcaster, he has presented highly acclaimed science programs for the British Broadcasting Corporation including Forces of Nature, Stargazing Live, The Planets and Wonders of the Solar System. Professor Quester said Professor Cox is an excellent addition to the Swinburne community. “Professor Cox is an esteemed global leader who embodies our vision of people and technology working together to build a better world. “He has championed science globally and undertaken national speaking tours in Australia exploring the very latest in astrophysics and physics, with direct scientific connection to Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. “One of Swinburne’s three flagship priorities is space and aerospace technology research and education into space technologies and their terrestrial applications, which aligns with Professor Cox’s research," Professor Quester said. The university has recognised his significant contribution as a global leader in communicating the world of astronomy, physics and astrophysics to a diverse audience and inspiring generations to not only understand how the universe works but also to make better choices for our future.
15 December 2022 10:34
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/12/Professor-Brian-Cox-honoured-at-Swinburne/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/12/Professor-Brian-Cox-honoured-at-Swinburne/
Astronomy|Science|University
false
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Star’s fatal encounter with black hole creates rare luminous flash
Star’s fatal encounter with black hole creates rare luminous flash
Halfway across the observable Universe, Swinburne researchers have aided the discovery of a bright optical flare caused by a supermassive black hole ripping a star apart.
Astronomers have observed a rare luminous jet of matter created by a supermassive black hole tearing apart a star Swinburne researchers were a key part of an international team who made the discovery, utilising more than 20 telescopes on earth and in space. The discovery will help astronomers better understand the extreme physics of black holes Astronomers at Swinburne University of Technology have played an important role in the discovery of a rare luminous jet of matter travelling close to the speed of light, created by a supermassive black hole violently tearing apart a star. Published in Nature, the research brings astronomers one step closer to understanding the physics of supermassive black holes, which sit at the centre of galaxies billions of light years away. Swinburne Professor Jeff Cooke, who is also a Chief Investigator for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), was a key member of the research team. “Stars that are literally torn apart by the gravitational tidal forces of black holes help us better understand what exists in the Universe,” says Professor Cooke. “These observations help us explore extreme physics and energies that cannot be created on Earth.” Supermassive, super rare and super far away When a star gets too close to a supermassive black hole, the star is violently ripped apart by tidal forces, with pieces drawn into orbit around the black hole and eventually completely consumed by it. In extremely rare instances – only about one per cent of the time – these so-called tidal disruption events (TDEs) also launch luminous jets of material moving almost at the speed of light. The co-lead authors of the work, Dr Igor Andreoni from the University of Maryland and Assistant Professor Michael Coughlin from the University of Minnesota, along with an international team, observed one of the brightest ever TDEs. They measured it to be more than 8.5 billion light years away, or more than halfway across the observable Universe. The event, officially named “AT2022cmc”, is believed to be at the centre of a galaxy that is not yet visible because the intense light from the flash still outshines it. Future space observations may unveil the galaxy when AT2022cmc eventually fades away. It is still a mystery why some TDEs launch jets while others do not appear to. From their observations, the researchers concluded that the black holes associated with AT2022cmc and other similarly jetted TDEs are likely spinning rapidly. This suggests that a rapid black hole spin may be one necessary ingredient for jet launching—an idea that brings researchers closer to understanding these mysterious objects at the outer reaches of the universe. Working together on new discoveries More than 20 telescopes operating at all wavelengths were a part of this research. These include the Zwicky Transient Facility in California that made the initial discovery, X-ray telescopes in space and on the International Space Station, radio/mm telescopes in Australia, the US, India and the French Alps, and optical/infrared telescopes in Chile, the Canary Islands and the US, including the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii. Swinburne postdoctoral researcher Dr Jielai Zhang, a co-author on the research, says that international collaboration was essential to this discovery. “Although the night sky may appear tranquil, telescopes reveal that the Universe is full of mysterious, explosive and fleeting events waiting to be discovered. Through OzGrav and Swinburne international research collaborations, we are proud to be making meaningful discoveries such as this one,” Dr Zhang says. The paper, “A very luminous jet from the disruption of a star by a massive black hole,” was published in Nature on November 30, 2022
01 December 2022 10:44
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/12/stars-fatal-encounter-with-black-hole-creates-rare-luminous-flash/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/12/stars-fatal-encounter-with-black-hole-creates-rare-luminous-flash/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
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“Cosmic detective” Dr Sara Webb becomes a Superstar of STEM
“Cosmic detective” Dr Sara Webb becomes a Superstar of STEM
Swinburne astrophysicist and cosmic detective Dr Sara Webb has been selected as a 2022 Superstar of STEM.
Astrophysicist and “cosmic detective” Dr Sara Webb is a 2022 Superstar of STEM The Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic MP, announced the 60 scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians selected for the program Dr Sara Webb is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing Swinburne astrophysicist and “cosmic detective” Dr Sara Webb is one of 60 scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians selected as a 2022 Superstar of STEM. The announcement was made today by the Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic MP. A day in the life of an astrophysicist Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS) is home to some of the world’s brightest astrophysicists, including Dr Sara Webb. Dr Webb joined Swinburne as an Astrophysics PhD Candidate in 2018 and is now a Postdoctoral Research Fellow. She always knew she wanted to be a scientist of some kind. “From marine biology to archaeology, I was obsessed with trying to understand the world and universe we live within. In my teens, I started listening to online lectures about astronomy and fell in love. It led me to enrol in a Bachelor of Science where I could minor in astrophysics,” she says. Her days are spent researching, running programs for the next generation of scientists and talking about space in the media and on social media. “Something that might surprise people is that computer programming is a large part of most astronomers’ jobs. There is so much data that if we dealt with it manually, it would take longer than most people’s working lives. That’s why we use supercomputing and machine learning to help us process data. “But no two days are ever the same for an astrophysicist. Some days I am doing user testing in our Cyber-Human Discovery Lab, programming or processing data. On other days I can be in the biology labs or running the SHINE program,” she says. Dr Webb helps coordinate Swinburne’s two high school space programs: the Swinburne Haileybury International Space Station Experiment (SHINE) and the Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge. This involves teaching Year 10–12 students about space technology, and even create an experiment to send to the International Space Station (ISS). Last year’s winning team sent yoghurt to space! Swinburne Chief Scientist and astronomer herself, Professor Virginia Kilborn, was thrilled to see Dr Webb given an even bigger platform to inspire our youth. “I'm thrilled to see Sara join the Superstars of STEM program,” she says. “Sara is an outstanding science communicator, and her new role as a Superstar of STEM will broaden her reach to inspire even more people to take an interest in STEM fields.” Dr Webb spends a large part of her time programming the data from telescopes What is a Superstar of STEM? Superstars of STEM is an initiative of Science & Technology Australia funded by the Australian Government’s Department of Industry, Science and Resources. Through a highly competitive selection process, the program selects 60 women and non-binary STEM experts and gives them the training, confidence, networks and experience to become sought-after media commentators as experts in their fields. Science & Technology Australia Chief Executive Officer, Misha Schubert, says the initiative is about building up role models in STEM for the next generation. “We know it’s really hard to be what you can’t see. That’s why this game-changing program is helping to smash stereotypes of what a scientist, technologist, engineer or mathematician looks like,” she says. “By becoming highly visible role models in the media, these Superstars of STEM are showing our diverse next generations of young people - especially our girls and non-binary kids - that STEM is for them.” Minister for Industry and Science, Ed Husic MP, made the announcement of the 60 Superstars of STEM. “The need to boost diversity in our science, technology, engineering and mathematics sector is urgent. There are huge skills shortages that can be addressed if we put our minds and collective effort to it – which means we have to draw deeply on our nation’s expertise from all corners of the community. “I've always been a fan of the way the Superstars of STEM program pushes to deliver a diverse STEM workforce and ensures the next generation of scientists and technologists have visible role models. “I just know these talented experts and communicators will play their part inspiring Australia’s young people – from all backgrounds – into science and technology.” Follow on socials Dr Webb is a media favourite – you’ll often see her on TV or hear her on the radio. She also creates superb TikToks and Instagram reels at @sarawebbscience. With her new, official title as a Superstar of STEM, we’re sure to be seeing even more of her. “Astronomy is one of those awe-inspiring fields that can get audiences of all ages interested in STEM. Astronomy was how I became a scientist,” she says. “Sharing the joy of science has always been a passion, and I’m thrilled to do so via the Superstars of STEM program.”
18 November 2022 17:11
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/11/cosmic-detective-dr-sara-webb-becomes-a-superstar-of-stem/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/11/cosmic-detective-dr-sara-webb-becomes-a-superstar-of-stem/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
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Artemis 1 is off – and we’re a step closer to using Moon dirt for construction in space
Artemis 1 is off – and we’re a step closer to using Moon dirt for construction in space
NASA has just launched its first rocket in the Artemis program, which will, among other things, take scientific experiments to produce metal on the Moon. In recent years, a number of businesses and organisations have ramped up efforts to establish technologies on the Moon.
Analysis for The Conversation by PhD Candidate in Astrometallurgy, Matthew Shaw NASA has just launched its first rocket in the Artemis program, which will, among other things, take scientific experiments to produce metal on the Moon. In recent years, a number of businesses and organisations have ramped up efforts to establish technologies on the Moon. But doing work in space is expensive. Sending just one kilogram of material to the Moon can cost US$1.2 million (A$1.89 million). What if we could save money by using the resources that are already there? This process is called in-situ resource utilisation, and it’s exactly what astrometallurgy researchers are trying to achieve. Why the Moon? The Moon has amazing potential for future space exploration. Its gravity is only one-sixth as strong as Earth’s, which makes it much easier to fly things from the Moon to Earth’s orbit than to fly them direct from Earth! And in an industry where every kilogram costs a fortune, the ability to save money is extremely attractive. Although people have been looking at making oxygen and rocket fuel in space for decades, the Artemis program marks the first time we have solid plans to make and use metal in space. A number of companies are looking at extracting metals and oxygen from Moon dirt. At first these will be demonstrations, but eventually Moon metal will be a viable option for construction in space. As a researcher in this field, I expect that in about 10 to 20 years from now we’ll have demonstrated the ability to extract metals from the Moon, and will likely be using these to construct large structures in space. So exactly what will we be able to extract? And how would we do it? What’s out there? There are two main geological regions on the Moon, both of which you can see on a clear night. The dark areas are called the maria and have a higher concentration of iron and titanium. The light areas are called the highlands (or terrae) and have more aluminium. On a clear night, you can see the Moon’s two geologic regions – the darker maria and the lighter highlands. Image: Shutterstock In general, the dirt and rocks on the Moon contain silicon, oxygen, aluminium, iron, calcium, magnesium, titanium, sodium, potassium and manganese. That might sound like a mouthful, but it’s not really that much to choose from. There are some other trace elements, but dealing with those is a spiel for another day. We know metals such as iron, aluminium and titanium are useful for construction. But what about the others? Well, it turns out when you have limited options (and the alternative is spending a small fortune), scientists can get pretty creative. We can use silicon to make solar panels, which could be a primary source of electricity on the Moon. We could use magnesium, manganese and chromium to make metal alloys with interesting properties, and sodium and potassium as coolants. There are also studies looking at using the reactive metals (aluminium, iron, magnesium, titanium, silicon, calcium) as a form of battery or “energy carrier”. If we really needed to, we could even use them as a form of solid rocket fuel. So we do have options when it comes to sourcing and using metals on the Moon. But how do we get to them? How would extraction work? While the Moon has metals in abundance, they’re bound up in the rocks as oxides – metals and oxygen stuck together. This is where astrometallurgy comes in, which is simply the study of extracting metal from space rocks. Metallurgists use a variety of methods to separate metals and oxygen from within rocks. Some of the more common extraction methods use chemicals such as hydrogen and carbon. Some such as “electrolytic separation” use pure electricity, while more novel solutions involve completely vaporising the rocks to make metal. If you’re interested in a full rundown of lunar astrometallurgy you can read about it in one of my research papers. Researchers at the University of Glasgow used an electrolysis separation process to get a pile of metal (right) from simulated Moon dirt (left). Image: Beth Lomax/University of Glasgow Regardless of the method used, extracting and processing metals in space presents many challenges. Some challenges are obvious. The Moon’s relatively weak gravity means traction is basically nonexistent, and digging the ground like we do on Earth isn’t an option. Researchers are working on these problems. There’s also a lack of important resources such as water, which is often used for metallurgy on Earth. Other challenges are more niche. For instance, one Moon day is as long as 28 Earth days. So for two weeks you have ample access to the Sun’s power and warmth … but then you have two weeks of night. Temperatures also fluctuate wildly, from 120℃ during the day to -180℃ at night. Some permanently shadowed areas drop below -220℃! Even if resource mining and processing were being done remotely from Earth, a lot of equipment wouldn’t withstand these conditions. That brings us to the human factor: would people themselves be up there helping out with all of this? Probably not. Although we’ll be sending more people to the Moon in the future, the dangers of meteorite impacts, radiation exposure from the Sun, and extreme temperatures mean this work will need to be done remotely. But controlling robots hundreds of thousands of kilometres away is also a challenge. It’s not all bad news, though, as we can actually use some of these factors to our advantage. The extreme vacuum of space can reduce the energy requirements of some processes, since a vacuum helps substances vaporise at lower temperatures (which you can test by trying to boil water on a tall mountain). A similar thing happens with molten rocks in space. And while the Moon’s lack of atmosphere makes it uninhabitable for humans, it also means more access to sunlight for solar panels and direct solar heating. While it may take a few more years to get there, we’re well on our way to making things in space from Moon metal. Astrometallurgists will be looking on with keen interest as future Artemis missions take off with the tools to make this happen. Artemis 1 took off spectacularly just after 5pm AEDT on November 16. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
17 November 2022 16:48
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/11/artemis-1-is-off-and-were-a-step-closer-to-using-moon-dirt-for-construction-in-space/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/11/artemis-1-is-off-and-were-a-step-closer-to-using-moon-dirt-for-construction-in-space/
Astronomy
false
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‘One of the greatest damn mysteries of physics’: we studied distant suns in the most precise astronomical test of electromagnetism yet
‘One of the greatest damn mysteries of physics’: we studied distant suns in the most precise astronomical test of electromagnetism yet
There’s an awkward, irksome problem with our understanding of nature’s laws which physicists have been trying to explain for decades. It’s about electromagnetism, the law of how atoms and light interact, which explains everything from why you don’t fall through the floor to why the sky is blue.
Analysis for The Conversation by Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Professor Michael Murphy There’s an awkward, irksome problem with our understanding of nature’s laws which physicists have been trying to explain for decades. It’s about electromagnetism, the law of how atoms and light interact, which explains everything from why you don’t fall through the floor to why the sky is blue. Our theory of electromagnetism is arguably the best physical theory humans have ever made – but it has no answer for why electromagnetism is as strong as it is. Only experiments can tell you electromagnetism’s strength, which is measured by a number called α (aka alpha, or the fine-structure constant). The American physicist Richard Feynman, who helped come up with the theory, called this “one of the greatest damn mysteries of physics” and urged physicists to “put this number up on their wall and worry about it”. In research just published in Science, we decided to test whether α is the same in different places within our galaxy by studying stars that are almost identical twins of our Sun. If α is different in different places, it might help us find the ultimate theory, not just of electromagnetism, but of all nature’s laws together – the “theory of everything”. We want to break our favourite theory Physicists really want one thing: a situation where our current understanding of physics breaks down. New physics. A signal that cannot be explained by current theories. A sign-post for the theory of everything. To find it, they might wait deep underground in a gold mine for particles of dark matter to collide with a special crystal. Or they might carefully tend the world’s best atomic clocks for years to see if they tell slightly different time. Or smash protons together at (nearly) the speed of light in the 27-km ring of the Large Hadron Collider. The trouble is, it’s hard to know where to look. Our current theories can’t guide us. Of course, we look in laboratories on Earth, where it’s easiest to search thoroughly and most precisely. But that’s a bit like the drunk only searching for his lost keys under a lamp-post when, actually, he might have lost them on the other side of the road, somewhere in a dark corner. The Sun’s rainbow: sunlight is here spread into separate rows, each covering just a small range of colours, to reveal the many dark absorption lines from atoms in the Sun’s atmosphere. Image: N.A. Sharp / KPNO / NOIRLab / NSO / NSF / AURA, CC BY Stars are terrible, but sometimes terribly similar We decided to look beyond Earth, beyond our Solar System, to see if stars which are nearly identical twins of our Sun produce the same rainbow of colours. Atoms in the atmospheres of stars absorb some of the light struggling outwards from the nuclear furnaces in their cores. Only certain colours are absorbed, leaving dark lines in the rainbow. Those absorbed colours are determined by α – so measuring the dark lines very carefully also lets us measure α. Hotter and cooler gas bubbling through the turbulent atmospheres of stars make it hard to compare absorption lines in stars with those seen in laboratory experiments. Image: NSO / AURA / NSF, CC BY The problem is, the atmospheres of stars are moving – boiling, spinning, looping, burping – and this shifts the lines. The shifts spoil any comparison with the same lines in laboratories on Earth, and hence any chance of measuring α. Stars, it seems, are terrible places to test electromagnetism. But we wondered: if you find stars that are very similar – twins of each other – maybe their dark, absorbed colours are similar as well. So instead of comparing stars to laboratories on Earth, we compared twins of our Sun to each other. A new test with solar twins Our team of student, postdoctoral and senior researchers, at Swinburne University of Technology and the University of New South Wales, measured the spacing between pairs of absorption lines in our Sun and 16 “solar twins” – stars almost indistinguishable from our Sun. The rainbows from these stars were observed on the 3.6-metre European Southern Observatory (ESO) telescope in Chile. While not the largest telescope in the world, the light it collects is fed into probably the best-controlled, best-understood spectrograph: HARPS. This separates the light into its colours, revealing the detailed pattern of dark lines. HARPS spends much of its time observing Sun-like stars to search for planets. Handily, this provided a treasure trove of exactly the data we needed. The ESO 3.6-metre telescope in Chile spends much of its time observing Sun-like stars to search for planets using its extremely precise spectrograph, HARPS. Image: Iztok Bončina / ESO, CC BY From these exquisite spectra, we have shown that α was the same in the 17 solar twins to an astonishing precision: just 50 parts per billion. That’s like comparing your height to the circumference of Earth. It’s the most precise astronomical test of α ever performed. Unfortunately, our new measurements didn’t break our favourite theory. But the stars we’ve studied are all relatively nearby, only up to 160 light years away. What’s next? We’ve recently identified new solar twins much further away, about half way to the centre of our Milky Way galaxy. In this region, there should be a much higher concentration of dark matter – an elusive substance astronomers believe lurks throughout the galaxy and beyond. Like α, we know precious little about dark matter, and some theoretical physicists suggest the inner parts of our galaxy might be just the dark corner we should search for connections between these two “damn mysteries of physics”. If we can observe these much more distant suns with the largest optical telescopes, maybe we’ll find the keys to the universe. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
11 November 2022 14:12
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/11/one-of-the-greatest-damn-mysteries-of-physics-we-studied-distant-suns-in-the-most-precise-astronomical-test-of-electromagnetism-yet0/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/11/one-of-the-greatest-damn-mysteries-of-physics-we-studied-distant-suns-in-the-most-precise-astronomical-test-of-electromagnetism-yet0/
Astronomy
false
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OzGrav makes waves with $35m to understand the universe
OzGrav makes waves with $35m to understand the universe
The Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery at Swinburne has been awarded a further $35 million in funding from the ARC for ground-breaking research
The Australian Research Council has awarded the Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) at Swinburne a further $35 million in funding Since its opening in 2017, OzGrav researchers have been at the forefront of gravitational wave research, making significant discoveries to help understand the extreme physics of black holes and warped spacetime The international collaboration is based at Swinburne, with Professor Matthew Bailes as Centre Director The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) at Swinburne has been awarded a further $35 million in funding to continue their ground-breaking discoveries at the cutting edge of human understanding. The new funding will support OzGrav’s work investigating the fundamental nature of relativistic gravity, ultra-dense matter and the universe, generating critical discoveries to cement Australia’s leadership role in the growing field of gravitational wave science. Centre Director Professor Matthew Bailes says the funding will not only allow OzGrav make to landmark discoveries about the nature of our universe, but also lay the foundations for the Australian mega-science instruments that could transform physics in the 2030s and 2040s. “When OzGrav launched in 2017, we contributed to the birth of a new era of astrophysics. This reinvestment will put us at the forefront of transformational scientific discoveries well into the next decade,” Professor Bailes says. "The opportunity to attract and work with the talented young scientists and engineers this Centre will attract is incredibly energising. “By improving our advanced gravitational wave detectors, we will be able to understand more about our universe, probing neutron stars and black holes and mapping the cosmic evolution of the universe.” Turning Einstein’s imagination into reality Gravitational waves, first predicted by Albert Einstein in 1915 in his theory of general relativity, went undetected for one hundred years before scientific advancements enabled their detection for the first time in 2015. Since then, OzGrav researchers have been at the forefront of gravitational wave discovery, making significant discoveries to help understand the extreme physics of black holes and warped spacetime. “As a technology-focused university with deep expertise in astronomy, physics and space research, Swinburne is proud to continue to be the home of this global collaboration,” says Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research Professor Karen Hapgood. “Under the directorship of Professor Matthew Bailes, OzGrav has made a number of field-defining contributions to our understanding of the universe. “By building closer relationships with industry and through our leading space education programs, we look forward to expanding this impact and inspiring the next generation of graduates in Australia’s high-tech workforce.” Next-generation discoveries The new funding from the Australian Research Council will enable OzGrav to maximise the sensitivity and yield of gravitational wave detectors, supressing quantum noise and reducing coating losses. This is expected to increase detection rates by over an order of magnitude. This will enable: The discovery of new sources of gravitational waves and extreme electromagnetic events Testing the boundaries or Einstein’s theory of general relativity in the strongest gravitational fields in the universe, using black holes and pulsars Understanding ultra-dense matter through the observation of neutron stars and their mergers Mapping the cosmic evolution of the universe using gravitational waves and fast radio bursts OzGrav is also committed to strengthening equity and diversity in this sector and increasing participation and career options for under-represented groups in STEM. Through schools outreach, the Centre also aims to inspire the next generation to pursue a career in STEM, especially at an age when many young women and under-represented groups choose to not take STEM subjects. Headquartered at Swinburne University of Technology, OzGrav is a collaboration between a number of Australian universities, including the University of Queensland, The Australian National University, The University of Sydney, Monash University, The University of Adelaide, The University of Western Australia and The University of Melbourne, and CSIRO. Other international partners include the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory in the United States, as well as institutions in the US, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and the UK.
04 November 2022 14:49
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/11/ozgrav-makes-waves-with-35m-to-understand-the-universe/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/11/ozgrav-makes-waves-with-35m-to-understand-the-universe/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
University
false
-
High school students design plant-based experiment for space
High school students design plant-based experiment for space
Toorak College students won the 2022 Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge with their microgravity experiment on plants. The theme was ‘Health in Space’.
Thirteen high schools competed in this year’s Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge for the best space experiment Students completed a 6-week microunit drawn from Swinburne’s space technology co-major before developing their own out-of-this-world ideas. The winning team from Toorak College investigated how to grow plants without gravity Melbourne high school students are helping astronauts grow plants in space. The Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge sees high school teams compete for the best microgravity experiments to advance our explorations of space. This year’s theme was ‘Health in Space’. Humans in space is a relatively new phenomenon. We’ve only been leaving the Earth for the past 60-70 years and there is so much more to learn about space travel, living in space and our physical and mental health in space. There are many challenges to leaving our atmosphere. In 2022, students from 13 schools across Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia were challenged to come up with an idea to improve health in space. The ideas ranged from healthy food production to vitamin uptake, eyeball changes and even antibiotic resistance. Out of this world ideas After an intense six-week microunit in space science to get their brains buzzing, the students are guided by Swinburne space technology student mentors – including Swinburne astrophysicist, program coordinator and ex-student mentor herself, Dr Sara Webb – to develop an out-of-this-world idea. “We were blown away by the ideas presented by each team, all choosing to tackle a slightly different area of Health in Space. This is only the second year of the Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge, and we were incredibly excited to share this unique experience with students Australia-wide,” says Dr Webb. The winning team from Toorak College – Amica, Kiara, Charlotte M, Chantilly, Chelsea and Charlotte OB – impressed all five judges with near perfect scores. Their stellar idea investigated how to grow plants without gravity. It is difficult to grow plants in space. Not just because of the challenges around oxygen and light, but because without the gravity on Earth, plants don’t know which way is up and which way to grow. This is called ‘plant gravitropism’. The Toorak College team put forward that changing the shapes of soil and even the genetic code of something like chia seeds could lead to more plant growth and food production in space. What if we use genome editing technology, such as CRISPR, to knock in and out genes to teach plants to grow in microgravity? The team completed a whole experimental design and set up, including having plants grow in a round diet medium to maximum surface area. In second place, Camberwell Girls Grammar school pitched fungi as a main food source in space. In third place, John Monash Science School presented an excellent short-film style pitch, wanting to investigate how iron tablets would be absorbed in the stomach of astronauts in microgravity. Seeing the next generation of stars Year 11 student, Chelsea Rados, was on the winning team. “I think my favourite thing about this challenge was spending time brainstorming with the group every week for mini challenges or pitch ideas. We were able to investigate many topics about space, and together, we picked them apart to gain a truer understanding of what they mean, further applying our acquired knowledge to solve problems that astronauts face today,” says Chelsea. Another member of the team, Year 11 student Charlotte Murrie agreed that working with friends on complex, but interesting topics was the best part of the challenge. “We came up with our idea by pretty much talking – and lots of it,” she says. “The highlight for me was filming our experimental pitch and talking to the CEO of Neumann Space on the telephone to discuss their plasma blasters. Also, across the board, I really felt valued when sharing our ideas and felt included by the university.” A launchpad for the next phase The Swinburne team will now work with Melbourne high school, Haileybury, who started the whole expanded program in the Swinburne Haileybury International Space Station Experiment (SHINE). Over four weeks, Haileybury students will work alongside researchers in our labs and online to protype different experiment ideas. There are numerous logistical and legal challenges to what you can actually send to the International Space Station – which is in the planning stages, likely to happen in early 2023. The final experiment will be decided, and the Toorak College team will get a chance to work on an experiment to be launched by Swinburne launch partner, Rhodium Scientific, to go to the International Space Station. Last year, a Swinburne team sent bacteria on a SpaceX rocket to test the possibilities of creating yoghurt in space. Swinburne Chief Scientist, Professor Virginia Kilborn, says the challenge is an important part of Swinburne’s overall space program. “Swinburne is excited to offer hands-on opportunities in space science and technology to so many students – from high schools through the Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge and SHINE programs to our space technology co-major and student placements in astrophysics and aerospace research projects,” says Professor Kilborn. “We look forward to working with all students on the Swinburne x Rhodium Science payload for 2022, to blast another exciting experiment into space and onto the International Space Station. The future of Australian space, and these young scientists, is very bright."
10 October 2022 16:59
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/10/high-school-students-design-plant-based-experiment-for-space/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/10/high-school-students-design-plant-based-experiment-for-space/
Astronomy|Science
false
-
Early career researchers set to impress
Early career researchers set to impress
Two talented Swinburne researchers, Dr Anais Möller and Dr Peng Li, have been awarded an Australian Government Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2023.
Two Swinburne researchers have received a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2023 Dr Anais Möller will use machine learning algorithms to attempt to discover truths of the Universe behind exploding stars and extreme astronomical events Dr Peng Li aims to develop a novel and innovative CO2 electrolysis technology that will transform the future of energy in Australia The Australian Government has handed out $85 million for 200 projects, supporting early career researchers in international teams to build the skills and science for the next generation. Two talented Swinburne researchers, Dr Anais Möller and Dr Peng Li, have been awarded the Discovery Early Career Researcher Award 2023 (DECRA), each receiving over $400,000 for their projects. Deputy Vice Chancellor, Research, Professor Karen Hapgood congratulates Dr Möller and Dr Li on the achievement. “Early career researchers are our next generation scientists, and we’re seeing them make an impact now. Swinburne’s two DECRA recipients have proved their vision for taking on ambitious, international projects. I’m thrilled to see them awarded this funding to pursue important research in space and energy,” she says. Shedding light on the Universe Exploding stars and merging neutron stars have short lives. They appear suddenly and then fade over hours and weeks until they are no longer detectable, but they create all known chemical elements, stars and galaxies. Understanding them could tell us so much about what the Universe is made of and its physics. Dr Anais Möller’s project aims to identify the most exciting exploding stars and extreme events from the millions detected each night at the world’s largest optical telescope. She’ll do it using machine learning algorithms to accelerate automatic discovery in massive data sets from the mega-facility Vera C. Rubin Observatory. She hopes this work will drive generational breakthrough. “It is incredibly exciting to lead a project to understand what the Universe is made of and the conditions in which exploding stars occur using data from the world’s largest optical telescope. It is quite challenging as well, since we need to find these exploding and merging stars before they fade, so we need to comb very quickly through millions of other detections every night. “This will be an amazing decade for transient science and I am eager to be at the forefront of it!” Transforming energy in Australia The Australian Government has committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Over 38 per cent of Australia’s CO2 emissions originate from industry sectors, such as coal power plants, natural gas, iron and steel, cement and fertiliser production. A process called ‘carbon dioxide (CO2) electrolysis’ could be an answer to decarbonising Australian industries, as well as bringing in new revenue from CO2-derived products. For example, syngas (a mixture of CO and H2) is a building block in the chemical manufacturing and synthesis fuel industries. The global syngas market size is projected to increase from $43.6 billion USD in 2019 to $66.5 billion USD by 2027. CO2 electrolysis, combined with Australian renewable electricity, will not only cut down carbon emissions but also allow us to store renewable electricity into useful fuels. However, there are fundamental science and technological challenges that must be overcome to make it work. It’s also energy-intensive and hugely costly. Dr Peng Li’s ambitious project aims to develop a novel and innovative CO2 electrolysis technology that will transform the future of energy in Australia. “I always push myself to pay attention to those challenging, but meaningful, scientific problems which are critical to the research community and society,” says Dr Li. “In Australia, we have rich resources to create and utilise cheap renewable electricity. I wish to contribute my best efforts to scaling up this technology and benefiting the Australian community and beyond.”
03 October 2022 14:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/10/early-career-researchers-set-to-impress/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/10/early-career-researchers-set-to-impress/
Astronomy|Science|Sustainability
University
false
-
Celebrating World Space Week
Celebrating World Space Week
To celebrate World Space Week we highlight some of Swinburne’s next-gen researchers who are helping to drive innovation and improve our understanding of space.
World Space Week (4-10 October) is the largest annual space event in the world Swinburne is proud to celebrate our next_gen researchers who are helping to drive innovation and improve our understanding of space Global interest in the space race and the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope have rekindled interest in astronomy and related fields. To celebrate Space Week (4-10 October), here are some of the next_gen researchers at Swinburne helping to drive innovation and improve our understanding of space. Shedding light on the Universe Dr Anais Möller studies transients – astrophysical phenomena that shine brightly and then fade away – to understand their extreme physics and what the Universe is made of. She is leading a project that aims to single out the most exciting exploding stars and extreme events out of the millions detected each night at the world’s largest optical telescope, the Vera C Rubin Observatory. She will use machine learning algorithms to accelerate automatic discovery in massive data sets. “It is incredibly exciting to lead a project to understand what the Universe is made of and the conditions in which exploding stars occur using data from the world’s largest optical telescope,” Dr Möller says. “It is quite challenging as well, since we need to find these exploding and merging stars before they fade, so we need to comb very quickly through millions of other detections every night.” Detecting dark matter PhD student in Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Grace Lawrence’s research uses world-leading galaxy simulations to investigate the presence of dark matter in galaxies like our own Milky Way. Her work uses these simulations to compute predictions for how to detect dark matter, and what we can expect to find if we do. Sustainable human presence in space? Daniel Ricardo’s research is looking to better understand the ices that exist in the permanently shadowed regions at the poles of the Moon. “Water is a critical resource in space, and so a big question facing the global space industry is 'how do we get it?' and that is the question I'm trying to address,” Daniel says. “More specifically, what are its physical properties and how does that affect excavation and mobility for humans and rovers? My aim for this research is to support the return of the first woman and person of colour to the Moon with NASA's new Artemis program, and for a sustainable and long-term human presence in space.” Responsible AI in space As the space industry grows in value and technical capabilities, guidance is required to ensure the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems in space. The application of existing responsible AI regulatory frameworks and principles is unclear in the context of space. Thomas Graham’s PhD project is focused on determining the legal obligations surrounding the development of AI systems for the space industry and developing standards and frameworks to ensure and promote trust and confidence in these systems. Mining the Moon - extracting metal in space Matthew Shaw is a PhD candidate working in the field of astrometallurgy (metal extraction in space). His PhD research (for which he won the 2021 Asia-Pacific 3MT Final) has focused on the use of concentrated sunlight and vacuum to process metals from Moon dirt. “A lot of our work is focused on resource extraction in space – specifically on the Moon and Mars. We use a lot of specialised equipment like the Swinburne Solar Simulator and turbo molecular vacuum pumps to simulate the conditions in space for our research.” Yuankun Zhang’s PhD project focuses on investigating how heat is transferred within lunar regolith, the fine powdery material that covers the surface of the Moon, when heated by solar energy. Yuankun says, ”Using lunar soil as a construction material like concrete is of special interest as it saves the cost of transporting building materials to the Moon. The powdery lunar soil will become solid under high-temperature processing (>1000℃), named sintering in traditional industrial applications. Considering the extremely harsh environment on the Moon compared to Earth (no atmosphere, microgravity, and vacuum), concentrated solar energy is a promising energy source for this thermal technique. My research is to develop a mathematical model to predict how heat is transferred within the lunar regolith when heated by focused solar energy.” PhD candidate Belinda Rich is investigating how we can cast objects on the Moon from the molten metal extracted from regolith (see above). Many developing oxygen extraction technologies (for making fuel and breathing air in-situ) work by electronically removing oxygen from regolith, leaving behind a molten metal byproduct. Belinda says, ”My work is focusing on making use of that byproduct. It will be a stepping-stone towards building habitats, power infrastructure, robotics etc. on the Moon without relying on Earth materials. The aim of my work is to create a design for a lunar casting system and then to investigate how the unique lunar environment will affect the material properties of the metal we cast.” Discover Swinburne's Space Technology co-major. The co-major is open to all undergraduate students and spans space science, microgravity science, space environment, data and visualisations, space entrepreneurship, space policy, space law and space technologies.
03 October 2022 12:08
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/10/celebrating-world-space-week/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/10/celebrating-world-space-week/
Astronomy|Science
false
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Moon telescope could light up the cosmic dark ages
Moon telescope could light up the cosmic dark ages
Final-year Swinburne students are working with industry on a moon telescope design that could be the next big thing in deep space observation.
Swinburne students are working with experts at technology giant Leidos to design a telescope that could be built on the dark side of the moon Six final-year students developed the telescope design, including building a prototype lunar rover that could help with construction The proposed design could be the next big thing in deep space observation, helping reveal the secrets of the so-called cosmic dark age Pink Floyd eat your heart out. Swinburne students are working with experts at technology giant Leidos to design a telescope that could be built on the dark side of the moon, helping reveal the secrets of the so-called cosmic dark ages. With the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) currently beaming extraordinary images back to Earth, final-year Swinburne students are working on a design that could be the next big thing in deep space observation. Emphasis on big While the JWST is about the size of a tennis court, this telescope is a full kilometre across, sitting in one of the thousands of massive craters on the far side of the moon. Dr Michelle Dunn, one of the Swinburne academics involved with the industry-linked project, says the telescope could help us understand how we got from the Big Bang to the formation of stars and galaxies. “The far side of the moon has no atmosphere and is completely shielded from all the radio frequencies being emitted from Earth. This would give us an unobstructed view back in time to the earliest moments of our universe,” Dr Dunn says. “This telescope could give us insight into the fog of the cosmic dark ages, where a soup of particles turned into the galaxies, stars and celestial bodies we can observe today.” Working with an industry leader Six Swinburne students worked with engineers at global science and technology leader Leidos to develop the telescope design, including building a prototype lunar rover that could help with construction. Students came from a diverse range of disciplines, including astrophysics, robotics, mechanical and civil engineering. The telescope design would require stations to be built around a specially-selected moon crater, with wires weaved between them to hold the dish in place. Final year robotics student Jadon Dutra designed a prototype of a robot that could take on this challenging task. “The robot would take the wires from the lunar lander one kilometre across the crater, climb the other side of the crater wall and secure the wire on the other side, before repeating the task to weave a net for the telescope,” he says. Jadon’s robot design can also drive upside down in case it gets flipped, and packs up into a small space so it can be more easily stored on the long journey to the moon’s far side. He says working with industry experts to design a solution in an extremely challenging natural environment was an “out-of-this-world” experience. “Getting to work on a real project like this with engineers who work in the field was a fantastic experience,” he says. “It’s given me a great insight into the challenges of designing for space that will be valuable in any industry.” Glenn Frankish, Director of Research and Emerging Technologies at Leidos, says, “working with Swinburne engineering and physics students is so professionally rewarding, and as a technologist it is immensely encouraging to watch the development of some very impressive engineering solutions.” “The students applied considerable skill and engineering knowledge for this mission-oriented problem, and Leidos was very fortunate to lend a helping hand which I believe will add to their future career prospects in this exciting industry.” Leidos Australia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Leidos, a Fortune 500® information technology, engineering, and science solutions and services leader working to solve the world’s toughest challenges in the defence, intelligence, civil and health markets. Headquartered in Reston, Virginia, Leidos reported annual revenues of approximately $13.7 billion for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2021. Leidos Australia’s 1,500 employees work with some of Australia’s largest government agencies including Defence, the Australian Taxation Office and the Bureau of Meteorology to design, deliver and manage science, engineering and technology solutions that help to keep Australia safer, healthier and more efficient.
03 October 2022 11:47
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/10/moon-telescope-could-light-up-the-cosmic-dark-ages/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/10/moon-telescope-could-light-up-the-cosmic-dark-ages/
Engineering|Astronomy
false
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$2M Future Fellowships awarded to star-powered researchers
$2M Future Fellowships awarded to star-powered researchers
Two Swinburne astrophysicists have been awarded Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowships amounting to over $1 million each.
Two Swinburne astrophysicists have been awarded Australian Research Council (ARC) 2022 Future Fellowships Associate Professor Ivo Labbe is finding the first stars and galaxies that formed after the Big Bang using the $14 billion James Webb Space Telescope Professor Darren Croton will create supercomputer simulations of several billions of galaxies to uncover new knowledge about our universe Two Swinburne astrophysicists have been awarded Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowships amounting to over $1 million each. The four-year Future Fellowships support mid-career researchers to undertake high quality research in areas of national and international benefit, such as cybersecurity, energy, resources and advanced manufacturing. Swinburne’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Professor Karen Hapgood, was quick to share the achievement. “Congratulations to our two newest Future Fellows, Professor Darren Croton and Associate Professor Ivo Labbe – both from Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing,” said Professor Hapgood. “Swinburne is proud to be an engine room for research excellence and innovation in astrophysics and aerospace, boasting internationally competitive research infrastructure on campus including the Australian James Webb Data Centre and Swinburne's recently upgraded supercomputer. It is wonderful to see our world-leading Centre for Astrophysics recognised for the impact of their ground-breaking research." Shining a light on the first stars and galaxies It has already been a big year for Associate Professor Labbe, who was one of the few researchers globally to secure precious time in the first observation of the A$14 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). With the first data sent back in July, it is no surprise that Associate Professor Labbe was able to impress with out-of-this-world research. “JWST is already turning out to be a true discovery machine, showing us the early Universe is very different than expected,” he said. “Perhaps the most exciting part to me is the potential to discover things we have not even imagined yet.” His project, ‘Uncovering the First Stars and Galaxies with the James Webb Space Telescope’, aims to find the first stars and galaxies that formed after the Big Bang. Understanding the astrophysics of the first galaxies, their explosive growth and how they set ablaze the remaining gas in the Universe have long been among the most important unsolved mysteries of astronomy. Decades in the making, the launch of JWST marked a watershed moment. This project uses privileged access to the revolutionary space telescope to find ‘First Light’ and contribute to rewriting the first chapter of our cosmic history. It is expected to significantly enhance Australia's reputation in space science. Associate Professor Labbe was awarded $1,055,476 for the project. Delving further into a recent discovery Quiescent galaxies are those that have lived a long and full life and are in the process of dying or are long since dead; ancient relics made up of billions of old stars. They are rare but familiar in the local Universe and well-studied. In contrast, distant early-Universe massive quiescent galaxies are a surprising recent discovery, with some such galaxies having taken just a billion years to somehow become what took their local counterparts the Universe’s entire 14-billion-year history. Unravelling how such exceptional galaxies came to be is the focus of Professor Darren Croton’s project, ‘The many lives and deaths of high redshift massive quiescent galaxies’, which saw him awarded a $1,055,476 Future Fellowship. At the core of this project is the unique combination of high-performance computing, software engineering and sophisticated data analysis techniques. We expect to see Professor Croton develop novel and improved supercomputer simulations of several billions of galaxies processed through a virtual observatory, which will provide tools and fundamental knowledge for observational, theoretical and computational astrophysics around the world. “It’s an exciting time for theoretical astrophysics,” said Professor Croton. “Using Swinburne’s OzStar supercomputer and its 2023 next-generation upgrade Ngarrgu Tindebeek ("Knowledge of the Void"), these simulations of massive quiescent galaxies will allow us to explore their origin and entire history in unprecedented detail. We will be able to answer the questions “how?” and “why?”, something even the world’s best telescopes can’t do.” This year, the ARC provided $94 million in funding to attract and retain the best and brightest mid-career researchers.
15 September 2022 13:45
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/09/two-million-dollar-future-fellowships-awarded-to-star-powered-researchers/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/09/two-million-dollar-future-fellowships-awarded-to-star-powered-researchers/
Astronomy|University
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
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Underground lab plunges researchers into the dark (matter)
Underground lab plunges researchers into the dark (matter)
Swinburne researchers unveil the first stage of the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory, located at the active Stawell Gold Mine in the Wimmera region of Victoria – to be used to shine a light on dark matter.
The Southern Hemisphere’s first dark matter underground physics laboratory has opened The lab is located over one kilometre underground, accessible by a 10-kilometre or half hour drive through a maze of tunnels Researchers from five institutions will use the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory to attempt to understand dark matter and unlock the mysteries of the universe Located one kilometre underground, the Southern Hemisphere’s first dark matter underground physics laboratory is open. The one-of-a-kind lab will allow researchers from several Australian universities to attempt to understand the nature of dark matter and unlock the secrets of our universe. Lead researcher on the project, Professor Elisabetta Barberio from the University of Melbourne, unveils the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory A lab to shine a light in the dark The first stage of the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory, located at the active Stawell Gold Mine in the Wimmera region of Victoria, is complete. It takes half an hour to journey down to the lab site along a 10-kilometre drive through what seems like a maze of tunnels. Once you get there, you find a 33-metre-long by 10-metre-wide lab protected further by a product sprayed on the walls called Tekflex – which reduces the potential for interference from radon gas in the rock mass. All this to house the SABRE detector (Sodium-iodide with Active Background REjection). With it, researchers will look for visible light emitted as dark matter particles collide with a highly sensitive crystal target. Professor Alan Duffy, Professor Geoffrey Brooks and Dr Shanti Krishnan – all from Swinburne University of Technology – have been collaborating with scientists from other universities in the design and construction of the SABRE detector, with the main vessel at Swinburne’s Wantirna campus. The components are currently being tested in different facilities around the country before being installed underground in the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory next year for the first experiment conducted in the lab. “One of the critical elements developed at Swinburne has a been the ‘slow control system’ developed by a team led by Shanti Krishnan from our Factory of the Future. It is designed to ensure that all the conditions in the SABRE detector are accurately recorded, given the detector is sensitive to small changes in temperature, humidity and movement,” says Professor Geoffrey Brooks. “It’s exciting that the cutting-edge of physics research is happening right here in Wantirna, just down the road from where I grew up. A boyhood dream has come true!” Five research institutions will use the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory to unlock the secrets of the universe, including Swinburne University of Technology, the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University, the University of Adelaide and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). The Australian and Victorian governments each gave $5 million in funding for the building of the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory, and this funding was boosted by the Australian Research Council awarding a $35 million grant for the development of a national Centre of Excellence for Dark Matter Particle Physics. What’s the matter with dark matter? Dark matter is an invisible and unknown form of mass, which accounts for five times more of the universe than all the atoms, or baryons, we can see. Understanding the nature of this so-called dark matter is one of the greatest challenges in the physical sciences for this century, bringing together astronomers, particle and nuclear physicists in a global hunt. An animation showing the motion of the galaxy within a vast cloud of dark matter, and the resulting headwind of this material as the Sun travels through it. The Earth’s motion aligns with that direction for half of the year meaning the headwind, and any resulting collisions, increase while the next six months the motion is in the opposite direction so the rate of dark matter through the planet and any dark matter detectors drops in a predictable manner – a signal known as the annual modulation. Credit: CAASTRO There are many candidates for this collisionless, non-luminous gravitating mass; from ultralight axion particles to weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) to even primordial black holes. At Swinburne, researchers use supercomputer simulations to better predict the distribution of dark matter around visible tracers, such as stars and galaxies, that are then compared with gravitational lensing maps from the Hubble Space Telescope or high-energy emission from potential dark matter self-annihilation signatures as revealed by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Director of the Space Technology and Industry Institute and expert in dark matter, Professor Alan Duffy, says that answering ‘what is dark matter?’ has the potential to be one of the most significant discoveries of this century. “Explaining the nature of dark matter would reveal more of the universe than all of our collective efforts to date, the search is a global race that merges supercomputers, vast telescopes, and enormous underground detectors,” he says. “Whatever we find will transform our picture of physics in this century as surely as splitting the atom did in the 20th century.”
22 August 2022 12:07
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/08/Underground-lab-plunges-researchers-into-the-dark-matter/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/08/Underground-lab-plunges-researchers-into-the-dark-matter/
Astronomy
Technology,Science
false
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One of the brightest stars in the sky is evolving and dying before our eyes
One of the brightest stars in the sky is evolving and dying before our eyes
Betelgeuse is giving us a glimpse into the “before” of a star’s end, the final tens of thousands of years before the big event – a mere eyeblink in astronomical terms.
Analysis for The Conversation by Dr Sara Webb, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology Nothing lasts forever, including the stars in our night sky. One of the brighter and more notable stars in our sky is Betelgeuse, the bright red supergiant in the shoulder of Orion. In late 2019, astronomers around the world grew giddy with excitement, because we saw this giant star get fainter than we’ve ever seen it before. Since Betelgeuse is at the end stages of its life, there was some speculation this might be a death rattle before the end. But the cause of the “great dimming” wasn’t entirely clear until now. New preprint research awaiting peer review, led by Andrea Dupree from Harvard & Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, has used the Hubble Space Telescope to help uncover one of the biggest astronomical mysteries this century – the cause of Betelgeuse’s sudden strange behaviour. A star on the brink of death From this latest research, it was discovered that in 2019 Betelgeuse likely underwent an enormous surface mass ejection (SME). An SME happens when a star expels large amounts of plasma and magnetic flux into the surrounding space. We don’t fully understand what caused this SME, but if they have similar progenitors to the coronal mass ejections we’ve seen on our own Sun, they might be caused by the destabilisation of large-scale magnetic structures in the star’s corona. Artist’s impression of the aftermath of the SME, with the mass cooling and forming a cloud of dust which dimmed the star for a short period of time. The plot below outlines the real and expected brightness changes of Betelgeuse during this time. Credits: NASA, ESA, Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI) It is suspected that Betelgeuse lost a large part of its surface material in this remarkable event. In fact, the amount of material ejected is the single largest SME event we’ve ever seen on a star, in modern astronomy. What is truly remarkable is that Betelgeuse ejected 400 billion times more mass than a typical event on other stars. This is multiple times the mass of the Moon, pushed out at incredible speeds. Artist’s animation shows a close-up view of Betelgeuse’s irregular surface. The star’s dip in brightness was the result of a “dusty veil” that formed from material that emerged from the star, partially concealing its southern region. ESO/L. Calçada. Stellar evolution in real time Betelgeuse is much like an astronomical jack-in-the-box. Astronomers know that sooner or later it will “pop” and implode in a spectacular supernova, but we don’t know when. (We do know that when it does, it might even be visible in the daytime sky!) Stars are born in many different sizes; some start small and become big, while others are born big. Betelgeuse is a red supergiant and would have started out smaller, before expanding its outer shells over tens of millions of years. Once large, red supergiants don’t have very long until they reach a point where their cores produce iron and can no longer sustain nuclear fusion. We’ve seen the deaths of many thousands of distant stars before, in galaxies far, far away. But the allure to study the process in near real-time on our galactic doorstep is too good to pass up. In our stellar neighbourhood, Betelgeuse offers us the best chance for success. Stellar evolution of low-mass (left cycle) and high-mass (right cycle) stars, like Betelgeuse. Wikimedia/NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, CC BY We have pieced together the secret lives of stars by studying things like globular clusters, distant supernovae and stellar nebulas. From these, we can understand the birth, life and death of a star. However, there are often gaps in between. Betelgeuse is giving us a glimpse into the “before” of a star’s end, the final tens of thousands of years before the big event – a mere eyeblink in astronomical terms. Already from this latest result we are beginning to better understand how large stars like Betelgeuse lose mass through surface mass ejections as they age. As Dupree explains: We’ve never before seen a huge mass ejection of the surface of a star… It’s a totally new phenomenon that we can observe directly and resolve surface details with Hubble. We’re watching stellar evolution in real time. Wide-field view of the region of the sky where Betelgeuse is located, in the ‘right shoulder’ of Orion. ESO/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org), CC BY Surprising aftermath One of the most interesting things we’re seeing from Betelgeuse in the aftermath of its surface injury is a significant speed-up in its pulsation rate. For more than 200 years, astronomers have faithfully tracked the brightening and dimming of Betelgeuse, using its very constant 400-day cycle. The massive ejection of material may have disturbed the entire internal structure of the star, with inner layers possibly sloshing around and disrupting its typical pulsation rate. Time will tell if it can recover to pre-ejection pulsation, as we continue to monitor the brightness of Betelgeuse closely. Although we do not think Betelgeuse is ready to die just yet, we wouldn’t know it actually has until roughly 640 years later. Thanks to the constraints of the speed of light, everything we see in the cosmos is a glimpse back in time – even the stars in our night sky. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
16 August 2022 13:04
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/08/one-of-the-brightest-stars-in-the-sky-is-evolving-and-dying-before-our-eyes/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/08/one-of-the-brightest-stars-in-the-sky-is-evolving-and-dying-before-our-eyes/
Astronomy
false
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First pictures from the A$14 billion James Webb Space Telescope
First pictures from the A$14 billion James Webb Space Telescope
Swinburne researchers granted time in the first observation cycle celebrate the first pictures and data from the A$14 billion James Webb Space Telescope.
NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) have jointly released the first image from the A$14 billion James Webb Space Telescope The full-colour images and spectroscopic data are being used by two Australian researchers who’ve been granted precious time in the first observation cycle Distinguished Professor Karl Glazebrook and Associate Professor Ivo Labbe are leading projects that use the telescope to uncover the Universe’s first stars, galaxies, baby planets, black holes and more NASA has released the long-awaited first picture from the $US10 billion James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), with more to come. It’s the moment two Swinburne researchers, Distinguished Professor Karl Glazebrook and Associate Professor Ivo Labbe, have been so excited for. The Swinburne research teams don’t know what they’ll find, but they are preparing for a new epoch of major discoveries. The first stars, the first galaxies, baby planets, black holes changing galaxies and much more… these discoveries could solve today’s mysteries – and also create new ones. Professor Karl Glazebrook, ARC Laureate Fellow and Distinguished Professor at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, and Associate Professor Ivo Labbe, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, are both leading projects utilising the telescope’s game-changing infrared capabilities. They are among the first researchers in the world to be granted time in the first observation cycle. The full-colour images and spectroscopic data are the first to come from the telescope. Join Professor Glazebrook for a free public astronomy lecture: Unlocking the Universe’s secrets with JWST. Exploring the Universe with the world’s most expensive telescope The James Webb Space Telescope has been 30 years in the making and delayed by a whole decade. It is a joint initiative of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the US, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA). The result is an engineering feat of a 6.5 metre gold coated mirror made of 18 hexagonal segments, each aligned to 25 millionths of a millimetre. “It’s the largest telescope ever put into space, with a gold-coated mirror 6.5m in diameter (compared with Hubble’s 2.4m mirror). With size comes complexity, as the entire structure needed to be folded to fit inside the nose cone of an Ariane rocket,” says Distinguished Professor Glazebrook. “Webb’s primary mission will be to witness the birth of the first stars and galaxies in the early Universe. As the light from these very faint galaxies travels across the vast gulf of space, and 13.8 billion years of time, it gets stretched by the overall expansion of the Universe in a process we call ‘cosmological redshift.’ “This stretching means what started out as extremely energetic ultraviolet radiation from young, hot and massive stars will be received by Webb as infrared light. This is why its mirrors are coated in gold: compared with silver or aluminium, gold is a better reflector of infrared light and red light.” Why did it take nearly 30 years and roughly A$14 billion? So, why build it? The James Webb Space Telescope will give us a new view of the Universe, its history and hopefully, its future. “It will see much farther into the infrared than Hubble could. It’s also up to a million times more sensitive than ground-based telescopes, where the light from distant galaxies is drowned out by the infrared emission of Earth’s own hot atmosphere,” says Swinburne’s Distinguished Professor Glazebrook. “Because of these previous technological limitations, the first billion years of cosmic history has barely been explored. We don’t know when or how the first stars formed. This is a complex question as stars produce heavy elements when they die. These elements pollute the interstellar gas in galaxies and change how this gas behaves and collapses to form later generations of stars.” Join Professor Glazebrook for a free public astronomy lecture: Unlocking the Universe’s secrets with JWST.
12 July 2022 12:25
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/07/first-pictures-from-the-14-billion-dollar-james-webb-space-telescope/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/07/first-pictures-from-the-14-billion-dollar-james-webb-space-telescope/
Technology|Engineering|Astronomy
false
-
Swinburne launches $3m Space Tech hub with EY
Swinburne launches $3m Space Tech hub with EY
A new partnership between Swinburne’s Space Technology and Industry Institute and EY Australia will address major environmental and economic issues with leading space technology and talent.
The new Space Tech hub is a collaboration between Swinburne University of Technology and EY Australia to tackle major environmental and economic issues using cutting-edge space research The hub will leverage Swinburne’s next-gen talent and world-leading technology to address real-world problems The $3 million project is another step towards Swinburne’s pledge to build the engine room for innovation and economic growth in Australia’s burgeoning space sector Protecting our environment, supporting resilient communities, and solving real-world problems will be the focus of a new Space Tech hub created by Swinburne University of Technology and EY Australia. Supported by $3 million from EY, the hub will leverage Swinburne’s global leadership position in space, its renowned academics and researchers, and innovative technology such as the OzSTAR supercomputer to provide tech solutions to industry partners. Director of Swinburne’s Space Technology and Industry Institute, Professor Alan Duffy, said the pioneering hub was all about applying the knowledge gained from research across the universe to solve complex problems faced on Earth. “We are excited to be combining Swinburne’s world-leading research, technology and education capabilities with EY’s deep global connections and end-user insights to create sustainable space tech solutions to real-world issues,” Professor Duffy said. “Through the use of ground-breaking technology, like the Swinburne OzSTAR supercomputer, and our access to the next generation of talent, this partnership will position Australia’s space industry at the forefront of global economic, environmental and social opportunity.” Solving real world problems The Space Tech hub will initially have three key focus areas: Improving community resilience and environmental health Helping communities and businesses effectively respond to the impact of natural disasters (fire, flood, climate) and climate change-related pressures. Improving productivity Boosting the safety and performance for industry partners through the adoption of space technology for managing critical infrastructure and assets under challenging conditions. Creating an ecosystem to solve problems of national interest Positioning Australia to lead globally in space technology to resolve issues of climate impact, land management, logistics and defence. A dedicated EY team of 15 staff – comprised of scientists, data and analytics professionals, and AI specialists – will work on the hub, led by EY partner Anthony Jones, with support from Swinburne talent and technology. “The Space Tech hub will solve big business problems by utilising space-derived data and services for terrestrial benefit,” Mr Jones said. “We’ll be leveraging the capability of EY’s own astrophysicists, machine learning engineers and data scientists, as well as working with academics from Swinburne University of Technology, to help solve community resilience issues, drive decarbonisation initiatives, and aid in reducing the impact of natural disasters on communities.” The hub builds on the Swinburne Space Technology and Industry Institute’s work with the EY Data Science Challenge, developing AI to help spot bushfires from space for the Country Fire Authority. It forms part of the Institute’s pledge to build the engine room for space innovation and economic growth in a sector projected to be worth $1 trillion globally by 2040. Find out more about the Institute’s work on everything from fighting the threat of space junk to making yoghurt in microgravity on our newsroom.
06 June 2022 09:19
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/06/swinburne-launches-3m-space-tech-hub-with-ey/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/06/swinburne-launches-3m-space-tech-hub-with-ey/
Astronomy|Engineering|Business
false
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Cosmic telescope reveals inner workings of two proto-galaxies
Cosmic telescope reveals inner workings of two proto-galaxies
Using a unique new instrument and a little help from nature, Swinburne researchers have gotten the first in-depth view of the enormous gas clouds that serve as galactic nurseries.
Swinburne researchers have observed the formative inner workings of two Damped Lyman-α systems (DLAs) for the first time. DLAs are giant gas clouds that formed galaxies in the early Universe, not long after the Big Bang. With diameters greater than 17.4 kiloparsecs, DLAs are more than two thirds the size of the Milky Way galaxy today. Using a unique new instrument and a little help from nature, Swinburne researchers have gotten the first in-depth view of the enormous gas clouds that serve as galactic nurseries. Working internationally with researchers from North Carolina State University and the W.M. Keck Observatory, astronomers have observed the formative inner workings of two Damped Lyman-α systems (DLAs) for the first time. DLAs are giant gas clouds that formed galaxies in the early Universe, not long after the Big Bang. “DLAs are crucial in understanding how galaxies were formed, but have traditionally been extremely difficult to observe,” says Swinburne University of Technology Professor Jeff Cooke, one of the authors on the recently published paper in Nature. “By using the powerful capabilities of the W.M. Keck Observatory, some fortuitous alignments of galaxies, and Einstein’s general relativity, we are able to observe and study these massively important objects in a completely new way, giving us insight into how the stars and planets around us were formed.” These DLAs are not just massively important; they are also massive, as this study finds. With diameters greater than 17.4 kiloparsecs, they’re more than two thirds the size of the Milky Way galaxy today. It would take light more than 50,000 years to travel across each of them. Developing a cosmic telescope After the Big Bang, DLAs served as galactic nurseries, fueling the formation of galaxies comprised of stars and gas. But observing them has been hard as they are made predominately of hydrogen, which doesn’t shine or glow. Astrophysicists have traditionally used bright quasars – supermassive black holes that emit light – as backlights to search for DLAs. While this method does allow researchers to find DLAs, the light from a quasar provides only a small skewer through the massive cloud, like a pinprick poked into a sheet of paper. “Background” galaxies can provide very large backlights for observation, as they are 100 million times larger than quasars in this context. However, galaxies are typically too faint for this purpose. Working with Swinburne’s Professor Cooke, Dr Rongmon Bordoloi from North Carolina State University and John O’Meara, Chief Scientist at the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii, found a way around the problem by using a gravitationally lensed galaxy and integral field spectroscopy. A Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy system explored in this work. Supplied: Professor Jeff Cooke. “Gravitationally lensed galaxies refer to galaxies that appear stretched and brightened,” Dr Bordoloi says. “The light bends as it travels toward us, so we end up looking at an extended version of the object – it’s like using a cosmic telescope that increases magnification and gives us better visualization.” The bending and magnification of the galaxy light is due to general relativity. Innovative spectrum readings Spectrum readings allow astrophysicists to “see” elements in deep space from their atomic signatures that are not visible in images. This helps understand the extent of the gas, its motion, and the elemental composition of the DLAs. Normally, gathering the readings is a long and painstaking process. But the team solved the issue by performing integral field spectroscopy with the Keck Cosmic Web Imager that can gather spectra over many parts of the DLAs simultaneously. This innovation, combined with the stretched and brightened gravitationally lensed background galaxy, allowed the team to map out the diffuse gas in the two DLAs at high fidelity. "By utilizing the latest technology at Keck and a little luck with the alignment of gravitationally lensed galaxies, we have greater insight into the workings of our universe than ever before,” Professor Cooke says. Swinburne is the only Australian university with guaranteed access to W.M. Keck Observatory telescopes – the world's largest and most productive optical/infra-red telescopes – more than 9,000 kilometres from Melbourne. The work appears in Nature and was supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the W.M. Keck Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D).
19 May 2022 16:20
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/05/remarkable-cosmic-telescope-reveals-inner-workings-of-two-proto-galaxies/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/05/remarkable-cosmic-telescope-reveals-inner-workings-of-two-proto-galaxies/
Astronomy
false
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Give me some space tradies
Give me some space tradies
There’s a lot of hype around space tradies. But what are they, exactly? And how do you become one?
The Australian Space Agency is calling on the nation’s network of TAFEs to create ‘space tradies’ Space trades needed now and into the future include precision welding, circuits and electronics, metal fabricators and more Becoming a space tradie might be easier than you think The Australian Space Agency is calling on the nation’s network of TAFEs to create ‘space tradies’ to further develop Australia’s space industry. ASA boss Enrico Palermo recently spoke about the need for space apprentices and called on the government and the nation’s TAFEs to address the burgeoning need. That all sounds out of this world, but what exactly is a space tradie? If we are to buy into Elon Musk’s very wild vision that we will soon be living on Mars, you might be thinking space tradies will be needed to provide all types of trade services – but in a zero gravity environment. But for our more immediate future, space tradies will keep their feet firmly cemented on the ground as they build the launch facilities – which require round-the-clock maintenance – and the machines that travel to outer space. Well this gives a whole new meaning to ‘smoko’ Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash Which trades are predicted to grow to meet the space manufacturing demand? Director of Swinburne’s Space Technology and Industry Institute Professor Alan Duffy and his Centre for Astrophysics colleagues Dr Rebecca Allen and Dr Sara Webb are leaders in space education at Swinburne. They say, ‘For building satellites and rockets we need tradies skilled in precision welding techniques, intricate wiring and assembly of circuits and electronics, and of course experience in delivering delicate or difficult pieces of equipment and components.’ See some of these trades on offer at Swinburne. Precision welding techniques, and electronics are just some of the trades skills needed for Australia’s expanding space industry. Photo by Russ Ward on Unsplash Space trades: it is rocket science (and the skills are transferable) Space tradespeople, just like their earth counterparts, will need to be meticulous in their craft. As for job perks, imagine being able to enjoy the flexibility of choosing between projects destined to remain here on the ground, as well as those set for higher places. In other words, many of the skills are transferable. Alan, Rebecca and Sara say, ‘When it comes to building Australia’s space facilities such as launchpads, as well as launch support services, these projects require trades similar to any large infrastructure projects – meaning mechanics, electricians, plumbers, heavy machine operators, metal fabricators and more.’ As a space tradie, you could apply your skills to build rocket launch facilities or even components of the rockets themselves. Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash How do you actually become a space tradie? Thinking a career as a space tradie could be for you? Alan, Rebecca and Sara (and probably the entire crew at the Australian Space Agency) are all thrilled to hear it. If, for example, you’re currently undertaking a boilermaker apprenticeship, or already working as one, do you need to upskill or retrain for space? According to our experts, no. But being affiliated with a university with a dedicated Space Industry and Technology Institute should help. If you’ve already got a trade under your belt, Alan, Rebecca and Sara advise checking LinkedIn to see what’s on offer. They say, ‘It’s always amazing to see the jobs lists by companies like SpaceX and the amount of skilled tradespeople needed!’ Yet to gain a trade? Why not browse our trades and learn more about space manufacturing at Swinburne. Will I have to move to the United States for work? According to our experts, you could if you wanted to, but you won’t have to. And that’s because Australia’s space industry is growing. According to Sara, Australia’s position near the equatorial line is advantageous. The closer you are to the equator, the faster the surface of the earth travels. That means spacecraft launched from near the equatorial line travels faster, too. ‘Being near the equator, more so in the north of Australia, is important in terms of being able to launch rockets because you’re able to do it with a lot less fuel and a lot less money and effort.’ Need more evidence of confidence in our local space industry? You only need to look to companies like Gilmour Space and Australia’s contributions to the lunar rover. Time to gain a trade? Swinburne’s Trades, Engineering and Technology department offer quality apprenticeships to all the key trades needed now and into the future. Jane Clancy, Manager of Building Trades says, ‘We teach our apprentices the skills to build our vital infrastructure needed today, but these critical skills will last a lifetime. The opportunity to leverage from Swinburne’s Space Technology and Industry Institute and be involved from the ground up – the sky is the limit for our plumbers, carpenters and electricians!’
16 February 2022 21:27
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/02/Give-me-some-space-tradies/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/02/Give-me-some-space-tradies/
Astronomy|Trades
Current Students (PAVE)
false
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New supercomputer to herald next generation of discoveries
New supercomputer to herald next generation of discoveries
Swinburne’s powerful new supercomputer will help unlock the mysteries of the human brain, the natural world and the universe beyond our planet.
Swinburne is designing and installing a new space-focused supercomputer with the support of $5.2 million in Victorian Government funding The new facility will be the largest supercomputer readily available to Victorian researchers, helping unlock the mysteries of the human brain, the natural world and the universe beyond our planet In partnership with the local Wurundjeri community, the supercomputer will have a Woi Wurrung name and design, with a range of ongoing engagement opportunities and educational partnerships One of Australia’s most powerful supercomputers is getting a major upgrade, with Swinburne University of Technology designing and installing a new space-focused machine with the support of $5.2 million in funding from the Victorian Government’s Higher Education State Investment Fund. The new facility will be the largest scale supercomputer readily available to Victorian researchers and will help unlock the mysteries of the human brain, the natural world and the universe beyond our planet. The supercomputer will also have a Woi Wurrung name and design on its façade that reflects local Aboriginal knowledges about the spectacular Southern night sky, created through consultation with the Wurundjeri community led by Swinburne’s Moondani Toombadool Centre. In partnership with the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation, Swinburne’s supercomputer will also develop new educational partnerships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth and communities in Victoria and beyond. Cutting-edge technology Swinburne’s Chief Scientist, Professor Virginia Kilborn said that Swinburne was delighted to be building the new supercomputer with the Victorian Government’s support. ‘This supercomputer will allow Victoria to remain at the forefront of Swinburne’s world-leading research areas, including space, sustainability, medical technology and more,’ said Professor Kilborn. ‘By bringing researchers and industry together with cutting-edge technology, the supercomputer will support new discoveries and ways of thinking that can help create a better world.’ After touring the Swinburne Hawthorn campus where the new supercomputer will be housed, Minister for Training and Skills Gayle Tierney spoke about putting Victoria at the forefront of space technology, medicine, and environmental research. ‘We’re continuing to back our local universities to ensure Victoria remains at the forefront of innovation and to help the sector emerge strongly from the pandemic,’ said Minister Tierney. The supercomputer will have a processing capacity that is millions of times beyond that of a regular computer, supporting the massive amounts of data generated in fields such as astronomy, medical technology, economics and environmental modelling. Some of the key projects the supercomputer will enable include: Supporting the development of new space technologies and improving understanding of gravitational waves, black holes and galaxy formation. Understanding how the brain operates through analysis of brain data by neuroscientists and neuroimaging experts. Better understanding of our planet including research into bushfire detection, and natural disaster planning and response. The new supercomputer will replace the OzSTAR machine, which has been in operation since 2017. ‘Supercomputers are at the heart of modern science and engineering challenges’, explains project leader Professor Matthew Bailes, who leads both the Swinburne Data Science Institute and the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav). ‘This crucial investment will enable Swinburne and Victoria to compete both nationally and internationally until the end of the decade.’ Dr Sadie Heckenberg, Academic Director (Indigenous Research) and a Senior Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research Fellow within Swinburne’s Moondani Toombadool Centre, said the supercomputer’s Woi Wurrung name and design was an important way to connect the new supercomputer with the local Wurundjeri community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges. 'At Swinburne, we strive to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges into every element of what we do and work to ensure that our partnerships with Indigenous communities are co-designed and create long-lasting, beneficial outcomes. I’m excited that, through the leadership of the Moondani Toombadool Centre and close consultation with the Wurundjeri Elders and community, the new supercomputer will clearly demonstrate this ongoing commitment.’ Building on success The facility will be supported by Astronomy Australia Limited (AAL), a non-profit organisation whose members are Australian universities and research organisations with a significant astronomical research capability. Victoria University (VU) and Federation University Australia (FUA) are also collaborating on the project, undertaking research in emerging industry-aligned areas such as advanced manufacturing, big data analysis and data security. The new supercomputer builds on Swinburne’s long history of supercomputer design, development and operation, which includes discovering many of the first Fast Radio Bursts. It will replace the OzSTAR machine, which has been in operation since 2017. OzSTAR has supported Swinburne research across a diverse range of fields and has been a de facto national facility for astrophysics computation in Australia through AAL support, helping define the nature of black holes through gravitational waves.
01 February 2022 09:39
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/02/new-supercomputer-to-herald-next-generation-of-discoveries/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/02/new-supercomputer-to-herald-next-generation-of-discoveries/
Astronomy|Technology|Science
Research
false
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One year since blast off for Space Institute
One year since blast off for Space Institute
We’re celebrating the Space Technology and Industry Institute’s out-of-this-world achievements in its first year of operations.
Swinburne’s Space Technology and Industry Institute is celebrating its first year of operations, after launching on 31 January 2021. From vocational training to PhDs, research and industry partnerships, the Institute is powering an industry estimated to be worth $1 trillion by 2040. The Institute’s achievements range from our students exploring the possibilities of creating yoghurt in space, to a multimillion-dollar partnership creating lighter, stronger and greener parts for spaceships. In just 12 months, the team at the Space Technology and Industry Institute at Swinburne University of Technology have fought the spiralling threat of space junk, won precious time on the remarkable James Webb Space Telescope, and helped our students send microbes into space to explore making yoghurt in microgravity. Led by Professor Alan Duffy, the Institute is fostering education at every level, from vocational training to PhD, and serving as the engine room for innovation and economic growth in a sector projected to be worth $1 trillion globally by 2040. Explore some of the Institute’s amazing achievements since launch in early 2021. Space tech making a difference on Earth Swinburne scientists have a front-row seat to one of the most important scientific projects of the century, the James Webb Space Telescope. Distinguished Professor Karl Glazebrook and Associate Professor Ivo Labbe from the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing are leading projects awarded precious time in the first observation cycle of the telescope, which ‘will revolutionise the study of space’. The James Webb Space Telescope. Image: NASA Swinburne and our partners are helping fight the snowballing threat of space junk, through a project called Responsible AI in Space. Read Professor Alan Duffy in The Age on how we’re helping maximise the benefits of AI and avoid potentially catastrophic results. Alongside NASA, Microsoft and Geoscience Australia, we supported the EY Data Science Challenge which saw over 10,000 entries worldwide creating AI to help spot bushfires from space for the Country Fire Authority. We also made countless discoveries about how our universe works, with the team at OzGrav observing a truly remarkable event of a neutron star collide with a black hole, as well as witnessing a cosmic romance unfold and confirming that newly-created stars create a kind of space pollution. Artist's impression of neutron star-black hole merger. Image: Carl Knox - OzGrav, Swinburne Connecting with industry mDetect, a spin-out company from Swinburne, is using particles from space known as muons, to help mining companies detect weaknesses in dams that secure highly toxic mining waste by-products and make them environmentally safer. Our multimillion-dollar partnership with additive manufacturing company Titomic is helping us create lighter, stronger and greener structures for space. One of only two systems in the world, the Titomic TKF1000 system will give students, researchers and partners the ability to create rocket nozzles, satellite components and high-performance coatings for radiation shielding and hypersonic protection. Propelling our students to the stars School students in our Swinburne Space Youth Innovation Challenge and SHINE program have sent bacteria to space to boldly grow where no students have grown before and test the possibilities of creating yoghurt in microgravity. Students pose with their microgravity experiments on the way to the International Space Station. It’s ‘Lunacy’! Swinburne PhD candidate Matthew Shaw was the Asia-Pacific Winner of the Three Minute Thesis competition for his presentation on how to make metal on the Moon. Our student team won Deloitte’s Australia-UK GRAVITY Challenge by using data from space to improve irrigation management, developing a sophisticated user interface to optimise water use for SA Water. Celebrating our space superstars Dr Rebecca Allen was recognised for excellence in scientific research and communications with a prestigious Young Tall Poppy Science award. She was also nominated at the Australian Space Awards, as was Swinburne graduate Mikaela Verhoosel and space lawyer Kim Ellis. We celebrated Space Week with some (inter)stellar space songs, iconic space movies and TV shows, and a showcase of some of our amazing women astronomers. You can also check out this great colouring-in book on Women in Physics from PhD candidate Debatri Chattopadhyay. We helped answer some of the big questions in space for The Conversation, like do aliens exist? Is space infinite? How can I explore the universe from home?
31 January 2022 13:29
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/01/one-year-since-blast-off-for-space-institute/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/01/one-year-since-blast-off-for-space-institute/
Astronomy|Technology
University
false
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NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has reached its destination, 1.5 million km from Earth. Here’s what happens next
NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has reached its destination, 1.5 million km from Earth. Here’s what happens next
Since its launch on Christmas day, astronomers have eagerly followed the complex deployment and unfurling of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope – the largest to ever take to the skies.
Since its launch on Christmas day, astronomers have eagerly followed the complex deployment and unfurling of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope – the largest to ever take to the skies. Analysis for The Conversation by Distinguished Professor Karl Glazebrook, Swinburne University of Technology. Right around the time this article is published, it’s expected Webb will have reached a place called the Earth-Sun “second Lagrange point”, or “L2”. This is a point in space about 1.5 million kilometres away from Earth (in the opposite direction from the Sun) where the gravity from both the Sun and Earth help to keep an orbiting satellite balanced in motion. Now the astronomical community – including my team of Swinburne University astronomers – is preparing for a new epoch of major discoveries. 30 years and US$10 billion In 2012, I wrote an article for The Conversation looking forward to the launch of Webb, and reminiscing about the amazing early days of its predecessor, the Hubble Space Telescope. Back then, Webb’s planned launch date was in 2018. And when the project was originally conceived in the 1990s, the goal was to launch before 2010. Why did it take nearly 30 years, and more than US$10 billion (roughly A$14 billion), to get Webb off the ground? First, it’s the largest telescope ever put into space, with a gold-coated mirror 6.5m in diameter (compared with Hubble’s 2.4m mirror). With size comes complexity, as the entire structure needed to be folded to fit inside the nose cone of an Ariane rocket. The James Webb Space Telescope hanging in space after separating from the Ariane launch vehicle over the Gulf of Aden, between Yemen and Somalia. NASA/ESA Second, there were two major engineering marvels to accomplish with Webb. For a large telescope to produce the sharpest images possible, the mirror’s surface needs to be aligned along a curve with extreme precision. For Webb this means unfolding and positioning the 18 hexagonal segments of the primary mirror, plus a secondary mirror, to a precision of 25 billionths of a metre. Also, Webb will be observing infrared light, so it must be kept incredibly cold (roughly -233℃) to maximise its sensitivity. This means it must be kept far away from Earth, which is a source of heat and light. It must also be completely protected from the Sun – achieved by a 20m multilayered reflective sunshield. All of Webb’s major spacecraft deployments, including the unfurling of the primary mirror and sunshield, were completed on January 8. The entire process involved more than 300 single points of failure (mechanisms that had only once chance to work). The remaining tiny motions will take place over the next few months. The main mission Webb’s primary mission will be to witness the birth of the first stars and galaxies in the early Universe. As the light from these very faint galaxies travels across the vast gulf of space, and 13.8 billion years of time, it gets stretched by the overall expansion of the Universe in a process we call “cosmological redshift”. This stretching means what started out as extremely energetic ultraviolet radiation from young, hot and massive stars will be received by Webb as infrared light. This is why its mirrors are coated in gold: compared with silver or aluminium, gold is a better reflector of infrared light and red light. Webb will see much farther into the infrared than Hubble could. It’s also up to a million times more sensitive than ground-based telescopes, where the light from distant galaxies is drowned out by the infrared emission of Earth’s own hot atmosphere. Because of these previous technological limitations, the first billion years of cosmic history has barely been explored. We don’t know when or how the first stars formed. This is a complex question as stars produce heavy elements when they die. These elements pollute the interstellar gas in galaxies and change how this gas behaves and collapses to form later generations of stars. All current star formation we can observe, such as in the Milky Way, is from enriched interstellar gas. We haven’t yet seen how stars form in pristine gas, which is without any heavy elements – as such a state hasn’t existed for more than 13 billion years. But we think formation from pristine gas likely had a large effect on the properties of the first stellar populations. Compared to these Hubble images, Webb will provide a much clearer view of the first billion years after the Big Bang (bottom row), wherein Hubble could barely detect the most luminous objects from this time. NASA/ESA In addition to studying the early Universe, Webb will be a NASA “Great Observatory” and will support a diversity of other projects. It will allow scientists to peer into regions obscured by dust, such as the centres of galaxies where supermassive black holes lurk, or regions of intense star formation in our galaxy and others. Webb will also be sensitive to the coldest objects, including very low mass stars, and planets orbiting other stars within the Milky Way. One big improvement on Hubble is that Webb will be well-equipped for spectroscopy, dissecting light into its component wavelengths. This will let us measure the cosmic redshift of galaxies precisely, and figure out what elements they’re made of. Closer to home, Webb will help us find molecules such as water, ammonia, carbon dioxide (and many others) within the solar system, the Milky Way and nearby galaxies. It will be able to see these in the atmospheres of planets around nearby stars, which is particularly exciting for the search for extraterrestrial life. Astronomers await with anticipation for the first data to be collected in the next few months. While the most dramatic and risky mechanical motions have been completed, the telescope continues to move, and the mirror segments are making tiny nanometre-sized motions to bring it into a focus. This will take many weeks as the telescope cools to its operating temperature. For myself, perhaps the most exciting aspect to look forward to is the completely unknown. With Webb, we’ll be observing a previously murky cosmic era, when physical conditions were very different to those in the modern Universe. The history of astronomy suggests we can expect paradigm-shifting discoveries. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
25 January 2022 16:48
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/01/nasa-s-james-webb-space-telescope-has-reached-its-destination--1/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/01/nasa-s-james-webb-space-telescope-has-reached-its-destination--1/
Science|Astronomy
false
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A cosmic romance written in the stars
A cosmic romance written in the stars
Astronomers have discovered the intact heart of an infalling galaxy – a significant discovery of a star cluster that is falling into a spiral galaxy.
An international team of astronomers has made a rare finding of what could be one of the largely missing population of “intermediate-mass” black holes The findings read like a cosmic romance written in the stars The discovery advances our understanding of how black holes come to be inside spiral galaxies An international team of astronomers has taken a step forward in understanding the evolution of galaxies, and in so doing, told a story written in the heavens. It has long been a mystery how some spiral galaxies obtained their central black hole. By combining visible and X-ray observations, astronomers have now discovered traces of what was probably once a small sphere-shaped galaxy, seen falling into a spiral galaxy and delivering what is thought to be the right-sized black hole. The facts make for a cosmic romance, a similarity not lost on lead author of this new research, Professor Alister Graham, from Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing and teaching into Swinburne Astronomy Online. Galaxies can have mutual (gravitational) attraction for each other. The body of a smaller galaxy may fade over time, but its heart remains intact as it falls into and partners with a larger galaxy. In this case, the heart is a million-strong cluster of stars, seen with the Hubble Space Telescope near the centre of the spiral galaxy NGC 4424. NGC 4424 was already known to display signs of activity from a past merger event. Professor Graham says, “The galaxy’s bar-like structure is excited and buckled. There was also a star-forming event less than 500 million years ago. One can think of this as a star party of sorts, associated with the announcement of the upcoming galaxy wedding.” However, he is quick to add that, "This appears to be an important discovery for understanding the coevolution of black holes and galaxies." The astronomers were looking at galaxy NGC 4424, which was already known to display signs of activity from a past merger event, when they made the discovery. Image credit: WIYN Telescope, Juan R Cortes (ALMA). A massive discovery This is the first infalling galaxy found to have a massive black hole. The discovery contributes to our understanding of how black holes come to be inside spiral galaxies. The astronomers have informally named the star cluster ‘Nikhuli’. They turned to the Sumi tribe in the Indian State of Nagaland for the word, used for a festive period where the descendants of head-hunters celebrate and wish for a rich harvest and gathering. It seemed appropriate to the astronomers, who refer to space as ‘the field’ and whose discovery focuses on how a larger galaxy has harvested a smaller galaxy. Zoomed in images of galaxy NGC 4424 gave them a better view of the star cluster. Image credit: NASA/ESA, Or Graur (University of Portsmouth), Adam Riess (Johns Hopkins University), Lisa Frattare (Space Telescope Science Institute). What the x-ray images show us Professor Roberto Soria, a co-author at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, obtained a Chandra X-ray Observatory image showing a high-energy x-ray source emanating from the stretched-out star cluster seen in the Hubble image. “We are likely seeing activity from around a black hole within what was the centrally-located star cluster of the infalling galaxy,” says Soria. Although 50 million light-years away, each square metre of Earth is bathed in an x-ray from this active black hole roughly every 80 seconds. The X-ray hotspot is just 1300 light-years from the centre of NGC 4424, a galaxy some sixty thousand light-years across. The main body of the smaller galaxy – which once housed the resilient star cluster – is now contributing to an inner `bulge’ of stars above and below the spiral galaxy’s disc, which contains the bar and spiral pattern. Astronomers have circled the star cluster informally named Nikhuli. Image credit: NASA/ESA, Bogdan Ciambur (Paris Observatory), Alister Graham (Swinburne University of Technology). Expanding our knowledge of the universe The team’s best estimate for the mass of the black hole is seventy thousand times the mass of our Sun. This mass makes it a candidate for the largely missing population of “intermediate-mass” black holes with masses greater than stars and smaller than the supermassive black holes known to reside at the centres of giant galaxies, like M87 – which is often remembered as the famous first-ever image of a black hole, taken by the Event Horizon Telescope. “This in itself is exciting,” says Graham. “Moreover, this mass is on par with that expected at the centre of NGC 4424.” "We may be witnessing a supply mechanism for black holes into spiral galaxies," says Dr Ben Davis, a co-author at the New York University's campus in Abu Dhabi. “Furthermore, potential collisions with other black holes make this an ideal setting for the emission of long-wavelength gravitational waves rippling across space,” says Davis. The next step Professor Graham, Professor Soria and Dr Davis are determined to find more infalling galaxies containing black holes in their drive to answer how black holes come to be within spiral galaxies. Professor Graham and Dr Ben Davis are also members of the LISA Consortium, whose Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, aka LISA, and the Chinese TianQin (天琴计划) space missions are working towards discovering events involving the collision of big black holes. Perhaps their future discoveries can be the romantic sequel, akin to something Sheldon from Big Bang Theory might have penned.
13 January 2022 17:14
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/01/a-cosmic-romance-written-in-the-stars/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/01/a-cosmic-romance-written-in-the-stars/
Astronomy|Science
false
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Hunting galaxies far far away – here’s how anyone can explore the universe
Hunting galaxies far far away – here’s how anyone can explore the universe
Previously, astronomers had to examine photographic plates after a long night of observing. Now we have access to information any time, anywhere via the internet. Analysis for The Conversation by Dr Sara Webb, Swinburne University of Technology.
Previously, astronomers had to examine photographic plates after a long night of observing. Now we have access to information any time, anywhere via the internet. Analysis for The Conversation by Dr Sara Webb, Swinburne University of Technology. By far my favourite thing about my job as an astronomer is those rare moments when I get to see beautiful distant galaxies, whose light left them millions to billions of years ago. It’s a combination of pure awe and scientific curiosity that excites me about “galaxy hunting”. In astronomy today, much of our work is handling enormous amounts of data by writing and running programs to work with images of the sky. A downside to this is that we don’t always have that “hands-on” experience of looking at every square inch of the universe while we study it. I’m going to show you, though, how I get my fix of wonder by looking at galaxies that only a select few people will ever have seen, until now. In just our observable universe we estimate there are over 2 trillion galaxies! Galaxies at your fingertips Only a few decades ago astronomers had to tediously examine photographic plates after a long, cold and lonely night of observing. In the 21st century we have access to information any time, anywhere via the internet. Automatic telescopes and surveys now provide us with so much data we require machines to help us analyse it. In some cases human eyes will only ever look at what the computers have deemed is interesting! Massive amounts of data are hosted online, just waiting to be admired, for free. Go online for a universe atlas Aladin Lite is one of the greatest online tools available to look at our universe through the eyes of many different telescopes. Here we can scan the entire sky for hidden galaxies, and even decipher information about their stellar populations and evolution. Let’s start our universal tour by searching for one of the most visually stunning galaxies out there, the Cartwheel Galaxy. In the Aladin interface, you can search for both the popular name of an object (like “cartwheel galaxy”) or known co-ordinates. The location will be centred in the interface. Online view in Aladin Lite of the Cartwheel Galaxy, a lenticular/ring galaxy 500 million light years away from Earth discovered in 1941 by iconic astronomer Fritz Zwicky. The first image of the Cartwheel Galaxy we see is from optical imaging by the Digitised Sky Survey. The colours we see represent different filters from this telescope. However, these are fairly representative of what the galaxy would look like with our own eyes. A general rule of thumb as an astronomer is that “colour” differences within galaxies are because of physically different environments. It’s important to note that things that look blue (shorter wavelengths) are generally hotter than things that look red (longer wavelengths). In this galaxy, the outer ring appears to be more blue then the centre red section. This might hint at star formation and stellar activity happening in the outer ring, but less so in the centre. To confirm our suspicions of star formation we can select to look at data from different surveys, in different wavelengths. When young stars are forming, vast amounts of UV radiation are emitted. By changing the survey to GALEXGR6/AIS, we are now looking at only UV wavelengths, and what a difference that makes! Online view in Aladin Lite of the Cartwheel Galaxy in GALEX UV wavelengths. The whole centre section of the galaxy seems to “disappear” from our image. This suggests that section is likely home to older stars, with less active stellar nurseries. Aladin is home to 20 different surveys. They provide imaging of the sky from optical, UV, infrared, X and gamma rays. When I am wandering the universe looking for interesting galaxies here, I generally start out in optical and find ones that look interesting to me. I then use the different surveys to see how the images change when looking at specific wavelengths. Universal Where’s Wally Now you’ve had a crash course in galaxy hunting, let the game begin! You can spend hours exploring the incredible images and finding interesting-looking galaxies. I recommend looking at images from DECalS/DR3 for the highest resolution and detail when zooming further in. The best method is to just drag the sky atlas around. If you find something interesting, you can find out any information we have on it by selecting the target icon and clicking on the object. To help you on your galactic expedition here are my favourite finds of the different types of objects you might see. Examples of spiral galaxies found using Aladin online. Spirals are the most iconic galaxy shape and include many of the brightest galaxies in the nearby universe, like the Andromeda Galaxy. Spiral galaxies typically have a central rotating disc with large spiral “arms” curving out from the denser central regions. They are incredibly beautiful. Our own Milky Way is a spiral galaxy. Examples of elliptical galaxies. This type of galaxy has an approximately ellipsoidal shape and a smooth, nearly featureless image. Elliptical galaxies are largely featureless and less “flat” then spirals, with stars occupying almost a 3D ellipse at times. These type of galaxies tend to have older stars and less active star-forming regions compared to spiral galaxies. Examples of lenticular galaxies. These are a type of galaxy intermediate between elliptical and a spiral galaxies. Lenticular galaxies appear like cosmic pancakes, fairly flat and featureless in the night sky. These galaxies can be thought of as the “in between” of spiral and elliptical galaxies. The majority of star formation has stopped but lenticular galaxies can still have significant amounts of dust in them. There are also other amazing types of galaxies, including mergers and lenses, which are just waiting for you to find them. I’d love to see what amazing things you find over on Twitter at @sarawebbscience. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
04 January 2022 08:47
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/01/hHunting-galaxies-far-far-away-heres-how-anyone-can-explore-the-universe/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2022/01/hHunting-galaxies-far-far-away-heres-how-anyone-can-explore-the-universe/
Astronomy
false
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Astrophysicists launch colouring book for future scientists
Astrophysicists launch colouring book for future scientists
Two astrophysicists from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery have created a colouring book to encourage girls to become scientists.
Two Melbourne-based astrophysicists from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) have collaborated on a colouring book called Women in Physics The recently launched book encourages girls to follow their passions in science and learn about the amazing women who changed the course of history with their physics research Swinburne’s Debatri Chattopadhyay and Isobel Romero-Shaw from Monash University – who are both completing their PhDs in astrophysics with OzGrav – are determined to educate children and young people about the pivotal scientific discoveries and contributions made by women scientists. They also want to encourage more girls, women, and minorities to take up careers in the male-dominated fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM). Debatri, who is originally from India, came to Australia pursuing her PhD at Swinburne University in 2017. She was acutely aware of the lack of women in STEMM fields, as both of her parents worked in biological sciences. ‘My father is a scientist, so I was aware that this was a field I could go into, and he would talk about amazing biologists like Barbara McClintock, but there was almost no representation of female scientists on TV or in newspapers,’ she recalls. ‘This colouring book will help children learn about the colourful lives and brilliant minds of these amazing women scientists. As a colouring book, it encourages creative minds to think about scientific problems – which is very much needed for problem solving,’ says Isobel, who designed the book and illustrated each of the featured scientists. ‘These women, who made absolutely pioneering discoveries, used their creativity to advance the world as we know it.’ ‘I did intense research for the biographies of the women featured in the book and at every nook and crevice was amazed at the perseverance they showed. It is for them and countless others, unfortunately undocumented, that we can do what we do today,’ says Debatri. ‘With Christmas approaching, this book is a perfect gift for young children who have a hunger for science. It’s both fun and educational!’ she added. Last year, both Isobel and Debatri were also selected to participate in Homeward Bound, a global program designed to provide cutting-edge leadership training to 1,000 women in STEMM over 10 years. To raise awareness of climate change, this journey will take Isobel and Debatri all the way to Earth’s frozen desert, Antarctica. In their ‘day jobs’, Isobel tries to figure out how the collapsed remains of supergiant stars – black holes and neutron stars – meet up and crash together. She does this by studying the vibrations that these collisions send rippling through space-time – these are called gravitational waves. Debatri is involved in doing simulations in supercomputers of dead stars in binaries or in massive collections of other stellar systems – called globular clusters. Her detailed theoretical calculations help us to understand the astrophysics behind the observations of gravitational waves and radio pulsars, as well as predict what surprising observations might be made in the future. She has recently submitted her thesis.
22 December 2021 13:34
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/12/astrophysicists-launch-colouring-book-for-future-scientists/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/12/astrophysicists-launch-colouring-book-for-future-scientists/
Astronomy|Science
false
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Space-loving students find milky way to grow yoghurt in orbit
Space-loving students find milky way to grow yoghurt in orbit
High school students from across Victoria have sent bacteria to the International Space Station to test the possibilities of creating yoghurt in space.
High school students have sent bacteria on a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station to test the possibilities of creating yoghurt in space. It is part of an 11-week program called the Swinburne Space Youth Innovation Challenge Students were asked to design and develop an experiment that could efficiently help improve astronaut health and wellbeing by growing good bacteria in space. High school students from across Victoria are boldly growing where no students have grown before, sending bacteria on a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station to test the possibilities of creating yoghurt in space. The experiments are part of the Swinburne Space Youth Innovation Challenge, which asked students to design and develop an experiment that could efficiently help improve astronaut health and wellbeing by growing good bacteria in space. Students pitched their ideas to a panel of space industry experts, with the winning team working with Swinburne’s microgravity experimentation team and the SHINE program to send six vials to the International Space Station on 21 December 2021. Astrophysicist Dr Sara Webb, who leads the Swinburne Space Youth Innovation Challenge, praised the hard work of the students over the one-of-a-kind 11-week program. ‘These experiments could be an important step towards astronauts being self-sustaining and able to grow everything they need in space.’ ‘The students demonstrated the kind of innovative thinking, practicality and perseverance that is required to succeed in space. By combining creativity and technology, they’ve helped support our ambitious goals in space research and exploration in the 21st century.’ Dr Huseyin Sumer and Dr Sara Webb featured on NineNews while they prepared the samples to be transported via a SpaceX rocket to the International Space Station. Why yoghurt? Dr Sara Webb explains why yoghurt was selected for the program. ‘Sending stuff to space is expensive so the more that can be produced up there, the better. Yoghurt is not only filled with probiotics that promote a healthy gut biome but is also relatively simple to make.’ ‘However, we don’t know how the unique challenges of microgravity will impact the creation of good bacteria. And that’s where our student experiments come in.’ ‘There is still much we have to learn when it comes to space and our students are making a real contribution to this critical research.’ Both the winning and runner up teams came from Viewbank College in 2021. About the program Launched in 2021, the Swinburne Space Youth Innovation Challenge is a unique university and space science experience for Year 10 and 11 students. Teams of students from four schools worked together to complete a micro unit in space applications, with tailored learning content from the Space Technology co-major at Swinburne. ‘Students get a real taste of what it’s like to study space science at Swinburne University of Technology. They leave the program with a strong theoretical and technical base of knowledge, as well as the experience of sending a real experiment into space.’ Students learn about astronomy, the global space ecosystem, space law, Australia’s space industry, and experimentation in space. After designing an experiment, students develop a five-minute pitch, with the winner given the opportunity to work closely with a team of Swinburne scientists and experts to finesse their work. Runners up also get to send something to space – thanks to Swinburne’s partnership with biotech company, Rhodium Scientific - working off a science brief to design their experimental vials. Swinburne also runs SHINE, a joint program with Haileybury, where six exceptional students get to work with researchers from Swinburne to develop and research a microgravity experiment from start to finish. They are charged with leading their project and each student has a dedicated role throughout the intensive project.
22 December 2021 12:03
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/12/space-loving-students-find-milky-way-to-grow-yoghurt-in-orbit/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/12/space-loving-students-find-milky-way-to-grow-yoghurt-in-orbit/
Astronomy|Science
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
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Swinburne astronomers with front row seat to scientific history
Swinburne astronomers with front row seat to scientific history
Meet the two Swinburne scientists who will be examining the first stars and galaxies formed after the Big Bang, with the help of the new James Webb Space Telescope.
Distinguished Professor Karl Glazebrook and Associate Professor Ivo Labbe are leading projects awarded precious time in the first observation cycle of the James Webb Space Telescope The telescope is blasting off on or after 24 December 2021 after decades of development and USD$10 billion spent The telescope is up to a million times more sensitive in the infrared than any ground-based telescope and will enable a new generation of astronomical discoveries Two Swinburne scientists are leading projects awarded precious time in the first observation cycle of the James Webb Space Telescope, helping them see far deeper into the universe than Hubble and examine the first stars and galaxies formed after the Big Bang. Distinguished Professor Karl Glazebrook, ARC Laurate Fellow and Distinguished Professor at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, and Associate Professor Ivo Labbe, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, will both lead projects utilising the telescope’s game-changing infrared capabilities. Distinguished Professor Glazebrook said the impact of the telescope could not be overstated. ‘The telescope is up to a million times more sensitive in the infrared than any ground-based telescope,’ Distinguished Professor Glazebrook said. ‘If everything goes to plan, this will be one of the greatest scientific achievements of the 21st century and will enable a new generation of astronomical discoveries.’ Associate Professor Labbe agrees, ‘This telescope will revolutionise the study of space. Our Treasury project in particular will push the telescope to its limit and see back to the beginning of time, to the first stars and galaxies forming after the Big Bang, to solve some of the greatest mysteries of the universe.’ There are only a few programs with prestigious Treasury status, which are expected to achieve the highest impact discoveries. An out-of-this-world scientific achievement The James Webb Space Telescope is blasting off on or after December 24 after decades of development and USD$10 billion spent, marking the high-risk first stage in one of the most ambitious science experiments of the 21st century. Distinguished Professor Glazebrook and Associate Professor Labbe will join thousands of scientists nervously watching the telescope over the next few months. ‘The launch is just the beginning,’ says Distinguished Professor Glazebrook said. ‘There are over 300 potential points of failure, many of them related to the telescope’s intricate deployment mechanisms. After a 30-day cruise to orbit, this will all happen more than 1.5 million km from Earth, about 4 times further away from us than the Moon.’ Swinburne Chief Scientist and Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Virginia Kilborn welcomed the outcomes of the Swinburne research that would be enabled by the launch of the telescope. ‘To have, not one, but two Swinburne researchers leading projects on the first observation cycle of this once-in-a-generation telescope is a phenomenal achievement for Karl, Ivo and the entire university team,’ she said. ‘This achievement speaks to Swinburne’s global leadership position in space and aerospace technology and the pioneering research we are conducting in astrophysics with organisations in Australia and around the world.’ In another Australian connection to the launch, the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex (CDSCC), which is managed by CSIRO on behalf of NASA, will be the first to provide contact with the James Webb Space Telescope as it commences its mission. The telescope is a joint initiative of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the US, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).
21 December 2021 14:57
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/12/swinburne-astronomers-with-front-row-seat-to-scientific-history/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/12/swinburne-astronomers-with-front-row-seat-to-scientific-history/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
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We counted 20 billion ticks of an extreme galactic clock to give Einstein’s theory of gravity its toughest test yet
We counted 20 billion ticks of an extreme galactic clock to give Einstein’s theory of gravity its toughest test yet
Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity remains to be very accurate after 16 years of observation. Analysis for The Conversation by Richard Manchester, CSIRO and Dr Adam Deller, Swinburne University of Technology.
Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity remains to be very accurate after 16 years of observation. Analysis for The Conversation by Richard Manchester, CSIRO and Dr Adam Deller, Swinburne University of Technology. For more than 100 years, Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity has been our best description of how the force of gravity acts throughout the Universe. General relativity is not only very accurate, but ask any astrophysicist about the theory and they’ll probably also describe it as “beautiful”. But it has a dark side too: a fundamental conflict with our other great physical theory, quantum mechanics. General relativity works extremely well at large scales in the Universe, but quantum mechanics rules the microscopic realm of atoms and fundamental particles. To resolve this conflict, we need to see general relativity pushed to its limits: extremely intense gravitational forces at work on small scales. We studied a pair of stars called the Double Pulsar which provide just such a situation. After 16 years of observations, we have found no cracks in Einstein’s theory. Pulsars: nature’s gravity labs In 2003, astronomers at the Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales discovered a double pulsar system 2,400 light years away that offers a perfect opportunity to study general relativity under extreme conditions. To understand what makes this system so special, imagine a star 500,000 times as heavy as Earth, yet only 20 kilometres across. This ultra-dense “neutron star” spins 50 times a second, blasting out an intense beam of radio waves that our telescopes register as a faint blip every time it sweeps over Earth. There are more than 3,000 such “pulsars” in the Milky Way, but this one is unique because it whirls in an orbit around a similarly extreme companion star every 2.5 hours. According to general relativity, the colossal accelerations in the Double Pulsar system strain the fabric of space-time, sending gravitational ripples away at the speed of light that slowly sap the system of orbital energy. This slow loss of energy makes the stars’ orbit drift ever closer together. In 85 million years’ time, they are doomed to merge in a spectacular cosmic pile-up that will enrich the surroundings with a heady dose of precious metals. Artist’s impression of the Double Pulsar system and its effect on spacetime. The spacetime curvature (shown in the grid at the bottom) is highest near the pulsars. As they orbit one another, these deformations propagate away at the speed of light as gravity waves, carrying away orbital energy. By counting each time the pulsed beam of radio emission sweeps over the Earth, we can track the slowly shrinking orbit. Image credit: M. Kramer / MPIfR We can watch this loss of energy by very carefully studying the blinking of the pulsars. Each star acts as a giant clock, precisely stabilised by its immense mass, “ticking” with every rotation as its radio beam sweeps past. Using stars as clocks Working with an international team of astronomers led by Michael Kramer of the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany, we have used this “pulsar timing” technique to study the Double Pulsar ever since its discovery. Adding in data from five other radio telescopes across the world, we modelled the precise arrival times of more than 20 billion of these clock ticks over a 16-year period. The Parkes 64-metre diameter radio telescope, located in Central NSW, Australia, was used to observe the pulsed radio emission. Image credit: Shaun Amy/CSIRO To complete our model, we needed to know exactly how far the Double Pulsar is from Earth. To find this out, we turned to a global network of ten radio telescopes called the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). The VLBA has such high resolution it could spot a human hair 10km away! Using it, we were able to observe a tiny wobble in the apparent position of the Double Pulsar every year, which results from Earth’s motion around the Sun. And because the size of the wobble depends on the distance to the source, we could show that the system is 2,400 light years from the Earth. This provided the last puzzle piece we needed to put Einstein to the test. Finding Einstein’s fingerprints in our data Combining these painstaking measurements allows us to precisely track the orbits of each pulsar. Our benchmark was Isaac Newton’s simpler model of gravity, which predated Einstein by several centuries: every deviation offered another test. These “post-Newtonian” effects – things that are insignificant when considering an apple falling from a tree, but noticeable in more extreme conditions – can be compared against the predictions of general relativity and other theories of gravity. One of these effects is the loss of energy due to gravitational waves described above. Another is the “Lense-Thirring effect” or “relativistic frame-dragging”, in which the spinning pulsars drag space-time itself around with them as they move. In total, we detected seven post-Newtonian effects, including some never seen before. Together, they give by far the best test so far of general relativity in strong gravitational fields. After 16 long years, our observations proved to be amazingly consistent with Einstein’s general relativity, matching Einstein’s predictions to within 99.99%. None of the dozens of other gravitational theories proposed since 1915 can describe the motion of the Double Pulsar better! With larger and more sensitive radio telescopes, and new analysis techniques, we could keep using the Double Pulsar to study gravity for another 85 million years. Eventually, however, the two stars will spiral together and merge. Artist’s illustration of two merging neutron stars, which is the fate of the Double Pulsar in 85 million years’ time. Such collisions can be detected by gravitational wave laser interferometers, and provide a complementary test of general relativity. Image credit: NSF/LIGO/Sonoma State University/A. Simonnet This cataclysmic ending will itself offer one last opportunity, as the system throws off a burst of high-frequency gravitational waves. Such bursts from merging neutron stars in other galaxies have already been detected by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational-wave observatories, and those measurements provide a complementary test of general relativity under even more extreme conditions. Armed with all these approaches, we are hopeful of eventually identifying a weakness in general relativity that can lead to an even better gravitational theory. But for now, Einstein still reigns supreme. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
14 December 2021 10:13
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/12/we-counted-20-billion-ticks-of-a-extreme-galactic-clock-to-give-Einsteins-theory-of-gravity-its-toughest-test-yet/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/12/we-counted-20-billion-ticks-of-a-extreme-galactic-clock-to-give-Einsteins-theory-of-gravity-its-toughest-test-yet/
Astronomy|Science
false
-
How Australia’s helping to fight the snowballing threat of space junk
How Australia’s helping to fight the snowballing threat of space junk
With over 100 million pieces of space debris already in orbit, urgent work is required to rectify this already critical problem. Analysis for The Age by Professor Alan Duffy, Swinburne University of Technology.
With over 100 million pieces of space debris already in orbit, urgent work is required to rectify this already critical problem. Analysis for The Age by Professor Alan Duffy, Swinburne University of Technology. NASA space debris expert Dr Don Kessler was the first to observe that once the amount of space debris reaches a critical point, unavoidable collisions will cause more debris, in a disastrous chain reaction that will make space inaccessible to us. This has been termed the Kessler Syndrome. Once the cascading collisions begin, they cannot be stopped. For the past two decades, some low-Earth orbits may already have accumulated that critical amount of debris – or so Kessler has calculated. We are like the skier beneath the avalanche-prone ridge, with dangerous amounts of snow built up and awaiting the smallest shift to trigger catastrophe. Already, space experts estimate there are 12,000 pieces of debris 10 centimetres long and larger that we can track, but nearly one million from one to 10cm in size, and over 100 million pieces smaller than a centimetre that we simply can’t see coming. At the speed with which such pieces of debris travel in orbit, a single screw has the energy of a grenade upon collision. Since we rely on satellite technology for everything from navigation to weather reports to communication to security networks underpinning your local ATM, if space were to become inaccessible it would dramatically change our way of life. Cleaning up orbit Many scientists are working on identifying and removing space debris from orbit. Some use old-fashioned techniques inspired by the age of sail, such as harpoons and nets, to remove larger pieces of debris. But smaller pieces can hardly be seen, let alone captured. Earth’s atmosphere is always shimmering, like the road ahead on a hot day. It makes it hard for astronomers to see objects in space, particularly the smallest of space debris. NASA image showing damage to the Endeavour space shuttle’s radiator from space debris. circa 2007. CREDIT: NASA That’s where Electro Optic Systems (EOS) technology comes in. From Mount Stromlo in Canberra, Australian astronomers affix a laser to their telescope and shoot it into the sky, whose shimmering action then distorts the laser light. As astronomers know the laser should be a point of light, they can deform the telescope’s mirror until the laser image sharpens back to that pinpoint. The effects of the atmosphere have been corrected and now they have a telescope that can see the objects behind that laser point. With this sharpened view astronomers can spot debris and advise countries and companies to move their spacecraft, satellites or astronauts away from danger. They are also planning to use a different high-powered laser to shoot small pieces of debris – the pressure from the laser slowing the debris so it lowers its orbit towards the Earth, hitting the upper atmosphere and eventually burning up on re-entry. Australia has an important role in this global issue, as we monitor vast skies with space technologies that few others in the Southern Hemisphere have. Avoiding Kessler Syndrome It is vital we avoid causing more space junk. Since the 1950s we have sent thousands of rockets, satellites and assorted objects into space. That number is growing exponentially. Just this year, SpaceX set a record for the number of satellites sent to space on a single rocket: 143. Given our reliance on space and the incredible potential of satellite technology, we cannot expect countries and companies to stop sending satellites into orbit, nor should we want to. But as space becomes more populated, we will no longer be able to rely on human reaction to move satellites and the International Space Station out of the way in time. More collisions will cause more debris and eventually the avalanche will be set in motion. But what if satellites could move themselves out of the way? Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to create a system of satellites smarter than their predecessors, able to avoid debris and remain whole and operational. However, if these AI-enabled satellites cannot work together, the worst-case scenario could see them catalyse the very disaster we are trying to avoid. A satellite avoiding a single screw could shift out of the way, causing another satellite to move and another until a domino effect causes crashes – perhaps into the International Space Station, our slowest-moving asset and home to our astronauts. Swinburne University of Technology has partnered with professional services network EY (formerly Ernst & Young) and their space technology and AI lead for Oceania, Dr Olivia Sackett, the CSIRO’s data science research and engineering arm, Data 61, and the Australian space industry consortium SmartSat CRC to develop an industry standard for AI in space, so that systems from different owners can operate in the same space, literally. The project, called ‘Responsible AI in Space’, is a collaboration between space scientists, law and policy experts, the space industry, government and practitioners in the emerging field of AI assurance. AI assurance is about maximising the benefits and minimising the harms associated with AI-enabled systems. The team will create a framework that companies, satellite operators, regulators and insurers can use to assess the trustworthiness of AI-enabled systems in space. Responsible AI is the new final frontier in space – and it may be our final hope to preserve it too. This article is republished from The Age under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
08 November 2021 15:44
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/11/How-Australias-helping-to-fight-the-snowballing-threat-of-space-junk/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/11/How-Australias-helping-to-fight-the-snowballing-threat-of-space-junk/
Astronomy
false
-
Asia Pacific ‘Three Minute Thesis’ winner explores space construction
Asia Pacific ‘Three Minute Thesis’ winner explores space construction
Ever thought about building a house on the Moon? Swinburne PhD student Matthew Shaw, the winner of the Asia PacificThree Minute Thesis Competition, has.
Engineering PhD student and ‘extractive metallurgist’ Matthew Shaw has won the Asia Pacifc 2021 Three Minute Thesis (3MT) competition Shaw is researching how to overcome the harsh conditions in space to extract building material from Moon rocks He presented at the virtual 3MT finals, hosted by the University of Queensland, on 20 October An enthusiastic ‘extractive metallurgist’ has won in the Asia-Pacific 3MT Final, hosted by the University of Queensland, on 20 October. In his presentation ‘Lunacy’, Engineering PhD candidate Matthew Shaw breaks down his research into extracting metals from Moon rocks to construct large structures in space - an area he says has not been studied in detail before. 3MT entrants must present their research to a general audience in three minutes, with only a single slide as an aid. ‘Ever thought about building a house on the Moon? Flying a house up from Earth is way too expensive, so you need building materials,’ he says. Current estimates show it costs about $35,000 per kilogram to take materials to the Moon. Through his thesis, Matthew has explored the idea of extracting building materials - specifically metals - from Moon rocks by vaporising the rocks with concentrated sunlight to separate the metal from inside of them. The thesis was born from Matthew’s experience working in the mining industry, where he was subject to harsh environments including more than 100 degrees Celsius temperature ranges. It was developed with the help of his supervisors Professor Geoffrey Brooks, Professor Alan Duffy, Professor M Akbar Rhamdhani and CSIRO’s Dr Mark Pownceby. ‘It got me thinking a lot about the idea of working in even more extreme conditions, and space is nothing if not an extreme place.’ Each of the finalists presented a three-minute presentation outlining their thesis. Over the moon In addition to his own research, Matthew is part of the team at Swinburne’s Space Technology and Industry Institute, supervises undergraduate student research projects and mentors the high school students participating in the Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge to send an experiment to the International Space Station. ‘The semi-finals and finals each year always have some amazing talks, so I’m just happy to represent Swinburne and the new Space Technology and Industry Institute on the big stage. We’ve got some really cool work going on here in terms of space resource processing and it’s fun to be able to present that,’ he says. Dean of Graduate Research, Professor Georgina Kelly, hosted the Swinburne awards presentation, which was held virtually in July. She described 3MT as ‘the ultimate test of verbal communication skills for researchers.’ He has been awarded the first prize of a $5,000 research grant in addition to his prizes at the Swinburne competition: a $1,500 research grant and extra $500 for winning the ‘People’s Choice’ award, presented by Swinburne early career researcher program coordinator Associate Professor Stephane Shepherd. The Swinburne award presentation was hosted by Dean of Graduate Research, Professor Georgina Kelly An ‘outstanding’ presentation Matthew says collaborating with other PhD students and working on ‘elevator pitches’ for the competition was rewarding. ‘Being able to present your technical work in an accessible way is a really great skill to learn, and the 3MT competition really helps with that,’ he says. ‘No matter how confident you are, there’s always that little niggling doubt that maybe you’re still kidding yourself, so the positive response from everyone and the judges was pretty special,’ he says. Professor Kelly says that while all the presentations were ‘wonderful’, Matthew’s was ‘outstanding’. ‘He took a very technical topic and made it clear and relatable. His enthusiasm for the research shone through and grabbed the audience’s attention.’
21 October 2021 16:05
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/08/Swinburnes-three-minute-thesis-winner-explores-space-contruction/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/08/Swinburnes-three-minute-thesis-winner-explores-space-contruction/
Astronomy|Science|Engineering
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
-
Swinburne start-up receives $1.5m investment to help make mining environmentally safer
Swinburne start-up receives $1.5m investment to help make mining environmentally safer
Swinburne start-up mDetect has received a $1.5 million investment from the Federal Government’s Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre Commercialisation Fund to fast-track production of its hazardous waste early warning system.
mDetect, a spin-out company from Swinburne is using muon technology to help mining companies detect weaknesses in dams that secure highly toxic mining waste by-products The company has received a $1.5 million investment grant from the Federal Government's Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre Commercialisation Fund and partners to mass manufacture this device mDetect's early warning system will help make mining environmentally safer Australian start-up, mDetect, a spin-out company from Swinburne University of Technology, is using particles from space, known as muons, to help mining companies detect weaknesses in dams that secure highly toxic mining waste by-products, making them environmentally safer. The ground-breaking hazardous waste early warning system, using muon technology will revolutionise how mining companies monitor the stability of tailings dams, thanks to mDetect’s technology and a $1.5 million co-investment grant from the Federal Government’s Advanced Manufacturing Growth Centre (AMGC) Commercialisation Fund and partners to fast track its commercial production. Tailings dams are used by mining companies around the globe to manage potentially dangerous by-products. It is estimated that around three tailings dams fail worldwide every two years, with potentially damaging environmental outcomes. Until now there have been no detectable early warning signs from deep within the walls to prevent failure. Creating positive impact Swinburne University of Technology’s Vice-Chancellor Professor Pascale Quester said research and education into space technologies and their terrestrial applications have extraordinary potential for positive economic and social impact. ‘Swinburne is focused on ensuring that the vital research we do has significant positive impact. The important work of mDetect, led by Swinburne’s Professor Alan Duffy, is emblematic of Swinburne’s cutting-edge research and our ability to market innovative ideas. This is paving the way for successful research commercialisation that provides real solutions for industries,’ Professor Quester said. ‘It is projects like this that best exemplify our vision of bringing people and technology together to build a better world. We thank the AMGC for their support and commitment to this important initiative,’ she said. This aligns with the proactive nature of key industry partner, OZ Minerals who will deploy the device at their tailings dam at the Carrapateena Province. ‘OZ Minerals recognises our responsibility to meaningfully contribute to regional economic and social wellbeing as stronger communities create value for all stakeholders. By ethically and responsibly exploring for and mining copper, we contribute to a low carbon future and economic wellbeing, which helps us achieve our purpose and contribute to a better future. We congratulate mDetect on being awarded the AMGC grant, and the team at Carrapateena is excited to be collaborating with mDetect on the development of a fully supported, flexible 3D muon monitoring system,’ Myles Johnston, General Manager of OZ Minerals Carrapateena Province said. ‘mDetect is proof of the power of collaboration and what can be achieved when researchers and industry come together to commercialise world leading ideas. Their product offers a world-leading solution that has the potential to detect, prevent and mitigate failure of tailings dams across the world. Any investment in the prevention of tailings dam failures not only ensures mining operators can operate safely, but also reduces the chance of untold ecological, social and financial impacts from such adverse events,’ Managing Director of AMGC, Dr Jens Goennemann said. The mDetect team pulls together the deep technical expertise and research of Professor Alan Duffy, Dr Shanti Krishnan and Craig Webster, along with the business acumen and start-up experience of Dr Eryadi Masli and Dr Jerome Donovan. The mDetect team from (from left to right) Dr Jerome Donovan, Craig Webster, Professor Alan Duffy, Dr Eryadi Masli and Dr Shanti Krishnan. ‘Muons are heavier versions of electrons, that are made when cosmic rays slam into atoms in Earth's atmosphere. We have patented new detectors, that combined with powerful AI techniques, take an X-ray style scan through solid rock revealing different density structures,’ Professor Duffy said. An innovative solution The patented muon technology can provide intelligence on the internal structures and substances of buildings, infrastructure, and subterranean and aquatic features, opening up a range of commercial opportunities for the construction and mining industries. Simply put, muon technology can look through rock to create underground images and detect abnormalities which will provide the early warning signs needed to prevent potential structural failures. mDetect will work with local manufacturing company Elgee Industries and Swinburne’s Factory of the Future to produce the muon devices at scale. Connecting these devices and turning detections into underground images will be undertaken by Swinburne’s Astronomy Data and Computing Services (ADACS) software development team. ‘Elgee Industries is excited to participate in this cutting-edge project. Australia has the capacity to undertake advanced manufacturing onshore, and with the support from AMGC, this project will open up opportunities to propel Australia as a location that can offer advanced solutions to global issues,’ Managing Director, Elgee Industries, Andrew Mitchell said.
07 October 2021 15:18
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/10/swinburne-start-up-receives-backing-to-make-mining-environmentally-safer/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/10/swinburne-start-up-receives-backing-to-make-mining-environmentally-safer/
Astronomy|Technology|Sustainability
false
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Soundtrack your day with these (inter)stellar space songs
Soundtrack your day with these (inter)stellar space songs
From Dr Who to Mr Spock, Swinburne’s Dr Dan Golding has produced a space-themed soundtrack to inspire you to greater heights.
To celebrate 2021 Space Week, Senior Lecturer in Media and Communication Dr Dan Golding has put together an out-of-this-world space playlist to soundtrack your day The playlist features well-known classics from Star Wars and Star Trek, as well as modern masterpieces and cult classics Dr Golding says music inspired by space is so compelling because of its ability to help us comprehend the unknown Space has inspired countless generations of musicians and composers to create some of the most iconic soundtracks in history. Deputy Chair and Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications Dr Dan Golding is an ARIA Award-nominated composer and teaches Swinburne's Sound and the Screen unit as part of the Cinema and Screen Studies major. To celebrate World Space Week (4-10 October 2021), he has put together his favourite space-themed tracks on Spotify. The playlist, Songs to listen to in Space, is available here. We asked him what inspired his choices and what elements help make a big bang. Why is music so important to movies and TV shows about space? I think out of all possible settings for movies and TV, space is so impossibly vast and incomprehensible for most viewers. Music, as one of the artforms most easily able to connect with our emotions, helps us to understand and comprehend the unknown - and what’s more unknown than space? What makes a great space song or soundtrack? There are a few different approaches and each of them can reach greatness. There’s the spooky, threatening sound of space (and usually aliens). For that you want lots of electronics and synths that amplify the threat of the unknown. Then, there’s space music that’s about awe and spectacle. I love this type - lots of slow-moving music that sparks our sense of reverence for nature and science. It builds on the kind of stuff that would be written for religious ceremonies in centuries gone by – songs of praise and beatification – and turns it outwards to the galaxy around us. What are some of your favourites on this playlist and why? The classics are all here- your Star Wars, Star Trek, Close Encounters, Aliens - and I love them all deeply (I even wrote a book about Star Wars!). But I love some of the more recent music, too. I didn’t much care for the film, but Max Richter’s music for Ad Astra is just brilliant, as is the great Jóhann Jóhannsson’s incredibly clever music for Arrival. Then there’s Natalie Holt’s score for Loki this year, brilliantly incorporating a retro sci-fi sound into a very contemporary series. Any artists or songs you’d like to highlight from the playlist? How great a genius was Delia Derbyshire?! That original Dr. Who soundtrack, made by Derbyshire at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, still sounds like the future even though it’s more than 50 years old. And although this is primarily film and TV music, I couldn’t resist throwing in a few tracks from Gustav Holst’s The Planets suite. For so many composers of all stripes, his music helped define the sound of space, and it’s been a huge influence on the musical world of the movies. Inspired to start your own journey into space? As one of Swinburne’s flagship areas of teaching and research, we have world-leading experts and technology to help you boldly take your first step. Check out our Space Science and Technology co-major and the Space Technology and Industry Institute for more information.
01 October 2021 15:32
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/10/soundtrack-your-day-with-these-interstellar-space-songs/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/10/soundtrack-your-day-with-these-interstellar-space-songs/
Astronomy|Film and television
false
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Galaxies at the beginning of time invisible due to cosmic air pollution
Galaxies at the beginning of time invisible due to cosmic air pollution
Scientists have discovered two completely hidden galaxies that formed when the Universe was only five per cent of its present age.
Scientists have found two completely hidden galaxies that formed when the Universe was only in its infancy This discovery suggests that many more galaxies might still be hidden and our picture of the beginning of the Universe is far from complete The results were published in the journal Nature While investigating young, extremely distant galaxies through the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope in Chile, astronomers noticed unexpected emissions coming from seemingly empty regions in space. A global research collaboration that includes two core team members from Swinburne University of Technology discovered that the radiation was emitted billions of years ago and came from two previously invisible galaxies that were hidden by giant clouds of cosmic gas and dust. This discovery suggests that many more galaxies might still be hidden and our picture of the beginning of the Universe is far from complete. The results were published in the journal Nature. When astronomers peer deep into the night sky, they observe what the Universe looked like a long time ago. Light travels at a cosmic snail’s pace, which means by the time it reaches us images of the most distant observable galaxies can paint a picture of the state of the Universe billions of years into the past. ‘Studying these early times, when the Universe was very young and galaxies had just started to form stars, is one of the ultimate frontiers in astronomy,’ says co-author of the study, Swinburne’s Dr Themiya Nanayakkara. ‘It is essential for our understanding of the formation of all stars and galaxies and ultimately tells the story of our own origins.’ In a research collaboration called REBELS (Reionisation-Era Bright Emission Line Survey), astronomers are using the unique capabilities of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) telescope to study distant galaxies at wavelengths of roughly a millimetre. What the team wants to measure is how fast young galaxies grow by forming new stars. The REBELS team observed 40 distant galaxies at a time when the Universe was only in its infancy – 750 million years old, or five per cent of its current age. While analysing two of the galaxies, the astronomers noticed a strong mysterious emission at millimetre wavelengths far away from the intended targets. To their surprise, the extremely sensitive Hubble Space Telescope, which probes the sky at shorter visible wavelengths, could not see anything at these locations. Ultra-distant galaxies as seen with ALMA, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the European Southern Observatory’s VISTA telescope. The two galaxies in the cross hairs were the intended targets. The two galaxies in the squares are surprise detections. Green represents emission from giant dust clouds, orange is radiation from ionised carbon atoms in the clouds (both observed with ALMA) and blue is light from stars seen at near infrared wavelengths with VISTA and the Hubble Space Telescope. The newly discovered galaxies are only seen with ALMA, which suggests that the stars in these galaxies are deeply buried in dust and hidden from view. Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, ESO, Fudamoto et al. To understand the rogue signals, REBELS researchers investigated matters further. Detailed analysis of the signals showed that these were in fact separate galaxies bursting with stars that had been completely overlooked. Lead author Dr Fudamoto (Waseda University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan) explains: ‘These new galaxies were missed not because they are extremely rare, but only because they are completely dust-obscured.’ ALMA was able to solve the puzzle because at millimeter wavelengths it can directly detect the emission of dust and carbon atoms in the gas surrounding the galaxies. One of the galaxies represents the most distant dust-obscured galaxy discovered on record. What is surprising about this inadvertent finding is that the newly discovered galaxies, seen 13 billion years ago, are very similar to galaxies known to exist at later times. Co-author, Swinburne’s Professor Ivo Labbé says to find such dust-enshrouded galaxies this early in time, less than 1 billion years after the Big Bang, was completely unexpected. ‘Cosmic soot is produced in stars that act as factories,’ Professor Labbé says. ‘It’s a kind of cosmic air pollution, really. Over time you eventually can’t see the stars anymore due to the thick smog.’ The results raise immediate questions about how many more galaxies may be missing. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) – to be launched in December 2021 – will help address these questions. The unprecedented capability of JWST and its strong synergy with ALMA are expected to significantly advance our understanding of the known Universe in the coming years. ‘Completing our census of early galaxies with the currently missing dust-obscured galaxies, like the ones we found this time, will be one of the main objectives of JWST and ALMA surveys in the near future,’ says co-author Professor Pascal Oesch from the University of Geneva. Swinburne researchers have also been using their access to uniquely powerful WM Keck telescopes in Hawaii to study the chemical properties and black holes of galaxies in the REBELS program. This study represents an important step in uncovering the true nature and history of the early Universe, which in turn will help us understand where we are standing today.
23 September 2021 09:23
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/09/galaxies-at-the-beginning-of-time-invisible-due-to-cosmic-air-pollution/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/09/galaxies-at-the-beginning-of-time-invisible-due-to-cosmic-air-pollution/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
-
Swinburne’s Dr Rebecca Allen wins Young Tall Poppy Science Award
Swinburne’s Dr Rebecca Allen wins Young Tall Poppy Science Award
Swinburne astronomer Dr Rebecca Allen has been recognised as an outstanding young scientific researcher and communicator with a prestigious Young Tall Poppy Science award.
Dr Rebecca Allen has been selected by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science to receive a prestigious Young Tall Poppy Science award The awards honour up-and-coming scientists who combine world-class research with a passionate commitment to communicating science Swinburne astronomer Dr Rebecca Allen has been recognised as an outstanding young scientific researcher and communicator with a prestigious Young Tall Poppy Science award. Dr Allen’s PhD research focused on using images from the Hubble Space Telescope combined with deep ground-based imaging to study the growth of galaxies over time. Swinburne astronomer Dr Rebecca Allen has been recognised as an outstanding young scientific researcher and communicator with a prestigious Young Tall Poppy Science award. Dr Allen’s PhD research focused on using images from the Hubble Space Telescope combined with deep ground-based imaging to study the growth of galaxies over time. She has since transitioned into space technology and leads the Microgravity theme of Swinburne’s new Space Technology and Industry Institute, collaborating with industry and academics on testing of materials, biotechnology and physics in microgravity environments. Dr Allen has built an impressive media profile and regularly appears on TV and radio discussing the latest developments in space. She leads Swinburne Astronomy Productions, has produced two virtual reality movies and in pre-pandemic times hosted school students for AstroTours at Swinburne’s virtual reality theatre. Dr Allen also leads the Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge, where university and high-school students work together to send experiments to the International Space Station. During National Science Week, she has led Swinburne’s Science in VR (SciVR) program. This program enables science for all, sending virtual reality headsets across the country for members of the public to tour the night sky, guided by Dr Allen alongside Professor Alan Duffy in a special online event. ‘Rebecca’s ethos is to make science accessible to everyone, and to encourage students and the general public alike to share her love of space and science,’ says Swinburne Chief Scientist and Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Professor Virginia Kilborn. ‘It was amazing to learn that I was one of the Victorian recipients of the award and to have all my efforts recognised, says Dr Allen. ‘I chose space because it encompasses our whole Universe! But teaching and communicating is also learning as you are challenged to step back and understand how others learn. ‘We have launched several meaningful outreach programs at Swinburne and it is my hope that this award shines a light on those efforts. Our ambitions are to see these initiatives grow so that we can reach even more students and inspire the community. ‘By using immersive and interactive programs to share our knowledge, we can reach diverse audiences and empower them through hands-on experiences.’ Young Tall Poppy Science Awards The Young Tall Poppy Science Awards were established in 2000. They are run by the Australian Institute of Policy and Science (AIPS) to honour up-and-coming scientists who combine world-class research with a passionate commitment to communicating science. Young Tall Poppies are nominated by their peers and are early career researchers who have under ten years’ post-doctoral experience. Selection is based on research achievement and leadership potential.
17 September 2021 08:50
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/09/swinburnes-dr-rebecca-allen-wins-young-tall-poppy-science-award/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/09/swinburnes-dr-rebecca-allen-wins-young-tall-poppy-science-award/
Astronomy
Research,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Award Winners,Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET)
Science
false
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Tall poppies growing to orbit
Tall poppies growing to orbit
Australia’s space industry is well and truly off the ground. It’s reaching for the sky. But it’s not there yet. Co-written for Cosmos Weekly Taster by Professor Alan Duffy, Swinburne University of Technology and Rebecca Shrimpton, Defence, Space and Infrastructure at the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade).
Australia’s space industry is well and truly off the ground. It’s reaching for the sky. But it’s not there yet. Co-written for Cosmos Weekly Taster by Professor Alan Duffy, Swinburne University of Technology and Rebecca Shrimpton, Defence, Space and Infrastructure at the Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade). The promise of the global space economy has been recognised. Innovation is being celebrated. Ambitions are being nurtured. The time has come for these seedlings to bloom. That still needs effort. Australia must embrace a sense of urgency. But it must be tempered by accepting the risk space has always embodied. Only when our space sector is recognised as a national endeavour can the poppies we’ve planted grow tall. The environmental and logistical challenges of space drive us to innovate, pushing technological boundaries, and creating new market sectors. Morgan Stanley expects global space revenues to grow from US$350 billion ($474 billion) in 2020 to US$1 trillion ($1.355 trillion) by 2040, largely driven by satellite constellation construction. The promise of the global space economy will require imagination and audacity to realise, but it is potentially transformative for the wider economy. This is particularly so in Australia, blessed by geography which is near ideal for supporting space launch, deep space exploration, and space tourism. We have an entrepreneurial, if small-scale, space and innovation ecosystem. But innovation needs support, direction and time. It also requires that we must accept we may fail completely in some endeavours. This demands an appetite for risk and a depth of pocket that Australian investors, government and private, may not all share. We also must acknowledge that we can succeed spectacularly and not shy from this potential, we need to proudly champion such tall poppies. Rocket science is a byword for advanced, challenging, and risky undertakings. It is the benchmark for excellence that superpowers and start-up billionaires alike compare and contrast one another against. The science of space underpins the fastest growing economic sector globally in the world. Judging by recent significant VC investments in the US (investors put US$10 billion into launch 2010–20 and added US$3 billion in Q1/Q2 2021 alone), this expectation may in fact be exceeded. The Australian Space Agency targets has a target to grow the Australian space industry growth of to $12 billion by 2030. The imperative to grow Australia’s space sector goes beyond the commercial; it has critical importance to defence, with sovereign capabilities in space key to our future national security and prosperity. To understand the future opportunities, and the specific measures Australia should take to realise them, we first must understand the current state of the Australian space sector. Broadly speaking, the sector has excellent international connections, including through universities, to organisations such as the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the European Space Agency (ESA), and the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA). It has decades of experience in delivering space situational awareness and (primarily deep-space) communications for these partners by the CSIRO. The Australian Department of Defence participates in the Combined Space Operations Initiative with Five Eyes partners. This connects policy, operational and capability staff across nations, and underpins the most critical strategic relationships that we rely on for access to the most highly sophisticated global space architecture. Through defence primes like Boeing, Leidos, Airbus, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, and BAE Systems, we have industry-driven partnerships that have integrated local manufacturing into a global supply chain for the very highest technology systems. Examples abound, such as Electro Optic Systems (EOS), Marand Precision Engineering, Titomic, Amaero, Nova Systems, all connecting to the very large initiatives in space and defence not just nationally but also competing internationally. With $61M invested recently in a Series C funding round, Gilmour Space Technologies has received more private funding than the entire Australian Space Agency has for four years of operations, making real the exciting and necessary promise of a sovereign launch capability for smallsat scale launches. It has also well-positioned Gilmour to act as a domestic prime alongside the likes of EOS and Nova Systems. We have nascent but rapidly growing spaceport providers domestically too, in the Top End through Equatorial Launch Australia, Southern Launch in South Australia and most recently Gilmour at Queensland’s Abbot Point. Potential customers from these launch capabilities include the likes of NASA as well as innovative (domestic and international) commercial rocket companies, and domestic satellite operators. Notable Internet of Space Things providers like Myriota and Fleet Space Technologies are growing rapidly by connecting low bit-rate ground sensors across Australia and beyond. FrontierSI delivers end-user products and insights to industry and government with AI applied to remote sensing from private as well as public satellites. Monitoring of this busy prime orbital real estate is being pursued by end-to-end mapping platform for space by LeoLabs, promising a level of space domain awareness unrivalled in this hemisphere. In general, the downstream opportunities that use the data from space, as opposed to the upstream sectors such as the building of rockets or communication dishes, are typically cheaper to fund and represent a growing startup community that leverages data science skills from graduates of our world-renowned universities. A number of these startups formed the Aurora cluster of the SmartSat CRC and offer an exciting way to rapidly grow the space sector in absolute numbers, as well as interactions with adjacent sectors like agriculture. This CRC represents the single largest concentration of space R&D funds outside of defence programs and is a key driver of innovation and translation of research from academia to industry. But we need to encourage greater industry collaboration with (and ultimately knowledge transfer from) our university sector. Venture Capital (VC) funds and Angel Investors can be encouraged through improved ratios of matched funding schemes from government. The superannuation funds could be mobilised to create a national building activity for space through a better-informed risk assessment of the sector. We have already seen just such an undertaking by major superannuation funds HESTA, Hostplus and NGS Super, who joined that Series C fundraising round for Gilmour by VC Funds nationally (Main Sequence Ventures, Blackbird Ventures) and internationally (with the USA’s Fine Structure Ventures). If this opens the door to further significant capital influxes, we could unleash the private sector nationwide in delivering new techniques and technologies. Yet an entire national ecosystem needs an astronomically large pull signal too. For that, significant resources and a sense of urgency, coupled with a willingness to risk short-term failure to deliver longer-term sovereign capability is required. Developing our space sector is nothing less than a national endeavour, and it is only a coordinated national-systems approach that can likely deliver it at scale. By perceiving the space domain as a national infrastructure challenge we can secure greater investment certainty for domestic and international players over years, ensure the supply chain matures in-country, and is competitive outside it. This investment cannot be spread thinly, it needs to be strategically and deliberately concentrated in precincts or hubs that drive a critical mass that becomes self-sustaining. There are choices involved. Tall poppies require selective nurturing, and not every sub-sector or company will flourish. But we must invest strategically in some if we are to realise a more prosperous future for all. Originally published by Cosmos as Tall poppies growing to orbit | Cosmos Weekly Taster.
16 September 2021 11:47
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/09/tall-poppies-growing-to-orbit/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/09/tall-poppies-growing-to-orbit/
Astronomy
false
-
Indigenous technology is often misunderstood. Here’s how it can be part of everyday life
Indigenous technology is often misunderstood. Here’s how it can be part of everyday life
The COVID-19 pandemic poses many problems for our modern, technological world, but also provides an opportunity to embrace ancient and valuable Indigenous technology. Analysis for The Conversation by Andrew Peters, Swinburne University of Technology.
The COVID-19 pandemic poses many problems for our modern, technological world, but also provides an opportunity to embrace ancient and valuable Indigenous technology. Analysis for The Conversation by Andrew Peters, Swinburne University of Technology. The COVID pandemic has highlighted our need for connection and forced billions of people to adapt to a changed world. Much of this adaptation is heavily reliant on technology, and in particular information technology, which is being used to keep many people connected. Although the pandemic is posing many problems for our modern, technological world, it also presents an opportunity to embrace ancient and valuable Indigenous knowledges and identify potential within them in different ways. The notion of Indigenous technology is one such opportunity. A history of Indigenous technology Indigenous technology is a relatively misunderstood phenomenon. This isn’t the use of technology by or for the benefit of Indigenous peoples. It refers to the multiple ways that Indigenous knowledges are used to improve the lives of humans – ancient practices that have existed in various parts of the world that are still relevant, and prevalent, today Indigenous knowledges and technology have been linked from the beginning of time. Fundamental concepts of Indigenous knowledges can and should underpin the development and role of technology in multiple ways. These concepts include: relationality and connection reciprocity reflexivity Country Relationality/connection refers to the Indigenous understanding of all things being connected. One action can impact many others – similar to the fundamental Western scientific concept of “cause and effect”. Embracing and understanding reciprocity ensures the benefits of the use of technology don’t come at the expense of others (including people, plants, animals and the broader environment). Reflexivity involves the constant cycle of learning and listening that underpins knowledge creation and transfer for Indigenous peoples and cultures. It is also seen as an important element of research and development in the world of technology (particularly relevant now as we are developing ways to treat COVID. And Country refers to the grounding of knowledges in our land and all it contains. Our knowledges and languages come from the land, and this is where they belong. This makes our knowledges contextual and specific to a certain group. Understanding the specifics of a certain group is crucial to gaining cultural knowledge. In the world of business technology, this relates to knowing and understanding your market and their specific wants and needs – a fundamental principle of marketing. Aboriginal woman showing the traditional bush seeds used for food and agriculture. Shutterstock. Native foods and food technology Native foods and food technology have sustained Indigenous communities all over the world for thousands of years. Today, native foods are used in a variety of ways, including connecting people with culture through culinary experiences such as the Tasmanian “Wave to Plate” project. In southeast Australia, the Wurundjeri people’s name comes from the Witchetty grub found in the Manna gum that is rich in Vitamin C and good for skin wounds. Wurundjeri people still use plants such as the Manna gum (Eucalyptus), murrnong and tee tree (melaleuca) for both nutritional and medical purposes. Native groups in North America have practised plant-based medicinal practices for thousands of years, and continue to this day. This includes the direct consumption of plant parts, using them as ointments, and boiling them as part of tea drinks. Some groups also use conifer needles to create tonics rich in vitamin C for treating diseases. Agriculture and aquaculture Thousands of years ago, the Gunditjmara people of Budj Bim in western Victoria modified natural features and created a series of artificial ponds, wetlands and networks of channels. These practices allowed water flows between dams to accommodate the farming of eels. The Gunditjmara people also built substantial stone structures close to work sites to shelter from chilly southerly winds that can still be seen in various parts of western Victoria today. Fire management Indigenous cultural burning and fire management is another ancient practice that lives on today. These practises are increasingly being used as tools for national park management, emergency services and other organisations to better understand our native environment and connect with Aboriginal cultures, peoples and histories. Dhimarru Indigenous Rangers teaching traditional fire making at Garma Festival. Shutterstock. Astronomy and geology Traditional Indigenous storytelling has enabled modern-day scientists to discover meteorites they might not otherwise have found. And in New Zealand, geologists are continuing to use Maori traditions to better understand earthquakes and tsunamis. Health and well-being Concepts of Indigenous and Western health and medicine have long differed. Western health has primarily focused on “problem correction” and the patient’s physiology. Whereas for Indigenous people, health and well-being have long included physical, mental, spiritual and environmental issues for both individuals and communities – what Western health now calls “holistic care”. Scar trees are formed when Aboriginal people remove sections of bark for shelters, shields, and rafts. Shutterstock. Transport Indigenous peoples have found innumerable ways to physically navigate their Country, including with the bark canoe, a symbol of transport technology. Using the bark from an appropriate tree, the process today revisits ancient traditions and provides direct cultural connection for many young Aboriginal people. The prevalence of scar trees in many parts of the country shows just how widespread this practice still is. These continued uses of Indigenous technology are an affirmation of culture and history for Aboriginal peoples. It’s also a clear way for all Australians to connect with a culture that not only has a deep, deep history on our land, but continues and is still growing today. This piece was produced as part of Social Sciences Week, running 6-12 September. A full list of 70 events can be found here. Andrew Peters will appear on the panel discussion “Indigenous Peoples and Technology” on Wednesday, September 8 at 10.30am. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
07 September 2021 16:03
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/09/Indigenous-technology-is-often-misunderstood-Heres-how-it-can-be-part-of-everyday-life/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/09/Indigenous-technology-is-often-misunderstood-Heres-how-it-can-be-part-of-everyday-life/
Astronomy|Technology|Health|Sustainability
false
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New stars create space pollution, research confirms
New stars create space pollution, research confirms
Using new space imaging technology, researchers have confirmed that the creation of new stars drives a huge amount of material back into the universe, comprising over half the Periodic Table.
New research confirms that newly-created stars pollute the cosmos, releasing huge amounts of material back into the universe To make the discovery, a team of astronomers led by Swinburne’s Associate Professor Deanne Fisher used new imaging technology to study a galaxy 500 light years away Swinburne is the only Australian university with access to the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii, which was used to make the discovery Swinburne researchers studying a galaxy 500 light years away have revealed how newly-created stars pollute the cosmos. A team of astronomers, co-led by Associate Professor Deanne Fisher at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne University and the University of Oxford’s Dr Alex Cameron, has used a new imaging system at the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii to confirm that what flows into a galaxy in the process of star-creation is a lot cleaner that what flows out. Until now, the composition of the inward and outward flows into galaxies could only be guessed at. This research by the ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) is the first time the full cycle has been confirmed in a galaxy other than the Milky Way. “Enormous clouds of gas are pulled into galaxies and used in the process of making stars,” says Professor Fisher. “On its way in it is made of hydrogen and helium. By using a new piece of equipment called the Keck Cosmic Web Imager, we were able to confirm that stars made from this fresh gas eventually drive a huge amount of material back out of the system, mainly through supernovas. “But this stuff is no longer nice and clean – it contains lots of other elements, including oxygen, carbon and iron.” Observing future galaxies Swinburne is the only Australian university with guaranteed access to the world's largest and most productive optical/infra-red telescopes — the twin Keck Observatory telescopes located near the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii. To make their findings, the researchers focused on a galaxy called Mrk 1486, which lies about 500 light years from the Sun and is going through a period of very rapid star formation. The elements that were found in the expulsions – known as “outflows” – comprise over half the Periodic Table and are forged deep inside the cores of the stars through nuclear fusion. When the stars collapse or go nova the results are catapulted into the Universe. Here they form part of the matrix from which newer stars, planets, asteroids and, in at least one instance, life emerges. Mrk 1486 was the perfect candidate for observation because it lies “edge-on” to Earth, meaning that the outflowing gas could be easily viewed, and its composition measured. “This work is important for astronomers because for the first time we’ve been able to put limits on the forces that strongly influence how galaxies make stars,” says Professor Fisher. “It takes us one step closer to understanding how and why galaxies look the way they do – and how long they will last.” The research is published in The Astrophysical Journal. Other scientists contributing to the work are based at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Maryland at College Park and the University of California at San Diego – all in the US – plus the Universidad de Concepcion in Chile.
31 August 2021 08:30
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/08/new-stars-create-space-pollution-research-confirms/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/08/new-stars-create-space-pollution-research-confirms/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
-
Swinburne scores world-leading tech for space manufacturing
Swinburne scores world-leading tech for space manufacturing
A multimillion-dollar collaboration between Swinburne and additive manufacturing company Titomic, will enable the creation of lighter, stronger and more capable structures for space, including rocket nozzles and satellite components using ‘green’ titanium.
A new multimillion-dollar partnership will bring Titomic’s TKF1000 system to Swinburne, one of only two such 3D printing systems in the world. This will be the first system at an Australian university and will provide students, researchers and industry partners access to world-leading technology. The project was supported by a $2.3 million Australian Government grant and forms part of Swinburne’s national space manufacturing facility. Swinburne University of Technology is expanding its world-leading manufacturing capabilities through a new multimillion-dollar partnership with Melbourne-based additive manufacturing company Titomic. The collaboration will bring Titomic’s TKF1000 system to Swinburne, one of only two such 3D printing systems ever built. The machine saves money, time and precious metal resources by replacing long, slow and expensive labour-based methods to create space vehicle parts with a rapid-build process. Supported by a $2.3 million Australian Government Modern Manufacturing Initiative grant, this will enable the creation of lighter, stronger and more capable structures for space using materials such as low carbon emission ‘green’ titanium. This includes rocket nozzles, satellite components and high-performance coatings for radiation shielding and hypersonic protection. Director of Swinburne’s Space Technology and Industry Institute Professor Alan Duffy described the grant as a huge step forward for Australia’s manufacturing sector and an opportunity to leapfrog international competition in space. “This grant takes the longstanding collaboration between Titomic and Swinburne University of Technology to a new level, building Australia’s reputation as an innovative and high-value space manufacturing nation,” says Professor Duffy. “We welcome companies and researchers to access this national space manufacturing facility in Victoria.” New frontiers, new possibilities This will be the first TKF1000 system at an Australian university and further extends the capabilities of the Australian Research Council Industrial Transformation Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM) , which is led by Swinburne Distinguished Professor Christopher Berndt. Using this technology, students, researchers and industry partners will be able to create large components in a faster and more environmentally responsible way, while opening exciting new possibilities for combining advanced material science at SEAM with cutting edge industrial additive manufacturing. Senior Research Engineer Dr Andrew Ang says the technology is a game-changer for Swinburne and the Australian space industry, in a sector that is projected to be worth US$1.1 trillion globally by 2040. “Currently in traditional subtractive manufacturing, up to 90% of materials are machined off during the production of aerospace parts. This technology will allow us to load a file and print a near net shape object, just like a 3D printer but at a much faster rate. No other technology can currently do this at this scale,” he says. “Most importantly, it will allow us to train the next generation of Australian space industry workers and grow our biggest asset – our people.” Unparalleled learning experience Swinburne University of Technology Vice-Chancellor Pascale Quester welcomed the grant and hailed both its educational potential and the economic value. “Having the TKF1000 additive manufacturing system in the heart of Swinburne’s Hawthorn campus offers our students direct access to a world-leading technology facility in the growing advanced manufacturing and space sector,” says Professor Quester. “It’s a learning experience you cannot find anywhere else in Australia.” “We’re proud to be partnering with Titomic on this exciting new facility, and grateful to the Commonwealth Government for their foresight in funding a collaboration that will help shape our future economy.”
27 August 2021 14:20
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/08/swinburne-scores-world-leading-tech-for-space-manufacturing/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/08/swinburne-scores-world-leading-tech-for-space-manufacturing/
Astronomy|Science|Engineering
Research,Industry 4.0
Sustainability
false
-
Is space infinite? We asked 5 experts
Is space infinite? We asked 5 experts
Despite innovations in telescope and satellite technology, what's beyond our line of sight in space is uncertain. Analysis for The Conversation featuring Anna Moore, Australian National University, Kevin Orrman-Rossiter, University of Melbourne, Sam Baron, Australian Catholic University, Tanya Hill, University of Melbourne and Sara Webb, Swinburne University of Technology.
Despite innovations in telescope and satellite technology, what's beyond our line of sight in space is uncertain. Analysis for The Conversation featuring Anna Moore, Australian National University, Kevin Orrman-Rossiter, University of Melbourne, Sam Baron, Australian Catholic University, Tanya Hill, University of Melbourne and Sara Webb, Swinburne University of Technology. We’ve known for some time now our universe is expanding, and in recent years discovered this was happening considerably faster than we’d expected. Yet despite momentous innovations in telescope and satellite technology, it’s thought much of what’s out there in the cosmos lies beyond our line of sight — beyond the “observable universe”, as it’s called. It also means we don’t know with any certainty what shape the universe as a whole takes — whether it’s a closed cosmic “doughnut”, a flat plain that stretches out like an endless piece of paper, or a giant sphere in a state of constant expansion. This has left scientists wondering about the furthest reaches of space and what they may look like. What do they think regarding the fate of the universe? Will it expand forever? We asked five of them — and it seems the jury is still out. Space experts often refer to the doughnut-like torus shape, which has no edges or vertices. The torus is important as a mathematical object. WikiCommons Here are their detailed responses: Anna Moore, Astronomer - maybe The short answer is we don’t know. We know the observable universe — the part we can visibly see and measure — began around 13.8 billion years ago with the Big Bang. So we know the age of the universe is finite at least from the time of the Big Bang. But the universe is getting bigger. It has been expanding in all directions ever since the Big Bang and continues to (and recently it has been getting faster and faster). Leftover radiation from the Big Bang, which we call the “cosmic microwave background”, represents the earliest picture of the universe, back when it was smaller, hotter and denser. We can take images from this early time to understand the universe’s shape (or geometry) on the largest scale. Knowing this is important to knowing whether the universe is infinite or finite. Measurements taken by satellites have pointed to the universe having a flat geometry. In a flat universe, two light beams shot side by side through space will stay parallel forever, and will never cross or drift apart. In this sense, we can still think of a cylinder or torus (donut) shaped universe as being “flat”. Current measurements aren’t accurate enough for us to know whether the universe’s flat geometry is represented by a piece of paper, a cylinder, torus, or any other shape that permits the parallel passage of two beams of light. An infinite universe could have a geometry that is totally flat like a piece of paper. Such a universe would go on forever and include every possibility — including endless versions of ourselves. On the other hand, a donut-shaped universe would have to be finite, as it's closed. But for now we still don't know the shape of the universe, and therefore nor can we know its size. Sara Webb, Astrophysicist - yes I believe so. We know the universe had a beginning with the Big Bang. And from what we observe, this beginning didn’t occur in any one area. No matter where you are in the universe (in this galaxy or one far, far away) space appears to be expanding in all directions, with you at the centre. Now, we calculate the universe is about 13.8 billion years old, which means that’s how much time space has had to expand. So logically we’d expect space to be 13.8 billion light years across, right? But the size of the observable universe is actually 46 billion light years, meaning the very first light we can see emitted (380,000 years after the Big Bang), came from a distance that is now 46 billion light years away. This is due to something called “rapid inflation” (more on this later). However, there's no reason to suggest the edge of the observable universe is the edge of the actual universe. We tend to think of things as having 3D shapes: a sphere, cube, a cone. We could think of the universe as a sphere expanding indefinitely and infinitely. Or it might curve and bend in ways that could make it a closed system (like a donut), where if you were to travel in a straight line for long enough, eventually you’d end up back where you started: space would be finite. But I lean towards another possibility, which considers the rapid inflation that followed the Big Bang. There's a theory this inflation is actually eternal inflation, meaning it’s always occurring at one point or another in the universe — rendering the universe infinite. This begins to dive into the mind-boggling idea of quantum fluctuations and even multiverses. And being the sci-fi lover I am, how could I not want this to be true? Tanya Hill, Astronomer - yes There’s a limit to how much of the universe we can see. The observable universe is finite in that it hasn’t existed forever. It extends 46 billion light years in every direction from us. (While our universe is 13.8 billion years old, the observable universe reaches further since the universe is expanding). The observable universe is centred on us. An alien in a galaxy far away would have its own observable universe. While there may be some overlap, they would inevitably see regions we can’t see. Therefore, it’s not possible to see if the universe is finite, because we can’t see it all. Instead, we can tackle this question by exploring the universe's shape. While we don’t know the shape of all space, we do know our part of space is flat. This means two rockets flying parallel on cruise control will always remain parallel. Because space isn't curved they will never meet or drift away from each other. A flat universe could be infinite: imagine a 2D piece of paper that stretches out forever. But it could also be finite: imagine taking a piece of paper, making a cylinder and joining the ends to make a torus (doughnut) shape. Therein lies the problem. Additionally, there are many ways the universe could have been curved, but instead we live in a region of flat space. This is a very specific condition and we use a theory called “inflation” to explain it. Inflation is the idea that very early on the universe rapidly expanded for a brief moment, smoothing out all the kinks and curvatures in our part of space. After inflation, the universe grew to what we see today. But it’s possible inflation didn’t just seed our universe. Perhaps it also occurred elsewhere and is happening still. How big might that make the entire universe, or multiverse? It opens up such possibilities that, to my thinking, an infinite universe becomes easier to imagine than a finite one. Sam Baron, Philosopher of Science - no There is one tempting line of reasoning that suggests space must be infinite, but which I believe is wrong. It goes like this: if space is finite, then it would have an edge. But imagine getting into your spaceship and flying to the far reaches of the universe. It seems inconceivable you would find an edge. What would the edge even look like? Surely space must go on forever. But there's another way for space to be finite. It could be a torus, which is spatially finite but edge-free, like a cosmic donut. If the universe is donut-shaped, then there’s a very natural scientific test that would reveal whether it is finite. Imagine you aim a beam of light at a reflective surface very far away. If the surface is uneven, the light will be reflected in multiple directions. If the universe is a donut, the reflected rays bouncing back will gradually curve with the shape of the universe, and will eventually wrap back in on themselves and intersect (diagram here). This can only happen if the universe is finite, mind you. In an infinite universe the rays would continue forever. Now, imagine you’re standing at the point where the light rays intersect. If you turn to one side, you will see the object that reflected the ray. If you turn to your other side, you will see the same object but from a different angle. So if the reflective object was a distant planet, you would see the same planet twice. Scientists have already begun to look for this hall of mirrors effect in the dim glow left over from the Big Bang. It would provide evidence of not just the size but also the shape of the cosmos. While nothing conclusive has been found yet, who knows what we might uncover if we keep looking! Kevin Orrman-Rossiter, Science Historian - no By “infinite” we usually mean something which is limitless or endless. My position is space is finite. However, to demonstrate that let's propose, for a moment, that space is infinite. In a simple sense if this were the case and I set out in a spaceship in any direction, I would never reach a boundary. But there's a problem with this experiment: I would need to travel for an infinitely long period of time to ensure there isn’t a boundary “just a little further out”. It doesn’t matter what speed I travel. My voyage of proof would need to be infinite in order to prove my hypothesis that space is infinite. Now, not many grant bodies are going to fund such an experiment. This highlights that to provide proof, we must do so through observation rather than direct experiment. Over the past century, we’ve learnt a lot about our universe through observation. We know that space, the universe, had a beginning some 13.8 billion years ago. We know from observation that it's expanding and we have detected the cosmic microwave background, which is thought to be leftover radiation from the Big Bang. Space as we see it today is a slowly expanding web of galaxies. One key question in cosmology is whether this expansion will continue, change pace or reverse. Answering this involves understanding the properties of dark matter and dark energy. The interesting point is no matter the model of the universe (and there are still important pieces missing here), the current cosmological thinking is there will be an ending and the universe will not persist forever. It has a finite existence in time and, to return to the start of my argument, therefore I would propose that at some stage my spaceship voyage will reach an end. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
11 August 2021 08:34
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/08/Is-space-infinite-we-asked-5-experts/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/08/Is-space-infinite-we-asked-5-experts/
Astronomy
false
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I’m training to become Australia’s first woman astronaut. Here’s what it takes
I’m training to become Australia’s first woman astronaut. Here’s what it takes
Going to space is no easy task and requires a lot of training to achieve. Analysis for The Conversation by Kim Ellis Hayes, Swinburne University of Technology.
Going to space is no easy task and requires a lot of training to achieve. Analysis for The Conversation by Kim Ellis Hayes, Swinburne University of Technology. I’m currently training to become Australia’s first woman astronaut. I expect to fly my first suborbital mission sometime in 2023 as a payload specialist on a commercial mission. In other words, I’ll be one of few certified crew members who can handle specialised scientific equipment aboard a suborbital spacecraft. Once we’re up there, my team and I expect to conduct research on Earth’s atmosphere. It’s an opportunity I consider out of this world. But it has taken a lot of effort for this dream to be realised. My path to PoSSUM As a female STEM and legal professional, my past jobs included working as a research scientist in mining and metals for BHP-Billiton, Rio Tinto and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) — but I always loved space. After combining my science degree with two law degrees, I won a scholarship for the International Space University. I eventually received an Australian Government Endeavour Executive Award for a project at the NASA Kennedy Space Centre. With this I pivoted towards a career in the space industry, and have never looked back. The International Space University students and teaching teams in 2012, in front of the Shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center. Author provided I was selected as a PoSSUM (Polar Suborbital Science in the Upper Mesosphere) Scientist-Astronaut candidate and global ambassador for 2021. PoSSUM is a non-profit US astronautics research and education program run by the International Institute for Astronautical Sciences (IIAS). The program uses next-generation suborbital spacecraft to study the upper atmosphere and its potential role in global climate change. Generally speaking, a suborbital spaceflight is any flight that reaches an altitude higher than 80km, but doesn’t escape Earth’s gravity to make it into orbit. Anything above 80km is deemed “space” under US legislation, although some nations (including Australia) don’t agree with this and the debate about where “space” begins — also called the Kármán line — remains ongoing. Last month, commercial space tourism companies Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic completed the very first suborbital spaceflights carrying passengers (without research). This was an incredible achievement, which many have said could mark the beginning commercial space tourism. In 2019 I led a Victorian Trade mission for aerospace in the US. This picture was taken in Connecticut at the International Space Trade Summit, where I spoke. I’m pictured here (third from the right) with the Victorian Delegation and Karl Rodrigues from the Australian Space Agency. Author provided Preparing for every possibility To graduate as a PoSSUM Scientist-Astronaut candidate, there are several academic and flight training components I must complete before I can head into space. During academic training in 2020, I covered topics such as spaceflight physiology (what happens to the body in space), spaceflight life support, atmospheric science and spaceflight research equipment. My flight training later this year will involve spending days with former NASA astronaut instructors and PoSSUM team scientists. On day one, we’ll begin to use the spaceflight simulator which is currently set up as the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 vehicle. In the days that follow, we will receive high-G training, crew resource management training, high-altitude training and equipment training which will be crucial to conduct our research. We’ll learn how to operate a series of instruments to measure physical atmospheric properties. We will also need to know our way around the spacesuits, which will be similar to those used by NASA. The famous orange suits are a life-support system for astronauts. Astronauts in orbital and suborbital spaceflights must wear them during launch, flight and return in case they have to exit the spacecraft in an emergency, or in case the spacecraft depressurises. We’ll need to learn how to manage unexpected events such as decompression, too. This is when the pressure inside a spacecraft or spacesuit is reduced by a leak. If pressure becomes too low, breathing oxygen can be forced out of the suit. The astronaut will then experience hypoxia (a lack of oxygen in body tissues), which can be deadly. Or let’s say we’re not able to land where we planned to; the training will cover how to manage a water landing and a fast exit from the vehicle. We must be prepared in case one of the electrical or physical systems fails, causing a hazardous environment. Nobody likes to imagine things going wrong, but planning for emergencies is necessary. A ‘steep’ learning curve aboard parabolic flights It’s likely I will complete my first research flight to space on the Virgin Galactic vehicle — but given the rate of spacecraft development, it could be another similar craft. If all goes to plan, my team and I might go to space in a Virgin Galactic Unity 22 vehicle — or potentially in another similar spacecraft. Virgin Galactic/EPA Launching aboard a spacecraft subjects the human body to a variety of forces. Learning to identify and manage changes caused by these forces is critical. On day four of training I will climb into an aerobatic aircraft with a cruise speed of 317km per hour, in which I will practice using equipment and techniques to avoid blackouts during aerobatic flight. The final test will be a series of parabolic flights simulating microgravity aboard a different aircraft. In parabolic flights, an aircraft repeatedly climbs steeply, then enters a deep dive, to create weightlessness for up to 40 seconds. This is repeated 20-25 times during the flight to demonstrate weightlessness in space. Experiments are conducted during weightlessness. The last day of training will involve using virtual and augmented reality to practise planning space missions. We’ll be able to work on any aspect of the training we feel is needed before our final evaluation. If all goes to plan, I will graduate with FAA (Federal Aviation Administration) qualifications as a spaceflight crew member for any space vehicle in the US (orbital and suborbital). Both my training and the work I will do aboard my first suborbital flight as a payload specialist fall within the guidelines outlined in the FAA’s advisory circular released on July 20. If there are no further changes to the eligibility requirements or criteria, I could be nominated to receive Astronaut Wings once the mission is complete. Why do research in space anyway? But what’s the big deal when it comes to research in space? Well, for one, spaceflight allows researchers to observe how materials behave in the absence of gravity. Studying how materials behave in weightless environments has proven immensely useful for scientists. For instance, studying how a virus replicates in space could help scientists develop better vaccines and treatments for diseases such as COVID-19. Most people have heard of the International Space Station (ISS): the football-field sized laboratory in space which constantly orbits Earth. Generally, only space agency astronauts from the US, Russia, Japan and Europe will travel to and from the ISS in various orbital spacecraft (rockets). Doing research on the ISS is expensive, slow and subject to long wait times. Australian companies can benefit from research opportunities offered by suborbital flights in the USA. Being able to complete human tended research on a suborbital research flight is a much more affordable option, and is therefore a game changer. It means small companies that couldn’t previously afford spaceflight can now get in the game. It’s an honour for me to be able to train for this mission and hopefully bring the space dream closer to Australia. And by teaching space technology and law, I look forward to playing my part in advancing the next generation’s access to space. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
04 August 2021 09:17
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/08/Im-training-to-become-Australias-first-woman-astronaut-heres-what-it-takes/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/08/Im-training-to-become-Australias-first-woman-astronaut-heres-what-it-takes/
Astronomy
false
-
Swinburne celebrates women astronomers
Swinburne celebrates women astronomers
To mark Women Astronomers Day, Swinburne is sharing the stories of some of the amazing women improving our understanding of space.
August 1 is Women Astronomers Day Swinburne is proud to celebrate women astronomers who are improving our understanding of space Swinburne is committed to advancing gender equality in academia, particularly in STEM disciplines Astronomy and related fields are at the forefront of science and technology – answering fundamental questions and driving innovation. To mark Women Astronomers Day here are some of the amazing Swinburne women helping to improve our understanding of space. Professor Virginia Kilborn Inaugural Swinburne Chief Scientist Professor Virginia Kilborn has always been fascinated by space. ‘I grew up near Ballarat and we had beautiful clear skies,’ Professor Kilborn says. ‘I would always look up at the stars and wonder ‘what is out there?’ When she got to university, she realised astronomy could be a career. Today, she is a respected radio astronomer who explores the evolution of galaxies. She uses radio telescopes such as the Australian SKA Pathfinder to observe the hydrogen gas in galaxies to study galaxy formation and evolution. Professor Virginia Kilborn was recently appointed as the inaugural Swinburne Chief Scientist. Professor Jean Brodie Director of Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Professor Jean Brodie makes use of the fossil record embodied in globular star clusters (amongst the oldest radiant objects in the Universe) to understand the formation and evolution of galaxies. ‘I use globular star clusters, the “fossil record” of the state of the early Universe to understand how galaxies formed over cosmic time,’ Professor Brodie says. ‘That is, how did the Universe evolve from the dense, uniform, ‘primordial soup’ left over from the Big Bang to its highly structured present form, full of galaxies like our Milky Way, nearly 14 billion years later?’ Professor Brodie is the founder and chief investigator of SAGES (Study of the Astrophysics of Globular clusters in Extragalactic Systems), an international research group that investigates globular clusters and their host galaxies with a focus on using the world’s best observational facilities to provide fresh clues. Associate Professor Deanne Fisher Deputy Director of the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Associate Professor Deanne Fisher is the lead investigator of two surveys studying galaxies that are forming extremely high densities of new stars. These galaxies form stars at rates that are 10-100x faster than what we see in the Milky Way. She is particularly interested in how the explosions of supernovae impact that star formation. “When a cloud of gas makes a bunch of new stars the youngest, most massive of those stars will explode,” Associate Professor Fisher says. ‘These are called supernovae and are very violent events. That explosion launches gas out of the galaxy and can disrupt the formation of new stars in the area around it. It is a very important process for understanding how galaxies change over time. ‘I got my PhD at the University of Texas and then held a fellowship at the University of Maryland, before coming to Swinburne, where I obtained a Future Fellowship and am now an Associate Professor. I am the only openly transgender faculty member in Australian astrophysics, and one of only a handful worldwide.’ Dr Rebecca Allen Dr Rebecca Allen completed her PhD in astrophysics at Swinburne. Her research focuses on understanding the evolution and growth of galaxies over time, going all the way back to when the Universe was barely a billion years old. Now the project lead for microgravity experimentation at Swinburne's Space Technology and Industry Institute, she is also investigating how to conduct science in the extreme environment of space. Dr Allen is also leading an initiative, supported by the Australian Space Agency, for students in Year 10 and above to compete to send experiments to the International Space Station. ‘It’s not just about teaching science to students, it’s normalising women in science,’ says Dr Allen. When not sending things to space or studying it, she uses her scientific expertise and enthusiasm to communicate the wonders of the Universe to others and to create inspiring and transformative learning experiences. Dr Rebecca Allen leads an initiative, supported by the Australian Space Agency, for students in Year 10 and above to send experiments to the International Space Station. Dr Michelle Cluver As our telescopes have become increasingly sophisticated and powerful, astronomers have been able to look deeper into our universe and observe galaxies across cosmic time. Yet, because they evolve over aeons of time, we still find ourselves asking the question — are galaxies being shaped by their environment? Does the cosmic neighbourhood of a galaxy affect its characteristics and how it changes over time? Or is this a minor influence on their overall ageing process? ‘My primary research is to look at galaxies in different environments and look for evidence that they are in the process of actively transforming,’ Dr Cluver says. ‘If we can establish exactly where (and when!) this might be happening, we can better understand the physics that may be driving this change.’ Dr Rebecca Davies Dr Rebecca Davies joined Swinburne in 2020 as a postdoctoral research associate. ‘My research examines how the properties of galaxies have changed over the history of the Universe, using distinctive chemical fingerprints in the spectra of light they emit,’ Dr Davies says. ‘Currently, I am investigating how supernova explosions and rapidly growing black holes transformed the infant Universe from a sea of neutral hydrogen into a rich set of galaxies containing a wealth of chemical elements.’
30 July 2021 11:59
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/07/swinburne-celebrates-women-astronomers/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/07/swinburne-celebrates-women-astronomers/
Astronomy
Research,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
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Billionaires’ space race could help our planet
Billionaires’ space race could help our planet
The trip of a lifetime for the world’s billionaires could change their perspective, and then the world.
Opinion piece for The Age by Professor Alan Duffy, Director of the Space Technology and Industry Institute at Swinburne University of Technology It’s easy to be cynical about the future of the planet as our billionaires launch themselves and their companies into space, but I – for one – have hope. We know from the early days of space flight, with former military test pilots as the first astronauts, the experience of seeing Earth from space has a near universally profound impact on a person. Space philosopher and author Frank White coined the term the overview effect to describe it. Astronauts and cosmonauts report space flight as a lasting, transformative experience, and we’ve seen many of them become active in environmental causes as a result. People like first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, Michael Collins of Apollo 11 and, more recently, Sally Ride, Chris Hadfield and Anne McClain have all spoken of this perspective shift. It’s no coincidence that the environmental movement globally grew in strength, scale and significance when we saw Earth suspended in the void of space. The iconic “Blue Marble” seen by the Apollo 17 crew in 1972 resonated with people worldwide as a transformative reminder of the reality of our existence. There is a thin veneer of atmosphere around the ball of dirt where all our lives are led and lived, and we need to look after it better. What happens when our wealthy see a fragile Earth? The world’s wealthiest people will be the first space tourists, but they will also experience first-hand the overview effect. With their money, power, and influence, we can only imagine how they could change the planet for the better if they are moved in the way that former military pilots have been. Passengers of SpaceX and, it is planned, Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ company, will have a true, orbital experience of space – taking potentially month-long or days-long trips around the Earth, out to the International Space Station or even lapping the moon. On these trips, they’ll see the Earth surrounded by a sea of blackness. Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson are in a race to take wealthy tourists into space. Credit: AP Space tourists taking a sub-orbital parabolic flight as Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic did this monthwill skim just short of the Karman line – the 100-kilometre official international designation of space, although fortunately for Sir Richard his astronaut wings are recognised by NASA, which states 80 kilometres as the boundary. All up, these passengers experience a few minutes of microgravity as the craft falls back to Earth, experiencing that fall as weightlessness. Earth will occupy most of the view, with the blackness of space just above – not far removed from what Gagarin described on the first human flight in space. As we see hundreds, if not thousands, of people become space tourists, we could also see an empowered group of the world’s wealthy back on Earth motivated to do more to protect it. Democratising space can only be a good thing. Space tourism today is an experiment. It could be a billion-dollar market, but we don’t yet know for sure how many people will pay for (and can afford) this unique, once-in-a-lifetime experience. Luckily my hope for the potential positives of space tourism doesn’t just rely on the number of people we get into space and the cognitive shift they might experience. Growth in tourist launches will also drive the scale and sophistication of rockets, making overall access to space more affordable, just as early pioneering travellers allowed the aviation industry to grow and become more technologically advanced, ultimately driving costs down. Astronaut Chris Hadfield has talked about his improved understanding of threats facing the planet since seeing Earth from space. At Swinburne University of Technology’s Space Technology and Industry Institute, we already benefit from the effects of space tourism with our Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge where we send up students’ scientific experiments to the International Space Station. This kind of educational experience would be inconceivable without the commercial rockets that have now become so relatively accessible. Yet, it remains the case that only the richest countries and companies get to reach space and benefit directly. As access becomes more affordable, we can see all countries and people benefit – as well as the planet. The possibilities are extraordinary. Satellite information can be used to improve agricultural yields to tackle world hunger, or to facilitate fast and efficient disaster relief and emergency services, or to allow us to monitor the health of the planet and inform climate solutions. Indeed, these benefits are intimately tied to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. All 17 goals rely directly or indirectly on space and satellite technology. One of the major barriers to satellite technology being used to tackle the world’s greatest challenges is cost, and therefore access. With space tourism driving down costs, that barrier is being eroded – and that gives me real reason to hope for the future of this blue marble in space. Professor Alan Duffy is an astronomer and Director of the Space Technology and Industry Institute at Swinburne and lead scientist of the Royal Institution of Australia. This article was republished with permission from The Age. Read the original article.
19 July 2021 16:23
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/07/billionaires-space-race-could-help-our-planet/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/07/billionaires-space-race-could-help-our-planet/
Astronomy|Technology|Science
false
-
Milestone discovery of two neutron star-black hole collisions
Milestone discovery of two neutron star-black hole collisions
Australian scientists led the discovery of the collision of the two most extreme objects in the Universe.
In two separate events, the death spiral and merger of a neutron star and a black hole have been observed Black holes and neutron stars are two of the most extreme objects ever observed in the Universe The discovery allows researchers to further understand the nature of the space-time continuum and the building blocks of matter A new phenomenon in the Universe has been revealed – the death spiral and merger of the two most extreme objects in the Universe; a neutron star and a black hole. The two events have been officially announced by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), in the US, and the Virgo gravitational-wave observatory in Italy. A milestone for gravitational-wave astronomy, the discovery allows researchers to further understand the nature of the space-time continuum and the building blocks of matter. First merger detected The first observation of the neutron star-black hole merger was made on 5 January 2020 when gravitational waves -- tiny ripples in the fabric of space and time -- were detected from the collision event by LIGO and Virgo. When masses collide in space, they shake the whole Universe, sending out gravitational waves, like ripples on the surface of a pond. Detailed analysis of the gravitational waves reveal that the neutron star was around twice as massive as the Sun, while the black hole was around nine times as massive as the Sun. The merger itself happened around a billion years ago before the first dinosaurs existed, but the gravitational waves only just reached Earth. Second merger detected Remarkably, on 15 January 2020 another merger of a neutron star and a black hole was observed from gravitational waves. This neutron star and black hole also collided around a billion years ago, but it was slightly less massive: the neutron star was around one and a half times as massive as the Sun, while the black hole was around five and a half times as massive. Australian scientists played leading role "From the design and operation of the detector, to the analysis of data, Australian scientists are working at the frontiers of astronomy," says Dr Rory Smith, an astrophysicist at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) at Monash University, who co-led the international team of scientists in this discovery. The SPIIR pipeline, at the University of Western Australia (UWA) -- Australia's only real-time gravitational-wave search pipeline -- detected a neutron star-black hole event in real-time for the first time. SPIIR is one of five pipelines that alerts astronomers around the world within seconds of gravitational events, so they can try to catch the potential flash of light emitted when a neutron star is torn apart by its companion black hole The Universe’s most extreme objects Black holes and neutron stars are two of the most extreme objects ever observed in the Universe—they are born from exploding massive stars at the end of their lives. Typical neutron stars have a mass of one and a half times the mass of the Sun, but all of that mass is contained in an extremely dense star, about the size of a city. One teaspoon of a neutron star weighs as much as all of humanity. Neutron stars and black holes orbit around each other at around half the speed of light before they collide and merge. This puts the neutron star under extraordinary strain, causing it to stretch and deform as it nears the black hole. How much a neutron star can stretch depends on what kind of matter it’s made of. The amount the star stretches can be decoded from the gravitational waves, which in turn tells us about the type of stuff they’re made of. Black holes are even more dense objects than neutron stars: they have a lot of mass, normally at least 3 times the mass of our Sun, in a tiny amount of space. Black holes contain an “event horizon” at their surface: a point of no return that not even light can escape. A new phenomenon in the Universe has been revealed – the death spiral and merger of the two most extreme objects in the Universe; a neutron star and a black hole. The two events have been officially announced by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), in the US, and the Virgo gravitational-wave observatory in Italy. A milestone for gravitational-wave astronomy, the discovery allows researchers to further understand the nature of the space-time continuum and the building blocks of matter. First merger detected The first observation of the neutron star-black hole merger was made on 5 January 2020 when gravitational waves -- tiny ripples in the fabric of space and time -- were detected from the collision event by LIGO and Virgo. When masses collide in space, they shake the whole Universe, sending out gravitational waves, like ripples on the surface of a pond. Detailed analysis of the gravitational waves reveal that the neutron star was around twice as massive as the Sun, while the black hole was around nine times as massive as the Sun. The merger itself happened around a billion years ago before the first dinosaurs existed, but the gravitational waves only just reached Earth. Second merger detected Remarkably, on 15 January 2020 another merger of a neutron star and a black hole was observed from gravitational waves. This neutron star and black hole also collided around a billion years ago, but it was slightly less massive: the neutron star was around one and a half times as massive as the Sun, while the black hole was around five and a half times as massive. Australian scientists played leading role "From the design and operation of the detector, to the analysis of data, Australian scientists are working at the frontiers of astronomy," says Dr Rory Smith, an astrophysicist at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) at Monash University, who co-led the international team of scientists in this discovery. The SPIIR pipeline, at the University of Western Australia (UWA) -- Australia's only real-time gravitational-wave search pipeline -- detected a neutron star-black hole event in real-time for the first time. SPIIR is one of five pipelines that alerts astronomers around the world within seconds of gravitational events, so they can try to catch the potential flash of light emitted when a neutron star is torn apart by its companion black hole. The Universe’s most extreme objects Black holes and neutron stars are two of the most extreme objects ever observed in the Universe—they are born from exploding massive stars at the end of their lives. Typical neutron stars have a mass of one and a half times the mass of the Sun, but all of that mass is contained in an extremely dense star, about the size of a city. One teaspoon of a neutron star weighs as much as all of humanity. Neutron stars and black holes orbit around each other at around half the speed of light before they collide and merge. This puts the neutron star under extraordinary strain, causing it to stretch and deform as it nears the black hole. How much a neutron star can stretch depends on what kind of matter it’s made of. The amount the star stretches can be decoded from the gravitational waves, which in turn tells us about the type of stuff they’re made of. Black holes are even more dense objects than neutron stars: they have a lot of mass, normally at least 3 times the mass of our Sun, in a tiny amount of space. Black holes contain an “event horizon” at their surface: a point of no return that not even light can escape. A new phenomenon in the Universe has been revealed – the death spiral and merger of the two most extreme objects in the Universe; a neutron star and a black hole. The two events have been officially announced by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), in the US, and the Virgo gravitational-wave observatory in Italy. A milestone for gravitational-wave astronomy, the discovery allows researchers to further understand the nature of the space-time continuum and the building blocks of matter. First merger detected The first observation of the neutron star-black hole merger was made on 5 January 2020 when gravitational waves -- tiny ripples in the fabric of space and time -- were detected from the collision event by LIGO and Virgo. When masses collide in space, they shake the whole Universe, sending out gravitational waves, like ripples on the surface of a pond. Detailed analysis of the gravitational waves reveal that the neutron star was around twice as massive as the Sun, while the black hole was around nine times as massive as the Sun. The merger itself happened around a billion years ago before the first dinosaurs existed, but the gravitational waves only just reached Earth. Second merger detected Remarkably, on 15 January 2020 another merger of a neutron star and a black hole was observed from gravitational waves. This neutron star and black hole also collided around a billion years ago, but it was slightly less massive: the neutron star was around one and a half times as massive as the Sun, while the black hole was around five and a half times as massive. Australian scientists played leading role "From the design and operation of the detector, to the analysis of data, Australian scientists are working at the frontiers of astronomy," says Dr Rory Smith, an astrophysicist at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) at Monash University, who co-led the international team of scientists in this discovery. The SPIIR pipeline, at the University of Western Australia (UWA) -- Australia's only real-time gravitational-wave search pipeline -- detected a neutron star-black hole event in real-time for the first time. SPIIR is one of five pipelines that alerts astronomers around the world within seconds of gravitational events, so they can try to catch the potential flash of light emitted when a neutron star is torn apart by its companion black hole. The Universe’s most extreme objects Black holes and neutron stars are two of the most extreme objects ever observed in the Universe—they are born from exploding massive stars at the end of their lives. Typical neutron stars have a mass of one and a half times the mass of the Sun, but all of that mass is contained in an extremely dense star, about the size of a city. One teaspoon of a neutron star weighs as much as all of humanity. Neutron stars and black holes orbit around each other at around half the speed of light before they collide and merge. This puts the neutron star under extraordinary strain, causing it to stretch and deform as it nears the black hole. How much a neutron star can stretch depends on what kind of matter it’s made of. The amount the star stretches can be decoded from the gravitational waves, which in turn tells us about the type of stuff they’re made of. Black holes are even more dense objects than neutron stars: they have a lot of mass, normally at least 3 times the mass of our Sun, in a tiny amount of space. Black holes contain an “event horizon” at their surface: a point of no return that not even light can escape. A new phenomenon in the Universe has been revealed – the death spiral and merger of the two most extreme objects in the Universe; a neutron star and a black hole. The two events have been officially announced by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), in the US, and the Virgo gravitational-wave observatory in Italy. A milestone for gravitational-wave astronomy, the discovery allows researchers to further understand the nature of the space-time continuum and the building blocks of matter. First merger detected The first observation of the neutron star-black hole merger was made on 5 January 2020 when gravitational waves -- tiny ripples in the fabric of space and time -- were detected from the collision event by LIGO and Virgo. When masses collide in space, they shake the whole Universe, sending out gravitational waves, like ripples on the surface of a pond. Detailed analysis of the gravitational waves reveal that the neutron star was around twice as massive as the Sun, while the black hole was around nine times as massive as the Sun. The merger itself happened around a billion years ago before the first dinosaurs existed, but the gravitational waves only just reached Earth. Second merger detected Remarkably, on 15 January 2020 another merger of a neutron star and a black hole was observed from gravitational waves. This neutron star and black hole also collided around a billion years ago, but it was slightly less massive: the neutron star was around one and a half times as massive as the Sun, while the black hole was around five and a half times as massive. Australian scientists played leading role "From the design and operation of the detector, to the analysis of data, Australian scientists are working at the frontiers of astronomy," says Dr Rory Smith, an astrophysicist at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) at Monash University, who co-led the international team of scientists in this discovery. The SPIIR pipeline, at the University of Western Australia (UWA) -- Australia's only real-time gravitational-wave search pipeline -- detected a neutron star-black hole event in real-time for the first time. SPIIR is one of five pipelines that alerts astronomers around the world within seconds of gravitational events, so they can try to catch the potential flash of light emitted when a neutron star is torn apart by its companion black hole. The Universe’s most extreme objects Black holes and neutron stars are two of the most extreme objects ever observed in the Universe—they are born from exploding massive stars at the end of their lives. Typical neutron stars have a mass of one and a half times the mass of the Sun, but all of that mass is contained in an extremely dense star, about the size of a city. One teaspoon of a neutron star weighs as much as all of humanity. Neutron stars and black holes orbit around each other at around half the speed of light before they collide and merge. This puts the neutron star under extraordinary strain, causing it to stretch and deform as it nears the black hole. How much a neutron star can stretch depends on what kind of matter it’s made of. The amount the star stretches can be decoded from the gravitational waves, which in turn tells us about the type of stuff they’re made of. Black holes are even more dense objects than neutron stars: they have a lot of mass, normally at least 3 times the mass of our Sun, in a tiny amount of space. Black holes contain an “event horizon” at their surface: a point of no return that not even light can escape. Animation by Carl Knox, OzGrav-Swinburne University of Technology Pairs of neutron stars and black holes have been predicted to exist by theorists for decades, but had long avoided detection. Since their first detection in 1975, many pairs of neutron stars have been found, but never a neutron star orbiting a black hole. "This is a confirmation of a long-standing prediction from binary stellar evolution theory which predicted these systems should exist," explains Dr Simon Stevenson, OzGrav Postdoctoral Researcher at Swinburne University of Technology. "We find that roughly one pair of neutron star-black holes merges for every ten pairs of neutron stars. This raises the possibility of observing a neutron star-black hole containing a pulsar -- a rapidly rotating neutron star pulsing radio waves -- in our own Milky Way using radio telescopes like the Australian Parkes radio telescope and the future Square Kilometre Array," says Dr Stevenson. Sometimes colliding neutron stars and black holes can produce some of the brightest and most powerful explosions in the Universe. Astronomers across the globe used telescopes, like the SkyMapper telescope in central NSW, to scour the night sky for any light flashes associated with these two events -- sadly, none were found this time. The research was published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
29 June 2021 16:44
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/06/milestone-discovery-of-two-neutron-star-black-hole-collisions/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/06/milestone-discovery-of-two-neutron-star-black-hole-collisions/
Astronomy
Research,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),International
Science
false
-
To find out how galaxies grow, we’re zooming in on the night sky and capturing cosmic explosions
To find out how galaxies grow, we’re zooming in on the night sky and capturing cosmic explosions
On a quest to capture new “sources” resulting from dying stars and cosmic explosions, astronomers are taking unique photos of cosmos rarely seen by the ordinary person. Analysis for The Conversation by Sara Webb and Dr Rebecca Allen, Swinburne University of Technology.
On a quest to capture new “sources” resulting from dying stars and cosmic explosions, astronomers are taking unique photos of cosmos rarely seen by the ordinary person. Analysis for The Conversation by Sara Webb and Dr Rebecca Allen, Swinburne University of Technology. Across Australia, astronomers are using cutting-edge technologies to capture the night sky, hoping to eventually tackle some of our biggest questions about the universe. As we and our colleagues delve deeper into the cosmos, looking for cosmic explosions, our observations are helping shed light on longstanding mysteries — and making way for entirely new paths of inquiry. Cosmic eruptions fill the sky Swinburne’s Deeper, Wider, Faster (DWF) program — which one of us (Sara Webb) worked on throughout her PhD — was developed to hunt for the fastest and most mysterious explosions in the universe. But to understand what causes cosmic explosions, we must “look” at these events with multiple eyes, through different telescopes around the world. Today we’ll take you on a journey using data from one of these telescopes, the Blanco 4m, at Chile’s Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory. The Blanco 4m telescope in Chile. This telescope has a dark energy camera attached to it. Rebecca Allen First, all 60+ individual images taken of the field of view from this telescope are combined into a mosaic. Within them we see the thousands of bright sources. This is an example of dark energy camera data taken by the DWF program. This image is of an enormous section of the sky. Sara Webb These images are transferred across the Pacific to be processed on Swinburne’s OzStar supercomputer — which is more powerful than 10,000 personal laptops and can handle thousands of different jobs at once. Once uploaded, the images are broken down into smaller chunks. This is when we start to see details. Pictured are some of the galaxies visible within smaller cutouts of data sent to the DWF program from the Blanco 4m. Sara Webb But the galaxies above, spectacular as they are, still aren’t what we’re looking for. We want to capture new “sources” resulting from dying stars and cosmic explosions, which we can identify by having our computers search for light in places it wasn’t previously detected. A source could be many different things including a flaring star, a dying star or an asteroid. To find out we have to collect continuous information about its brightness and the different wavelengths of light it emits, such as radio, x-ray, gamma-ray and so forth. To the left is an old image of a patch of sky and to the right is a updated image with a new source having just occurred. This one is likely a flare star or an asteroid. Sara Webb Once we spot a source, we monitor changes in its brightness over the coming hours and days. If we think it may represent a rare cosmic explosions, we trigger other telescopes to collect additional data. Peering into the distant past Galaxies are vast collections of stars, gas, dust and dark matter. They vary in shape, size and colour, but the two main types we see in the universe today are blue spirals and red ellipticals. But how do they form? And why are there different types? Astronomers know the shapes and colours of a galaxy are linked to its evolution, but they’re still trying figure out exactly which shapes and colours are linked to specific growth pathways. We think galaxies grow in size and mass through two main channels. They produce stars when their vast hydrogen clouds collapse under gravity. As more gas is transformed into stars, they grow in size. Thanks to space-based technology such as the Hubble Space Telescope and powerful on-ground telescopes, astronomers can now peer back in time to study galaxy growth over the history of the universe. This is possible since the further away a galaxy is, the longer its light travelled to reach us. Because the speed of light is constant, we can determine when the light was emitted — as long as we know the galaxy’s distance from Earth (called its “redshift”). I measured this growth as part of my PhD, by taking images of galaxies that exist at different redshifts from as far back as when the universe was only one billion years old, and comparing their sizes. A selection of distant galaxies spotted in my study of galaxy growth over time. These appear very different to nearby galaxies. Rebecca Allen When galaxies merge Looking around the universe today, we mostly see galaxies clustered together. Astronomers believe the nature of a galaxy’s surroundings or its environment can affect its growth pathways, similar to how people in large cities can access more resources than those in rural areas. When many galaxies are grouped together they may interact. And this interaction can stimulate bursts of star formation within a particular galaxy. That said, this growth spurt may be short-lived, as gas and stars can be stripped away through the gravitational interaction between multiple galaxies, thereby limiting future star formation and growth in a single galaxy. This image was captured using the Hubble Space Telescope. It shows a group of spiral galaxies, which astronomers can clearly determine due to the high resolution of the image. Rebecca Allen But even if a galaxy can’t form stars, it can still grow by merging with or consuming smaller galaxies. For example, the Milky Way will one day consume the smaller Magellanic clouds, which are dwarf galaxies. It will also merge with the slightly larger Andromeda galaxy one day, to form one giant galaxy. Yet, while many studies have been conducted unpack galaxy evolution, we still can’t say all our questions have been answered. It took billions of years for the galaxy clusters we observe today to form. But if astronomers can leverage the latest technologies and peer further into the distance than ever before, we will hopefully gain clues about how a galaxy’s environment can impact its growth. Pictured are two groups of distant galaxies that existed when the universe was one-quarter of its current age. These galaxy groups will eventually come together and form a structure similar to the Virgo cluster. I have studied them both to learn more about how the galaxies within them are growing. Rebecca Allen The bending of spacetime reveals secrets With decades of observations and millions of galaxies captured in surveys, experts have many theories regarding how galaxies form, and how the universe evolves. This field is called cosmology. Thanks to Albert Einstein, we know the gravitational force of massive objects in space causes space to bend. This has been observed through a phenomena known as “lensing”, where vast amounts of matter are concentrated in one area within objects such as black holes, galaxies or galaxy clusters. Their gravity distorts spacetime, acting as a giant lens to reveal warped images of more distant objects behind them. Using lensing, astronomers have developed ways to find and study distant galaxies that would otherwise be hidden from view. A set of galaxy-galaxy lenses. The massive foreground galaxy’s gravity distorts spacetime, acting as a lens that reveals a warped image of a distant background galaxy. Rebecca Allen These observations continue to drive our understanding of galaxy evolution. They’re challenging our theories of when and how galaxies form and grow. One 2018 discovery made by a group of researchers, including myself, revealed a set of massive and already evolved galaxies from when the universe was only about one-sixth of its current age. They would have had to form and grow at an extremely rapidly to fit our current models of galaxy growth. In a upcoming investigation, Swinburne Professor Karl Glazebrook will lead my team and I to become some of the first astronomers granted access to Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope to study these early galaxies. One of the massive quiescent galaxies which our team will investigate. While extremely large, its older stars and distance make it appear as a tiny red nugget among the much brighter and closer galaxies. Rebecca Allen, Author provided This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
23 June 2021 09:40
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/06/to-find-out-how-galaxies-grow-were-zooming-in-on-the-night-sky-and-capturing-cosmic-explosions/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/06/to-find-out-how-galaxies-grow-were-zooming-in-on-the-night-sky-and-capturing-cosmic-explosions/
Astronomy
false
-
Do aliens exist? We asked five experts
Do aliens exist? We asked five experts
Experts have weighed in on the existence of aliens ahead of the Pentagon’s UFO report being released. Analysis for The Conversation by Dr Helen Maynard-Casely, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Professor Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland, Professor Martin Van Kranendonk, University of New South Wales, Dr Rebecca Allen, Swinburne University of Technology and Distinguished Professor Steven Tingay, Curtin University.
Experts have weighed in on the existence of aliens ahead of the Pentagon’s UFO report being released. Analysis for The Conversation by Dr Helen Maynard-Casely, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Professor Jonti Horner, University of Southern Queensland, Professor Martin Van Kranendonk, University of New South Wales, Dr Rebecca Allen, Swinburne University of Technology and Distinguished Professor Steven Tingay, Curtin University. Speculation has been rife about the contents of an unclassified report set to be released later this month from the Pentagon’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) task force. The document, expected to drop on June 25, will supposedly provide a comprehensive summary of what the US government knows about UAPs — or, to use the more popular term, UFOs. While the report is not yet public, the New York Times recently published what it claimed was a preview of the findings, provided by unnamed senior officials who were privy to the report’s contents. According to the Times’s sources, the report does not provide any clear link or association between more than 120 incidents of UFO sightings from the past two decades, and a possibility of Earth having been visited by aliens. If the Times’s sources are to be believed, there’s clearly still no good reason to interpret an unexplained object in the sky as evidence of aliens. But does that mean aliens aren’t out there, somewhere else in the universe? And if they are, could we ever find them? Or might they be so different to us that “finding” them is impossible in any meaningful sense? We asked five experts. Four out of five experts said aliens do exist Here are their detailed responses: Jonti Horner, Astrobiologist: yes I think that has to be a definite yes. But I think the real question is, are aliens close enough for us to discover them? Space is unbelievably big. In the last few decades, we've learned almost every star in the cosmos has planets. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is estimated to have up to 400 billion stars. If each of those has five planets, we’d have two trillion planets in our galaxy alone. And we know there are more galaxies in the cosmos than there are planets in the Milky Way. In other words, there’s a lot of real estate out there. And with so much variety, I find it impossible to believe Earth is the only planet that has life — including intelligent and technologically-advanced life. But will we ever find such extra-terrestrial life? That's a tough question. Imagine one in a billion stars host a planet that can develop technologically advanced life which is able to scream its existence into the cosmos. Well, that would give us 400 stars in our galaxy with technologically advanced life. But our galaxy is vast — 100,000 light years from side to side. That's so big that those stars would, on average, be some 10,000 light years apart. That's way too far for us to hear alien signals (at least at the moment) — unless they're way more powerful than anything we can send! So while I do believe alien life exists, I think finding proof of this will prove astonishingly hard. Steven Tingay, Astrophysicist: yes Yes, but that's a bold assertion. So, let’s be clear what we are talking about. I consider the term “alien” to reference all manner of life, as we understand it on Earth, resident in places other than on Earth. Having said that, there is currently no detailed consensus on the definition of “life”. It is a very complex concept. But if we found something like bacteria somewhere other than on Earth, I would classify this as alien life. The universe contains hundreds of billions of galaxies, each of which can be composed of up to billions and billions of stars. Most of these stars have at least one planet each. These planetary systems form out of a rich mixture of elements, including all the elements regarded as essential for “life”. So, it is hard to believe that the particular mix of conditions that resulted in “life” only occurred on Earth, and not on the trillions of other planets in the universe. But it remains to be seen whether this life is like bacteria, or is an exciting “technologically advanced civilisation” we can communicate with. A significant effort is underway to search for alien civilisations which may be using similar technologies to us, such as powerful radio telescopes sending out radio wavelength communications from distant planetary systems. And then of course, it’s possible our definition of “life” may turn out to be quite narrow, and that aliens — wherever they are — may play by a completely different set of rules. Helen Maynard-Casely, Planetary Scientist: yes I’m of the opinion that it's only a matter of time before we find something that resembles biology somewhere other than on Earth. This is because we’re increasingly finding various potential pockets in our solar system that may be hospitable to life as we know it. For instance, consider the under-ice oceans of Europa and Ganymede (two of Jupiter’s large moons): these are places where the temperature is just right, there is access to water and to minerals, too. Then again, that’s viewing things with a very Earth-like lens, and of course alien life could be very different to our own. That’s why I’m really excited about further exploration of Saturn’s moon Titan. Titan has a whole range of interesting molecules on its surface, as well as active weather systems to transport them about — this too, all within our solar system. And we know there are other solar systems within our galaxy. Considering all of the above, it really does feel more and more inevitable that we will find a niche for some active biology somewhere. Whether it can say hello to us? Well, that’s a different question. Rebecca Allen, Space Technology Expert: yes Yes, but they probably don’t look like us. There are more than 100 billion planets estimated to exist in our galaxy alone (with some six billion potentially being Earth-like). Therefore, the probability that life exists elsewhere is all but confirmed. When we hear the word “alien”, however, an image of a humanoid lifeform usually springs to mind. But even on Earth, the most predominant form of life is much older, smaller and more resilient. I’m talking about microorganisms, of course. These organisms defy science by existing where life has no business existing, such as in the sludge around volcanic vents. I would bet alien life exists in the form of these “extremophiles”. In fact, NASA just sent a team of tiny tardigrade (or “water bears”) astronauts to the International Space Station so that human astronauts can study how they perform in this extreme environment. With key ingredients for life being discovered in our solar system, it seems probable Earth’s toughest lifeform are spread across the galaxy. But what about more advanced life? The reality is space is vast. And from the Kepler mission we learned it’s hard to find other worlds, let alone identify one that resembles Earth. Add on the fact it took billions of years for advanced life to thrive on Earth, and there’s a slim chance of us finding a similar species of alien. But hope remains, and scientists continue to use advanced radio telescopes to search the skies for new forms of radio communication. Martin Van-Kranendonk, Astrobiologist: no A simple answer to this question is no. If we use purely empirical data and assume the question refers to any type of life outside of Earth that is not related to human activity, then the answer — as far as we know — must be no. But, of course, our knowledge relating to this question is finite; we have not investigated every corner of the universe for signs of life and we do not even know what may constitute life in another chemical system, as there is no agreed-on definition of carbon-based life even here on Earth. So, perhaps, the more expanded answer is we do not know. In fact, we may never be able to definitively answer this question. But of course, there is much work being done in an effort to figure this out. Perhaps one day we can know if we have nearby inter-planetary neighbours, or if indeed we are alone. Or perhaps we never will. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
14 June 2021 09:19
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/06/do-aliens-exist-we-asked-five-experts/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/06/do-aliens-exist-we-asked-five-experts/
Astronomy
false
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Swinburne software engineering graduate nominated for space award
Swinburne software engineering graduate nominated for space award
Swinburne engineering graduate Mikaela Verhoosel has been recognised for her contributions to the STEM industry, being named as a finalist in the Australian Space Awards 2021.
Swinburne graduate Mikaela Verhoosel was a finalist for ‘Graduate of the Year’ at the Australian Space Awards 2021 Mikaela was a mentor for high school students in the Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge, alongside fellow Swinburne finalist and astrophysicist, Dr Rebecca Allen As a software engineer at Geoplex, Mikaela is working on a satellite communication asset management tool for the Department of Defence Swinburne software engineering graduate, Mikaela Verhoosel, has been shortlisted for ‘Graduate of the Year’ at this year’s Australian Space Awards. Mikaela graduated from the Bachelor of Robotics and Mechatronic Engineering (Honours) in 2018. During her studies, she was an active volunteer and mentor – taking on experiences that enriched her time at Swinburne. Mikaela volunteered as a mentor for the Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge (previously known as SHINE), which provides an opportunity for high school students to send experiments to the International Space Station and inspires them to imagine a career in space. As a mentor, she supported students around the fabrication and feasibility of design, microcontrollers and programming. ‘It demonstrates what can be possible, not only for the students to learn about the full cycle of an experiment but the real-life struggles of bringing a design into a fully functioning prototype,’ she says. As Swinburne’s campus coordinator for Engineers Australia, Mikaela also helped to contribute to the professional and personal development of engineering students by involving them in activities run by the organisation. Swinburne stars at Australian Space Awards Mikaela was one of three Swinburne finalists in this year’s Australian Space Awards, which celebrate the efforts of the best and brightest in the Australian space industry and recognise the leading individuals and businesses driving the development of Australia’s space economy. Leader of Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge, Dr Rebecca Allen, was shortlisted for ‘Space Education and Outreach Program of the Year’. It was Dr Allen that suggested Mikaela should apply. ‘Being shortlisted came as a surprise. It is a great opportunity to reflect on past achievements and look to the future of what is next to come,’ says Mikaela. International Lawyer and Space Research scientist, Kim Ellis was a finalist for the ‘Academic of the Year’ category. Dr Rebecca Allen (right) was shortlisted for her work with the Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge Following your dreams Mikaela is enjoying her role as a graduate software engineer at professional services consulting company Geoplex, where she is working on a satellite communication asset management tool for the Department of Defence called ‘TacPlanner’. ‘I hope to continually challenge myself professionally and personally to eventually lead projects that will bring about positive change,’ she says. She loves her job, including its challenges. ‘Like any career, there will be highlights and days that leave you wanting to pursue a nomadic van life. Know that both days are two sides of the same coin and by wading through you will come out a stronger individual.’ Mikaela believes diversity in STEM fields is important so that solutions cater to everyone. She hopes anyone interested in STEM follows their passion, saying ‘hard work and seizing opportunities’ are the best ways to advance your career. ‘If this is a career you are thinking of pursuing, then what I would do is to not let your fears overcome your desire to join what is a great industry and community.’
01 June 2021 09:26
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/06/Swinburne-software-engineering-graduate-nominated-for-space-award/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/06/Swinburne-software-engineering-graduate-nominated-for-space-award/
Astronomy
Engineering
false
-
High school stars at Swinburne published in international space journal
High school stars at Swinburne published in international space journal
On high school work experience with Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, a group of students conducted research that has been published in the journal, Galaxies.
Research conducted by a group of high school students with Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS) has been published in the journal, Galaxies The article was written by high school work experience students Visura Lokuge Don, Lochlan Bull and Kazuki Kuhlmann, alongside Professor Alister Graham and undergraduate scholarship student Katherine Kenyon The students collaborated with experts as part of a long-running program that supports the next generation Research conducted by high school and undergraduate students at Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS) has been published in the journal, Galaxies. The article – ‘History of Astronomy in Australia: Big-Impact Astronomy from World War II until the Lunar Landing (1945–1969)’ – was written by high school work experience students Visura Lokuge Don, Lochlan Bull and Kazuki Kuhlmann, along with Professor Alister Graham and undergraduate scholarship student Katherine Kenyon. CAS has welcomed Year 10 work experience students for over a decade. During their time at Swinburne, students are partnered with an astronomer and work on a specific research project. However, 'exceedingly few high school students perform research that forms the basis of a refereed journal article,’ says Professor Graham. 'The project would not have happened if it was not for the detective work of the students, which, according to Professor Graham, involved painstakingly going through decades of significant astronomy publications that had become available online for the first time. High achievers Visura Lokuge Don wanted to do his work experience with CAS due to his passion for astronomy and was drawn to the ‘idea of gaining an understanding of the unknown – on a larger scale’. When he discovered that he had the opportunity to work closely with experts in astrophysics and supercomputing, Visura was ‘ecstatic’. He found that despite their busy schedules, they always made time to chat. ‘Being involved in this project was such a phenomenal prospect'. Katherine Kenyon co-authored another journal article during her work experience program in 2011. She says she always found outer space ‘fascinating’ and ‘really enjoyed getting a taste of what research could be’. ‘A lot of people think of places like NASA when you talk about space and astronomy research, and they forget that a lot happens here in Australia too!’ Supporting young minds The article published in Galaxies identifies the most significant Australian-led astronomy conducted after World War II until the lunar landing. In addition to reporting on solar outbursts, pulsars, black holes and the lunar landing, it mentions the astronomers involved in Australia’s biggest astronomical advances and discoveries from 1945 to 1969. Many pioneering women in science and World War II stories are identified. Throughout the process, the students were included in meetings with other researchers and had the opportunity to network and build relationships. ‘It felt really cool to be a part of it and inspired me to lean more towards research as a career pathway. I learnt a lot about independence, both in a work environment and personally,’ says Katherine, who is currently completing a PhD in neuroscience. Visura is now completing his masters and working as a graduate geotechnical engineer. He says that he has applied the academic and soft skills he learnt at Swinburne throughout his studies and beyond. ‘It was great to have one of my first paid employment experiences listed as Swinburne’s Centre for Supercomputing and Astrophysics on my resume. No disrespect to the more conventional work experience gigs, but this is cooler,’ he says. Professor Graham says CAS is looking forward to welcoming another intake of work experience students this year. ‘It's an investment in our future. Schools and universities perform an invaluable public service by training the next generation.’
17 May 2021 12:40
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/05/High-school-stars-at-swinburne-published-in-international-space-journal/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/05/High-school-stars-at-swinburne-published-in-international-space-journal/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
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Q and A with Professor Jean Brodie
Q and A with Professor Jean Brodie
The new Director of the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Professor Jean Brodie talks about why astrophysics is important and shares insights on women and leadership.
New Director of Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Professor Jean Brodie, discusses why astrophysics is important and how it fits into Swinburne’s Horizon 2025 vision Professor Brodie shares her insights on women and leadership Professor Jean Brodie relocated to Australia in December 2020, where she is the Director of Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS). She brings extensive experience in astronomy and research to this new role. Her work makes use of the fossil record embodied in globular star clusters (amongst the oldest radiant objects in the Universe) to understand the formation and evolution of galaxies. Professor Brodie is the founder and chief investigator of SAGES (Study of the Astrophysics of Globular clusters in Extragalactic Systems), an international research group that investigates globular clusters and their host galaxies with a focus on using the world’s best observational facilities to provide fresh clues. Professor Brodie tells us about her background and why astrophysics is important and shares her views on leadership. What is your field of research? Extragalactic Globular Clusters and Galaxy Formation. I use globular star clusters, the ‘fossil record’ of the state of the early Universe to understand how galaxies formed over cosmic time. That is, how did the Universe evolve from the dense, uniform, ‘primordial soup’ left over from the Big Bang to its highly structured present form, full of galaxies like our Milky Way, nearly 14 billion years later. How did you get into this field? I did a physics bachelor's degree, then went into industry for a few years, then went back to do a PhD in Astronomy. I'd been most interested in astrophysics and biophysics as an undergraduate. I was awarded positions to do both in graduate school and was having trouble deciding which to pick. When I asked my former undergrad adviser, his advice was to do biology because it would be so much easier to get back into the workforce after having my children. I was in my twenties, unmarried and with no intention of having children (I ended up having three, but that isn't the point!). I thanked him and signed on for astronomy. True story. What was your experience like leading up to your appointment as Director of CAS? I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work in many of the top universities in the world - University of London, Imperial College, University of Cambridge, University of California Berkeley and Santa Cruz. I met wonderfully interesting and accomplished people. I encountered bias and prejudice but also found colleagues with insight and a willingness to offer support. I travelled all over the world for work and loved that. You were appointed Director in March 2020 and spent almost a year leading the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing from Santa Cruz, California before you were able to relocate to Australia. How challenging was that time? Honestly, in a personal sense, it wasn't too bad. I'm glad to finally be here and able to get on with my life without worrying about getting infected. Working remotely was what everyone had to do anyway, so it was no worse for me than if I'd been in lockdown in Victoria - indeed it was better because I had my family and network of friends nearby. The worst part was always being on the ‘wrong’ time. The time/day difference meant that I was working when others were relaxing after work, I slept when others were starting their day and Sunday for friends and family was my busiest day - Monday! It felt like I only got one day off. However, being new to a leadership role without having met many of my colleagues, in such a rapidly changing environment, and especially with such financial problems looming was not ideal, of course. I tried to remember to be grateful, keep calm and carry on! Professor Brodie is glad to finally be on campus at Swinburne. Why is astrophysics important? How does it fit with Swinburne’s 2025 Vision: “People and technology working together to build a better world”? That is a really good question and at first one might be tempted to think: Oh, that's just blue-sky stuff with little tangible benefit to the world at large. I strongly believe that research for the sake of research has huge value. I was once asked why I did astronomy research if it didn't [immediately] generate a marketable product. My response was ‘curiosity’. Our human condition is about much more than mere survival. We want to know. We want to know how we got here, if we are alone, what is the fate of our Universe, and so on. Perhaps answering these questions doesn't directly affect the life of the person ‘on the street’, but to me they are some of the most important questions there are. Actually, many people on the street share this curiosity, as evidenced by the interest in our public talks and other media coverage. Our work, although impelled by the esoteric, has profound benefits in a remarkably wide range of different endeavours. We are a technology-driven discipline, so we are constantly inventing new instrumentation to allow us to reach our scientific goals. These developments spin off into the commercial world in many arenas – high-performance computing, image processing, big data handling, machine learning and artificial intelligence, financial modelling, and so on. What are the top three projects CAS is working on and the big goal for 2021? We are developing the world's most powerful camera (KWFI), an ultra-fast, ultraviolet sensitive instrument that will be mounted on the world’s largest and most productive optical telescope (Keck) on Mauna Kea in Hawaii. It will do revolutionary science that literally cannot be done anywhere else on the planet or in Space. This project links directly with Swinburne's broader initiatives in Space, where we intend to lead within Victoria, in Australia, and on the international stage. Many projects are germinating, including detector development, CubeSat programs in collaboration with international partners, Space instrument testing facilities, and a host of novel teaching and outreach initiatives, linked to our high profile in the Space arena. We are pushing on many areas of fundamental research in the traditional optical/near infrared wavebands, as well as in the new area of gravitational waves, in which Swinburne through the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) is already the recognised leader. Do you have any thoughts you’d like to share about being a woman in astrophysics, or advice for other women? I won't lie. Being a woman in a ‘man's’ field isn't easy. There have been significant improvements over the years and many institutions, including Swinburne, are committed to equity in all its forms. It is no longer OK to display bias, but that doesn't mean it has disappeared. Many of us don't notice or choose not to notice when we encounter this bias. I personally can't stand unfairness, but one can't be annoyed all the time! I've had to fight for my rights on more than one occasion and believe me it wasn't fun. In fact, it was scary and stressful, but my advice is to stand up for yourself when you are being treated unfairly. Pick your battles (you don't want to be labelled as a whiner), make sure you have marshalled all the objective evidence that you can access and then go to the mat! What, if any, have been your challenges navigating being a leader in astrophysics? I am keen to see that young people have career mentors. In most of my early years, with some notable exceptions, I didn't have anyone looking after me in that way. I now see, with the benefit of hindsight, how much easier my life would have been if more senior colleagues had taken me under their wing. The old boy network was in full swing when I was an early career researcher and I wasn't even aware that I was missing out on training for leadership roles, being nominated for awards, or even advised on how to succeed in my field. I want to ensure that ECRs are nurtured and guided towards fulfilling their best potential. What will be the biggest challenge for the next generation of female leaders? Perhaps I am too much of an optimist, but the more the world sees competent women in leadership roles, the more those special challenges recede. Some of the basic issues are likely to endure, though. The biological necessities of pregnancy, childbirth, and child rearing are going to fall more heavily on women. The outstanding challenge is how to further influence society to accommodate these realities so that successful career paths can be achieved without giving up other important parts of life. What advice would you give to women who want to be leaders? Be yourself! It is sometimes said that it is tempting for women to become ‘men’ disguised as women. By this I mean, adopting behaviours commonly associated with men because they are thought to be more effective, or are even expected or encouraged, in a leadership situation. It is always good to remember that you bring special qualities to the job that others may not have. I'm going to generalise again, acknowledging that there are clear and frequent exceptions: Women are often credited with more empathy and multiplexing abilities, for instance, than men. These are important leadership qualities. Don't make the mistake of buying into impostor syndrome, just because you approach things in your own way.
25 March 2021 10:33
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/03/q-and-a-with-professor-jean-brodie/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/03/q-and-a-with-professor-jean-brodie/
Astronomy
Research,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
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A brief history: what we know so far about fast radio bursts across the universe
A brief history: what we know so far about fast radio bursts across the universe
Associate Professor Ryan Shannon and CSIRO Astronomer Keith Bannister explain the history of fast radio bursts, and what we know so far about this phenomenon
Analysis for The Conversation by Associate Professor Ryan Shannon, Swinburne University of Technology and Keith Bannister, CSIRO. Fast radio bursts are one of the great mysteries of the universe. Since their discovery, we have learned a great deal about these intense millisecond-duration pulses. But we still have much to learn, such as what causes them. We know the intense bursts originate in galaxies billions of light years away. We have also used these bursts (called FRBs) to find missing matter that couldn’t be found otherwise. With teams of astronomers around the world racing to understand their enigma, how did we get to where we are now? The first burst The first FRB was discovered in 2007 by a team led by British-American astronomer Duncan Lorimer using Murriyang, the traditional Indigenous name for the iconic Parkes radio telescope (image, top). The team found an incredibly bright pulse — so bright that many astronomers did not believe it to be real. But there was yet more intrigue. Radio pulses provide a tremendous gift to astronomers. By measuring when a burst arrives at the telescope at different frequencies, astronomers can tell the total amount of gas that it passed through on its journey to Earth. A typical Fast Radio Burst. The burst arrives first at high frequencies and is delayed by as much as several seconds at the lower frequencies. This tell-tale curve is what astronomers are looking for. Ryan Shannon and Vikram Ravi The Lorimer burst had travelled through far too much gas to have originated in our galaxy, the Milky Way. The team concluded it came from a galaxy billions of light years away. To be visible from so far away, whatever produced it must have released an enormous amount of energy. In just a millisecond it released as much energy as our Sun would in 80 years. Lorimer’s team could only guess which galaxy their FRB had come from. Murriyang can’t pinpoint FRB locations very accurately. It would take several years for another team to make the breakthrough. Locating FRBs To pinpoint a burst location, we need to detect an FRB with a radio interferometer — an array of antennas spread out over at least a few kilometres. When signals from the telescopes are combined, they produce an image of an FRB with enough detail not only to see in which galaxy the burst originated, but in some cases to tell where within the galaxy it was produced. The first FRB localised was from a source that emitted many bursts. The first burst was discovered in 2012 with the giant Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico. Subsequent bursts were detected by the Very Large Array, in New Mexico, and found to be coming from a tiny galaxy about 3 billion light years away. Several of the ASKAP radio telescopes in WA. Flickr/Australian SKA Office, CC BY-ND In 2018, using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder Telescope (ASKAP) in Western Australia, our team identified the second FRB host galaxy. In stark contrast to the previous galaxy, this galaxy was very ordinary. But our published discovery was this month awarded a prize by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Teams including ours have now localised roughly a dozen more bursts from a wide range of galaxies, large and small, young and old. The fact FRBs can come from such a wide range of galaxies remains a puzzle. A burst from close to home On April 28, 2020, a flurry of X-rays suddenly bashed into the Swift telescope orbiting Earth. The satellite telescope dutifully noted the rays had come from a very magnetic and erratic neutron star in our own Milky Way. This star has form: it goes into fits every few years. Two telescopes, CHIME in Canada and the STARE2 array in the United States, detected a very bright radio burst within milliseconds of the X-rays and in the direction of that star. This demonstrated such neutron stars could be a source of the FRBs we see in galaxies far away. The simultaneous release of X-rays and radio waves gave astrophysicists important clues to how nature can produce such bright bursts. But we still don’t know for certain if this is the cause of FRBs. So what’s next? While 2020 was the year of the local FRB, we expect 2021 will be the year of the the far-flung FRB, even further than already observed. The CHIME telescope has collected by far the largest sample of bursts and is compiling a meticulous catalogue that should be available to other astronomers soon A team at Caltech is building an array specifically dedicated to finding FRBs. There’s plenty of action in Australia too. We are developing a new burst-detection supercomputer for ASKAP that will find FRBs at a faster rate and find more distant sources. It will effectively turn ASKAP into a high-speed, high-definition video camera, and make a movie of the universe at 40 trillion pixels per second. By finding more bursts, and more distant bursts, we will be able to better study and understand what causes these mysteriously intense bursts of energy. For the localisation of the first ‘one-off’ FRB, our team was awarded the 2020 Newcomb Cleveland Prize from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
12 February 2021 08:16
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/02/what-we-know-so-far-about-fast-radio-bursts-across-the-universe/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/02/what-we-know-so-far-about-fast-radio-bursts-across-the-universe/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Launching students' ideas into space
Launching students' ideas into space
The Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge is launching high school students' experiments into space, with the help of talented Swinburne student mentors and expert staff.
Swinburne has launched the Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge. The 10-week program supports high school students to send experiments to space. A focus on gender equity has seen girls thrive in STEM. A program developed by Swinburne is inspiring high school students to imagine a career in space. Supported by the Australian Space Agency, the Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge is a 10-week program for Year 10 and up high school students that sees the students competing to create the best experiment to launch into space. The winning project is sent to the International Space Station with the help of industry partner, Rhodium Scientific. Before they start blasting projects into space, the students develop the necessary skills to create an experiment through a micro-unit inspired by Swinburne’s space technology co-major. Once the high school students have got the basics down, Swinburne student mentors guide the teams through the ideation and – when a winning project concept is chosen – use their advanced technical skills to create an experiment that meets flight guidelines. Swinburne graphic to represent the Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge, featuring an astronaut, satellite, plants in space and more. Fuelling a career in space science Sara Webb was once a student mentor for an earlier version of the program – now she’s a Swinburne staff member and PhD candidate completing research in transient astronomy (that’s looking at flaring stars for those of us without a background in astronomy) and helping to expand the Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge to more schools. “Our goal is to get students to take the lead in their designs and project management. I love the creativity of the students and fielding their many wonderful scientific questions. And of course, being able to send something that you’ve touched and helped build here on Earth into space is an amazing feeling,” she says. In 2018 and 2019, Sara guided six talented senior students from Haileybury College on an experiment aptly named ‘Microcavity’, researching tooth decay in microgravity. The experiment remained on the International Space Station for 30 days and was completely automated by software written by the students. For Sara, the program was an opportunity to put her technical skills into practice and build confidence in mentoring others. Left: High school student Reah Shetty evenly coats the petri dish with the desired concentration of Streptococcus Mutans for preliminary testing. Right: A mixture of activation broth and Streptococcus Mutans Bactria being precisely measured out for preliminary testing. Supporting women and girls in science When Sara was young, she felt a stigma towards women interested in the science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) field. She remembers how intimidating it was to be the ‘odd one out’ in science and engineering workshops. “It was seeing female mentors and successful women at the top of their field that gave me the confidence to continue down a science research career,” she says. The Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge is not just about teaching science to students, it’s also normalising women in science. The program is led by a number of talented Swinburne scientists, including astronomer Dr Rebecca Allen, Dean of Science Professor Virginia Kilborn, and space lawyer and current (in training) scientist-astronaut candidate for suborbital spaceflight Kim Ellis. “From the beginning, we’ve striven to have this be a diverse, gender-balanced program. We’ve had a 50/50 split of girls and boys in the teams, but also in the Swinburne students and staff involved,” Dr Allen says. They also partnered with a biotech space company that is 100 per cent owned and operated by women. "As the founder and CEO of a space biotechnology company, I have a special bond with student scientists learning the technical skillsets of tomorrow. My company is enthusiastic to embark on this exciting program with Swinburne, impacting many student scientists by providing a hands-on experience to the emerging world of biotech research in space,” says founder and CEO of Rhodium Scientific, Olivia Holzhaus. “Together, we strive to build a positive and progressive program that will ignite science-minded females to ask questions only answered in a microgravity environment.” A future in space When asked about the best part of studying STEM and taking part in the Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge, Sara says, “The endless possibilities! Students get to think creatively and work together to produce concepts and ideas unique to this program.” With more nations reaching space launch capacity and great reliance on satellite technology, there is a growing space industry. “Space jobs aren’t just about pointing a telescope. There’s a lot more that will be needed – from regulating it to writing about it,” Dr Allen says. “Whatever your interest, there’s a place for you in space.” If your high school would like to be involved in the Swinburne Youth Space Innovation Challenge, contact Dr Rebecca Allen.
11 February 2021 09:30
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/02/launching-students-ideas-into-space/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/02/launching-students-ideas-into-space/
Astronomy|Technology|Science|Engineering
false
-
Dream come true for Swinburne astrophysics student
Dream come true for Swinburne astrophysics student
Astrophysics PhD candidate Debatri Chattopadhyay has been selected for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to collaborate and train in leadership.
PhD candidate Debatri Chattopadhyay has been selected for a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to collaborate and train in leadership She has earned a place in the Homeward Bound global leadership program for women in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine Swinburne PhD candidate, Debatri Chattopadhyay, has been accepted to join 98 other future female leaders from around the world in the Homeward Bound program - a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to collaborate and train in leadership for a sustainable world. Debatri’s 12-month commitment will see her participate in online learning courses before travelling to Argentina and then on to Antarctica for a three-week voyage in 2022. Originally from India, Debatri is pursuing her PhD at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. She is also part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), where she studies the tiny ripples in the fabric of space-time. “I theoretically model dead stars – black holes and neutron stars – in the giant supercomputer, OzSTAR, and make them merge as these collisions lead to the creation of gravitational waves,” Debatri says. A desire to play a role in shaping the future motivated her to apply for the Homeward Bound program. What is Homeward Bound? Homeward Bound is a global leadership program for women in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM), set against the backdrop of Antarctica. It aims to heighten the influence and impact of women in making decisions that shape the future of our planet. The initiative aims at combatting the global threat of climate change. By connecting influential women in STEMM and putting them through this leadership initiative and creating global collaboration, Homeward Bound aims to ensure that there is greater diversity at the global leadership table. “These chosen women across the world are trained thoroughly for a year in leadership skills, networking tools and the climate situation,” Debatri says. “The program concludes with a three-week conference voyage to Antarctica, the continent being a prime example of how global warming is negatively impacting the ecosystem.” Debatri applied to the program in April 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic was worsening across the globe. “I was greatly honoured to have been selected as a member of the sixth cohort. My training starts from 2021, ending with the Antarctic expedition the year after,” Debatri says. Professor Jarrod Hurley, one of Debatri’s PhD supervisors, says: "Debatri has already shown great leadership qualities in developing her research and outreach skills. It is fantastic that she now has the opportunity to push these qualities further with Homeward Bound." Dream come true “It is a dream come true for me. I have always wanted to give something back to the society that helped me to progress. I have wanted to be an astrophysicist and study the cosmos since my early teenage years. Nothing gives me more pleasure than investigating and getting answers from the Universe. “But over the years, like many other women in STEMM, I have observed and occasionally experienced the problem of the lack of racial and gender diversity,” she says. Her objective has become to not only excel as a scientist but to stand as a role model for young girls. “The necessity to smash stereotypes is more urgent than ever before,” Debatri adds. “My scientific research can contribute to human knowledge, but to play a role in shaping a more equal future society. I need to nurture my leadership skills.” “I consider it my responsibility to utilise my opportunities for the betterment of the planet and human society. The Homeward Bound initiative will foster and cultivate my abilities.” Along with fellow OzGrav PhD candidate Isobel Romero-Shaw, who studies at Monash University, Debatri is raising money to pay for the training and the 21-day Antarctic voyage that makes up the final challenge of their training.
09 February 2021 15:16
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/02/dream-come-true-for-swinburne-astrophysics-student/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/02/dream-come-true-for-swinburne-astrophysics-student/
Astronomy
Research,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Cultural Diversity,Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Current Students (Higher Education),International
Student News,Science,Sustainability
false
-
Melbhenge sunset spectacle offers rare photo opportunity
Melbhenge sunset spectacle offers rare photo opportunity
When the setting sun aligns with the east–west streets of Melbourne’s CBD, amateur photographers are in for a rare treat..
Melbhenge offers a rare photographic opportunity to capture the setting sun in Melbourne’s CBD on Sunday 7 February It takes place along the Hoddle Grid from 8.30pm Although the sun rises and sets every day, there are two occasions each year when it sets perfectly between the streets of Melbourne’s iconic Hoddle grid. So get your cameras ready, because #Melbhenge is an event your Instagram will love you for. The event is inspired by Manhattanhenge, during which the setting sun is aligned with the east–west streets of the main street grid of Manhattan in New York City. It is also reminiscent of astronomical alignments visible at the UK’s famous Stonehenge. “Melbhenge is a great time to explore how our modern landscape reflects the efforts our ancestors made to track the motions of the heavens,” says astrophysicist, Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Dr Rebecca Allen. The time to take and share photos of the sunset on Sunday 7 February, as the sun aligns with Melbourne’s Hoddle grid and tag #Melbhenge and your location on Instagram and Twitter. Best spots to view Melbhenge Although astronomical predictions can tell us when the Sun will set, it can’t tell us which of Melbourne’s streets will offer the best view. In years past the steps at Parliament House on Spring Street have provided a good vantage point looking west along Bourke Street towards the CBD. Of course, there may be other places across Melbourne’s gridded streets that are suitable. Check your neighbourhood on Google Maps and look for streets that extend along the East-West direction. The sun will set just south of west so the best views will be down streets with a long clear line of sight in that direction. You can also give it a try the day before and after depending on the weather. Don’t forget to spread out across the city to ensure you are physically distanced from other #Melbhenge hunters. Of course, there may be other places across Melbourne’s gridded streets that are suitable. Check your neighbourhood on Google Maps and look for streets that extend along the East-West direction. The sun will set just south of west so the best views will be down streets with a long clear line of sight in that direction. You can also give it a try the day before and after depending on the weather. Don’t forget to spread out across the city to ensure you are physically distanced from other #Melbhenge hunters.
01 February 2021 16:31
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/02/melbhenge-sunset-spectacle-offers-rare-photo-opportunity/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/02/melbhenge-sunset-spectacle-offers-rare-photo-opportunity/
Astronomy
false
-
Swinburne’s new space institute blasts off
Swinburne’s new space institute blasts off
Swinburne’s new Space Technology and Industry Institute will bring together world-class research, education and technology capabilities to tackle challenges at the edge of human understanding and imagination.
Swinburne’s Space Technology and Industry Institute will bring together world-class capabilities in astrophysics, aerospace, aviation, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence and education The new institute will inspire education, research and innovation in a sector that is projected to be worth US$1.1 trillion globally by 2040 The institute will be led by pre-eminent astronomer and science communicator Professor Alan Duffy An interplanetary refuelling station on the Moon and vastly improved satellite imaging technology are just two of the projects being worked on by the new Space Technology and Industry Institute, launched today by Swinburne University of Technology. Swinburne’s Space Technology and Industry Institute will bring together world-class capabilities in astrophysics, aerospace, aviation, advanced manufacturing, artificial intelligence and education to tackle challenges at the edge of human understanding and imagination. The new institute will be an engine room for innovation and economic growth, as well as inspiring education from vocational training to the PhD level, in a sector that is projected to be worth US$1.1 trillion globally by 2040. The institute will be led by pre-eminent astronomer and science communicator Professor Alan Duffy. Professor Duffy, who was recently named Academic of the Year at the Australian Space Awards, said the institute is an important step forward in the ongoing growth and development of the Australian space industry, for both research and educating the next wave of space professionals. “Space research, technology and education is, like the universe itself, incredibly complex and interdependent. It requires close collaboration, targeted investment and new ways of working to succeed. Australia has the potential to be a global leader in space research and technology, as well as teaching the brightest minds. But to do it, we need all our rockets at full throttle,” Professor Duffy said. “I’m delighted to be uniting the efforts of my colleagues at Swinburne to help achieve this and make that next big breakthrough,” he said. From left to right: Professor Pascale Quester, Professor Alan Duffy and Professor Bronwyn Fox launching the new Space Technology and Industry Institute. Swinburne’s Vice Chancellor Professor Pascale Quester said research and education into space technologies and their terrestrial applications had extraordinary potential for both economic and social impact. “Swinburne is in a unique position to offer both research and education capabilities and opportunities to pursue the greatest space endeavours,” Professor Quester said. “Our end-to-end coverage of R&D, as well as developing the people and skills needed to build new space industries of the future, means that Swinburne is perfectly positioned to enter a new frontier in space discovery and innovation. We have all the experience, equipment and thirst for knowledge under one roof to help our industry partners move into this market and capitalise on the vast potential of space,” she said. Working with industry Swinburne’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research and Enterprise Professor Bronwyn Fox said the Space Technology and Industry Institute would provide industry partners with a platform for building lighter, stronger and cheaper materials with faster production enabled by cutting edge additive manufacturing processes. “We’re opening up a world of possibilities to expand our stellar capabilities and the new institute will make the most of our globally recognised expertise in digitalisation and materials engineering,” Professor Fox said. “We are in the midst of a space revolution, and Australia has a unique opportunity to emerge as a major player in the global space market,” she said. Connecting across the sector Projects currently being undertaken by the Space Technology and Industry Institute include: developing new materials that are lighter, stronger, and offer self-healing properties or radiation protection to support the next generation of satellites work on a cutting-edge technique called ‘super-resolution’ that uses artificial intelligence to improve satellite images that can help farms and mines see their holdings better supporting a nationwide collaboration to access the resources of the Moon using new engineering processes for use as a base for resupplying and refuelling the exploration of our solar system. The institute will build on Swinburne’s place at the heart of Australia’s space industry, connecting research and teaching, and driving industry engagement in: astronomy: galaxy formation, gravitational waves, dark matter aerospace: aerostructures, aircraft technologies, drones, aircraft systems aviation: flight simulation and control, pilot training, AI and mobility, future aviation space applications of technology: satellite instrumentation and sensors, Earth observation and AI, in-situ resource processing and utilisation, data visualisation and supercomputing. The Space Technology and Industry Institute will also harness the innovative work being done at Swinburne’s internationally renowned Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing and the three Australian Research Council (ARC) Centres of Excellence that Swinburne is part of: Dark Matter Particle Physics (CDM), Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) and All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D).
29 January 2021 15:46
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/01/swinburnes-new-space-institute-blasts-off/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2021/01/swinburnes-new-space-institute-blasts-off/
Astronomy|Science|Aviation|Engineering
false
-
The best gift in the galaxy: an astronomer’s guide to buying a home telescope
The best gift in the galaxy: an astronomer’s guide to buying a home telescope
Swinburne astrophysicists share their tips on purchasing a telescope which you can use at home to observe moons, gas giant rings and maybe even deep sky objects.
Analysis for The Conversation by Dr Rebecca Allen, Swinburne Space Office Project Coordinator and Manager of Swinburne Astronomy Productions, Mohsen Shamohammadi, PhD researcher at the Centre of Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Ryan James Turner, PhD Candidate in Astrophysics, and Vivek Gupta, PhD Candidate in Astrophysics, Swinburne University of Technology Since time immemorial, humans have been fascinated by the night sky. Our relationship with it was forever changed in the early 1600s, when Galileo Galilei raised a small hand-held telescope to the sky and became the first person to see Jupiter’s moons and Saturn’s rings. Optical telescopes today range from pocket telescopes just a few inches long, to the colossal Thirty Meter Telescope being built in Hawaii (which will weigh more than 1,400 tonnes). There are even bigger arrays of telescopes that observe in radio wavelengths, such as the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope. These large telescopes used for research don’t have a typical “eyepiece”. Rather, they use highly specialised computer-connected sensors that record signals from the sky. The good news, however, is there are plenty of telescopes in more manageable sizes which you can use at home to observe moons, gas giant rings and maybe even deep sky objects such as nebulae or the Andromeda galaxy. But before buying a home telescope, there are some points to consider. Who will be using it (other than you)? What do you want to observe? And just as important, how much are you willing to spend? About 2.5 million light-years away from Earth, the Andromeda galaxy is the closest major galaxy to our own, the Milky Way. | Shutterstock. Reflectors and refractors Optical telescopes are designed to capture light emitted by stars and reflected by planets and moons. You can think of them as light-collecting buckets. The bigger they are, the more light they’ll catch. This light then has to be focused to form an image. There are two types of optical telescopes available on the market today: reflectors and refractors. Reflectors use mirrors to bend incoming light; refractors use lenses. Of the two options, reflectors are relatively cheaper. A few hundred dollars will buy you an instrument much larger than the refractor Galileo used. But bigger also means heavier and harder to transport. Refractors are smaller, easier to transport and produce sharp images — but they’re more expensive, with a 100mm diameter telescope costing about A$500. The larger the primary glass lens (where the light enters) of a refractor, the longer the whole telescope must be to focus the light rays. At the same time, the larger a lens, the harder it is to make. So there’s a limit to how big refractors can be. Although refractors and reflectors are the two classic telescope designs, today there are many types of hybrid telescopes that combine elements of both. The best choice for beginners Dobsonian reflector telescopes are often recommended as a great first telescope for budding astronomers. They can be set up in as little as 20 minutes. Dobsonians have very simple mounts called “Altitude-Azimuthal” mounts, which are moved by hand to a target of choice. They move in the up-and-down (altitude) and left-to-right (azimuthal) directions. This diagram represents the insides of a Dobsonian reflector telescope. Light enters from the left, is reflected off a large mirror at the base of the telescope and then again reflected off a second mirror where it’s focused into the eye piece (the red X). | Wikimedia Commons. To get the most from your telescope, you’ll need accessories. You’d probably want some different-sized eyepieces to change the telescope’s magnification. Also, anti-glare and anti-light pollution filters are highly recommended if you live in a residential area. The simplicity of Dobsonians makes them great for observing our Moon and other planets in the Solar system. A good size to start with is a 6" (150mm) Dobsonian. On average, this will set you back about A$500. Astrophotography At-home astrophotography can be done with either type of optical telescope but requires more specialised equipment. For deep-sky photos, the more you spend, the better your results will be. You’ll need a telescope with very good optics and a computerised “GoTo” equatorial mount. These motor-powered mounts take into account Earth’s rotation and can automatically point you to a selected object. This feature is very popular, so most major brands sell telescopes with it built in. You’ll also need an external power source and accessories including a DSLR camera, camera adaptor, timer shutters and filters (depending on the type of astrophotography you want to do). Once you’re set up, your camera can capture the night sky. There are many processing techniques you can use after to help you get incredible compositions, as well as dedicated online forums for advice. Cosmic contributions by the public Amateur astronomers do much more than just take beautiful photos. They also help professionals. Over the decades, citizen scientists have discovered a plethora of comets and asteroids. Now they’re helping with larger projects, too. One example is Galaxy Zoo, a crowdsourced project that asks volunteers to sort thousands of galaxies into different groups based on appearance. There have been more than 60 scientific papers published as a result of these volunteering efforts. In 2017, some viewers of the ABC’s Stargazing Live program discovered a five-planet system orbiting a star. It became the subject of a paper on which they were credited as authors. For anyone considering astronomy as a hobby, a good start would be to visit your local astronomical society. There are now more than 30 across Australia. Society members are passionate about astronomy, often own a wide range of equipment and hold regular meetings for people with all levels of experience. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
17 December 2020 10:38
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/12/the-best-gift-in-the-galaxy-an-astronomers-guide-to-buying-a-home-telescope/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/12/the-best-gift-in-the-galaxy-an-astronomers-guide-to-buying-a-home-telescope/
Astronomy
false
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Swinburne astronomers review space news highlights of 2020
Swinburne astronomers review space news highlights of 2020
Dr Rebecca Allen and PhD candidate Sara Webb from Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing highlight the best in space news from 2020.
Dr Rebecca Allen and PhD candidate Sara Webb from Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing have compiled a list of the best in space news from 2020 2020 has proven to be a very difficult year, but the world pulled together and made some incredible advances in space. This year marked some major milestones for space agencies across the world and saw the foundations laid for the next era of space exploration. SpaceX Dragon and the Commercial Crew Program NASA will no longer have to depend on the Russian Soyuz capsule to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station (ISS). This year saw the testing of the new SpaceX Dragon crew capsule and first flight with a crew of four US astronauts: Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover and Shannon Walker along with Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi. The Crew-1 event was the first in the new series of flights, replacing the Expedition program that marked 20 years of continuous human presence aboard the ISS with its 64th mission earlier this year. Credit: NASA Osiris Rex and Hayabusa They may be some of the smallest objects in our solar system but to future space missions, asteroids are a big deal. The minerals they contain are worth trillions and their pristine condition can reveal new insights into our early solar system, helping us understand important questions like how Earth got its water. But we are limited by what we can learn from sending robotic space craft to asteroids. To learn more we have to dig deep and analyse samples back on Earth. This year saw incredible feats as NASA’s Osiris Rex Mission was able to scoop up a healthy portion of asteroid Bennu, while JAXAs Hayabusa 2 landed in Australia and its payload from asteroid Ryugu is enroute back to Japan. Life in Space Nothing gets us excited like the possibility of finding life out there in the Universe, and 2020 was a year of amazing discoveries that could hint to life hiding in our very own solar system. Credit: NASA Water on the Moon! You won’t find oceans or lakes on the dusty surface of our Moon, but if you looked closely at the lunar surface you’d likely find H2O molecules in the soil. These results come from NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy or SOFIA for short. When you think of an observatory you might picture a telescope high up on a mountain somewhere. However, SOFIA isn’t like other observatories; it is contained fully within a Boeing 747! Our atmosphere blocks the majority of infrared light, so to solve this SOFIA flies at ~40,000 feet, above 99 percent of the infrared blocking atmosphere. Although SOFIA has detected water on the lunar surface, it is still 100 times less then you’d find in the Sahara Desert. More observations with SOFIA are planned for the future, and with them will come a better understanding of the concentrations across the lunar surface. Life in the atmosphere of Venus? Could microbes be hiding the dense clouds of Venus? Researchers using two different radio telescopes believe they have detected traces of an element called phosphine. Why phosphine might hint at life takes us back down to Earth, and how we observe phosphine here. On Earth very small concentrations of phosphine are present in our atmosphere, most likely from decaying organic matter. Phosphine is also produced as a byproduct of anaerobic organisms – organisms that do not require oxygen. Using these cues from Earth we can speculate that the presence of Phosphine could indicate the presence of organic life. However before we get too excited, it’s important to note that this research has been questioned by other teams’ analysis of past data. So we’ll be watching this space very closely in the coming years for further results. An artist’s impression of the SGR 1935+2154 magnetar in outburst, showing complex magnetic field structure and beamed emission. Image credit: McGill University Graphic Design Team. Wild Astronomy The Universe is a mysterious and sometimes wild environment. Results released this year outlined the discovery of gravitational waves produced from a massive black hole collision seven billion years ago. The gravitational wave, a ripple traveling through both space and time, was detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors in May 2019. The results, only recently published, describe the merger of two black holes into one ultimately producing a singular black hole weighing 142 times the mass of our Sun. In the collision, mass equal to nine Suns was converted into the energy that rippled space-time, leading to its detection. Astronomer spotlight The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three astrophysicists this year – Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez – for their work in understanding black hole formation and the discovery of the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. Notably, Andrea Ghez is only the fourth woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in physics and, currently, there are twice as many prizes awarded to men named John than women as a whole. This acknowledgement of the incredible work by Ghez is a great step forward in recognising the vast contribution to the physical sciences by women worldwide!
11 December 2020 14:50
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/12/swinburne-astronomers-review-space-news-highlights-of-2020/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/12/swinburne-astronomers-review-space-news-highlights-of-2020/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
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Swinburne’s Professor Alan Duffy recognised at inaugural Australian Space Awards
Swinburne’s Professor Alan Duffy recognised at inaugural Australian Space Awards
Professor Alan Duffy has been named Academic of the Year at the inaugural Australian Space Awards.
Professor Alan Duffy has been named Academic of the Year at the inaugural Australian Space Awards The awards recognise leading individuals and businesses driving the development of Australia’s space economy Swinburne University of Technology’s most recognisable space communicator, Professor Alan Duffy, has been named Academic of the Year at the inaugural Australian Space Awards. The awards are an initiative of Space Connect, a marketplace and information platform for the space economy. Professor Duffy is Project Lead of SpaceTech Applications at Swinburne's Data Science Research Institute, finding novel uses for astrophysical knowledge in aiding business and society on Earth. He is also a regular media commentator on astronomy and space. Professor Duffy says he was surprised and honoured to receive the award, which was announced at an online event, based in Sydney. “Space is a multidisciplinary domain so my individual award is actually a team award in practice - and one that recognises my extraordinary colleagues at Swinburne who have worked so hard to make our collective efforts deserving of this recognition,” Professor Duffy says. “From engineering for space to applying the latest artificial intelligence to improve our observation of Earth to detect bushfires more quickly and reliably, my Swinburne colleagues’ work is truly out of this world.” Swinburne Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Enterprise) Professor Bronwyn Fox says: “This award is a wonderful recognition of Alan’s leadership, passion and incredible talent.” Australian Space Awards The Australian Space Awards recognise leading individuals and businesses driving the development of Australia’s space economy, from major listed organisations and corporates servicing Australia’s space economy to SMEs, start-ups, academic institutions and associations. The awards are open to all businesses operating in Australia supporting the space industry, including telecommunications, satellite, energy, mining and transport sectors as well as the defence, agriculture, disaster and water management industries. The awards celebrate the best of the best in Australia’s space industry and recognise the outstanding contribution of professionals and businesses working within the industry across 22 categories. Space Connect The Australian Space Awards is an initiative of Space Connect. Part of Momentum Media’s suite of brands, Space Connect is the first dedicated market intelligence, media and information platform for Australia’s space community, whose aim is to help drive the growth of our domestic industry as well as project Australia’s space capabilities globally. The platform serves as the authoritative marketplace to connect ideas, research and innovation with opportunities for space commercialisation.
20 November 2020 14:35
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/11/swinburnes-professor-alan-duffy-recognised-at-inaugural-australian-space-awards/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/11/swinburnes-professor-alan-duffy-recognised-at-inaugural-australian-space-awards/
Astronomy
Research,Data Science Research Institute,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Award Winners,Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET)
false
-
Seeing dark matter in a new light
Seeing dark matter in a new light
Swinburne astronomers have found a new way to ‘see’ the elusive dark matter halos that surround galaxies.
Swinburne astronomers have found a new way to ‘see’ the elusive dark matter halos that surround galaxies Their research focuses on an effect called weak gravitational lensing By measuring how distorted real galaxy images are, astronomers can calculate how much dark matter it would take to explain what they see Article body continue Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. A small team of astronomers from Swinburne has found a new way to ‘see’ the elusive dark matter halos that surround galaxies. Our Universe is filled with many billions of galaxies. To our eyes – and in optical telescopes – these galaxies appear as collections of millions or even trillions of stars. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. One of the big puzzles of cosmology is that our telescopes only see a small fraction of the total mass that exists in the Universe. “Most – about 85 per cent – of the mass in the Universe is effectively invisible,” says Swinburne PhD candidate Pol Gurri, who led the new research. “Unlike ordinary matter, this dark matter does not produce, absorb, or reflect light: it only interacts with the rest of the Universe via gravity.” So how can you measure what cannot be seen? The key is to measure the effect of gravity that the dark matter produces. “It’s like looking at a flag to try to know how much wind there is. You cannot see the wind, but the flag’s motion tells you how hard the wind is blowing,” Mr Gurri explains. The new research focuses on an effect called weak gravitational lensing, which is a feature of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. “The dark matter will very slightly distort the image of anything behind it,” says Associate Professor Edward Taylor, who was also involved in the research. “It is a bit like looking at a table through the base of a wine glass.” A small team of astronomers from Swinburne University of Technology has found a new way to ‘see’ the elusive dark matter halos that surround galaxies. Our Universe is filled with many billions of galaxies. To our eyes – and in optical telescopes – these galaxies appear as collections of millions or even trillions of stars. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. One of the big puzzles of cosmology is that our telescopes only see a small fraction of the total mass that exists in the Universe. “Most – about 85 per cent – of the mass in the Universe is effectively invisible,” says Swinburne PhD candidate Pol Gurri, who led the new research. “Unlike ordinary matter, this dark matter does not produce, absorb, or reflect light: it only interacts with the rest of the Universe via gravity.” So how can you measure what cannot be seen? The key is to measure the effect of gravity that the dark matter produces. “It’s like looking at a flag to try to know how much wind there is. You cannot see the wind, but the flag’s motion tells you how hard the wind is blowing,” Mr Gurri explains. The new research focuses on an effect called weak gravitational lensing, which is a feature of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. “The dark matter will very slightly distort the image of anything behind it,” says Associate Professor Edward Taylor, who was also involved in the research. “It is a bit like looking at a table through the base of a wine glass.” A small team of astronomers from Swinburne University of Technology has found a new way to ‘see’ the elusive dark matter halos that surround galaxies. Our Universe is filled with many billions of galaxies. To our eyes – and in optical telescopes – these galaxies appear as collections of millions or even trillions of stars. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. One of the big puzzles of cosmology is that our telescopes only see a small fraction of the total mass that exists in the Universe. “Most – about 85 per cent – of the mass in the Universe is effectively invisible,” says Swinburne PhD candidate Pol Gurri, who led the new research. “Unlike ordinary matter, this dark matter does not produce, absorb, or reflect light: it only interacts with the rest of the Universe via gravity.” So how can you measure what cannot be seen? The key is to measure the effect of gravity that the dark matter produces. “It’s like looking at a flag to try to know how much wind there is. You cannot see the wind, but the flag’s motion tells you how hard the wind is blowing,” Mr Gurri explains. The new research focuses on an effect called weak gravitational lensing, which is a feature of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. “The dark matter will very slightly distort the image of anything behind it,” says Associate Professor Edward Taylor, who was also involved in the research. “It is a bit like looking at a table through the base of a wine glass.” The Swinburne team has used the ANU 2.3m Telescope, located near Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia to map how gravitationally lensed galaxies are rotating. “Because we know how stars and gas are supposed to move inside galaxies, we know roughly what that galaxy should look like,” says Mr Gurri. “By measuring how distorted the real galaxy images are, then we can figure out how much dark matter it would take to explain what we see.” The new research shows how this velocity information enables a much more precise measurement of the lensing effect than is possible using shape alone. “With our new way of seeing the dark matter we hope to get a clearer picture of where the dark matter is, and what role it plays in how galaxies form,” Mr Gurri says. Weak gravitational lensing is already one of the most successful ways to map the dark matter content of the Universe, with massive global investments of time and resources. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the European Space Agency’s Euclid Space Telescopes (both scheduled to launch in 2022) have been designed, in part, to make similar kinds of measurements. “We have shown that we can make a real contribution to these global efforts, even with a relatively small telescope built in the 1980s, just by thinking about the problem in a different way,” says Associate Professor Taylor. The new work appears in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. This research was partially funded through an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship. A small team of astronomers from Swinburne University of Technology has found a new way to ‘see’ the elusive dark matter halos that surround galaxies. Our Universe is filled with many billions of galaxies. To our eyes – and in optical telescopes – these galaxies appear as collections of millions or even trillions of stars. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. One of the big puzzles of cosmology is that our telescopes only see a small fraction of the total mass that exists in the Universe. “Most – about 85 per cent – of the mass in the Universe is effectively invisible,” says Swinburne PhD candidate Pol Gurri, who led the new research. “Unlike ordinary matter, this dark matter does not produce, absorb, or reflect light: it only interacts with the rest of the Universe via gravity.” So how can you measure what cannot be seen? The key is to measure the effect of gravity that the dark matter produces. “It’s like looking at a flag to try to know how much wind there is. You cannot see the wind, but the flag’s motion tells you how hard the wind is blowing,” Mr Gurri explains. The new research focuses on an effect called weak gravitational lensing, which is a feature of Einstein’s general theory of relativity. “The dark matter will very slightly distort the image of anything behind it,” says Associate Professor Edward Taylor, who was also involved in the research. “It is a bit like looking at a table through the base of a wine glass.” ANU 2.3 metre telescope. Credit: Australian National University The Swinburne team has used the ANU 2.3m Telescope, located near Coonabarabran, NSW, Australia to map how gravitationally lensed galaxies are rotating. “Because we know how stars and gas are supposed to move inside galaxies, we know roughly what that galaxy should look like,” says Mr Gurri. “By measuring how distorted the real galaxy images are, then we can figure out how much dark matter it would take to explain what we see.” The new research shows how this velocity information enables a much more precise measurement of the lensing effect than is possible using shape alone. “With our new way of seeing the dark matter we hope to get a clearer picture of where the dark matter is, and what role it plays in how galaxies form,” Mr Gurri says. Weak gravitational lensing is already one of the most successful ways to map the dark matter content of the Universe, with massive global investments of time and resources. NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope and the European Space Agency’s Euclid Space Telescopes (both scheduled to launch in 2022) have been designed, in part, to make similar kinds of measurements. “We have shown that we can make a real contribution to these global efforts, even with a relatively small telescope built in the 1980s, just by thinking about the problem in a different way,” says Associate Professor Taylor. The new work appears in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. This research was partially funded through an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship. Article body continue Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.
06 November 2020 15:12
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/11/seeing-dark-matter-in-a-new-light/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/11/seeing-dark-matter-in-a-new-light/
Astronomy
Research,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET)
false
-
Astronomers discover metal-poor globular cluster
Astronomers discover metal-poor globular cluster
Astronomers have found a globular star cluster in the Andromeda Galaxy that contains a record-breaking low amount of metals.
Astronomers have found a globular star cluster with a record-breaking low amount of metals Globular clusters are key components of galaxies thought to form very early in the history of the Universe The cluster of stars was found in the halo of the Andromeda galaxy An international team of astronomers including Director of Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS), Professor Jean Brodie, has discovered a globular cluster of stars that contains extremely few metals. The interesting cluster of stars was found in the Andromeda galaxy. Galaxies, like Andromeda and the Milky Way, are massive systems made of billions of stars, gas, dust and dark matter. So why is one group of stars so important? “Stars tell us important things about galaxies and their history, helping us understand more about how they form and change over time,” says Dr Rebecca Allen, a galactic astronomer at CAS, not associated with the study. This system of stars (about a million of them in a spherical bundle) is what astronomers call a globular cluster. It is located in the outskirts, or halo, of the Andromeda galaxy. Globular clusters are key components of galaxies thought to form very early in the history of the Universe. They are bright fossils that trace the mergers and acquisitions that build up the galaxies we see today. Until now large globular clusters all contained at least a certain amount of metals, which set limits on where and when they could have formed. As galaxies evolve and grow over time, stars are formed and die, increasing the quantity of heavy elements present in the galaxy. The more massive a galaxy is the more metals it should have. This is where the globular cluster, called RBC EXT8, comes in. It is extremely metal poor, but also massive. The stars in the cluster have, on average, 800 times less iron than our Sun and are three times more iron-poor than the previous globular cluster record-holder. EXT8 is also extremely deficient in magnesium. “As a high-mass cluster, it should have been made by a relatively high-mass galaxy, which in turn would have a relatively high metallicity,” says co-author of the study, Professor Brodie. “The issue is that very low metallicity clusters are expected to form in very low-mass galaxies, which can make only low-mass clusters. Such clusters would then have dissolved by the present day. “This discovery is exciting because the idea of a ‘metallicity floor’ for globular clusters, that must contain some minimum amount of heavy metals, underpinned so much of our thinking about how these very old star clusters formed in the early Universe. “Our finding contradicts the standard picture and that is always fun!” The findings are published in the journal Science. An international team of astronomers including Director of Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS), Professor Jean Brodie, has discovered a globular cluster of stars that contains extremely few metals. The interesting cluster of stars was found in the Andromeda galaxy. Galaxies, like Andromeda and the Milky Way, are massive systems made of billions of stars, gas, dust and dark matter. So why is one group of stars so important? “Stars tell us important things about galaxies and their history, helping us understand more about how they form and change over time,” says Dr Rebecca Allen, a galactic astronomer at CAS, not associated with the study. This system of stars (about a million of them in a spherical bundle) is what astronomers call a globular cluster. It is located in the outskirts, or halo, of the Andromeda galaxy. Globular clusters are key components of galaxies thought to form very early in the history of the Universe. They are bright fossils that trace the mergers and acquisitions that build up the galaxies we see today. Until now large globular clusters all contained at least a certain amount of metals, which set limits on where and when they could have formed. As galaxies evolve and grow over time, stars are formed and die, increasing the quantity of heavy elements present in the galaxy. The more massive a galaxy is the more metals it should have. This is where the globular cluster, called RBC EXT8, comes in. It is extremely metal poor, but also massive. The stars in the cluster have, on average, 800 times less iron than our Sun and are three times more iron-poor than the previous globular cluster record-holder. EXT8 is also extremely deficient in magnesium. An international team of astronomers including Director of Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS), Professor Jean Brodie, has discovered a globular cluster of stars that contains extremely few metals. The interesting cluster of stars was found in the Andromeda galaxy. Galaxies, like Andromeda and the Milky Way, are massive systems made of billions of stars, gas, dust and dark matter. So why is one group of stars so important? “Stars tell us important things about galaxies and their history, helping us understand more about how they form and change over time,” says Dr Rebecca Allen, a galactic astronomer at CAS, not associated with the study. This system of stars (about a million of them in a spherical bundle) is what astronomers call a globular cluster. It is located in the outskirts, or halo, of the Andromeda galaxy. Globular clusters are key components of galaxies thought to form very early in the history of the Universe. They are bright fossils that trace the mergers and acquisitions that build up the galaxies we see today. Until now large globular clusters all contained at least a certain amount of metals, which set limits on where and when they could have formed. As galaxies evolve and grow over time, stars are formed and die, increasing the quantity of heavy elements present in the galaxy. The more massive a galaxy is the more metals it should have. This is where the globular cluster, called RBC EXT8, comes in. It is extremely metal poor, but also massive. The stars in the cluster have, on average, 800 times less iron than our Sun and are three times more iron-poor than the previous globular cluster record-holder. EXT8 is also extremely deficient in magnesium. Director of the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Professor Jean Brodie. “As a high-mass cluster, it should have been made by a relatively high-mass galaxy, which in turn would have a relatively high metallicity,” says co-author of the study, Professor Brodie. “The issue is that very low metallicity clusters are expected to form in very low-mass galaxies, which can make only low-mass clusters. Such clusters would then have dissolved by the present day. “This discovery is exciting because the idea of a ‘metallicity floor’ for globular clusters, that must contain some minimum amount of heavy metals, underpinned so much of our thinking about how these very old star clusters formed in the early Universe. “Our finding contradicts the standard picture and that is always fun!” The findings are published in the journal Science.
16 October 2020 10:54
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/10/astronomers-discover-metal-poor-globular-cluster/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/10/astronomers-discover-metal-poor-globular-cluster/
Astronomy
Research,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
-
Life on Venus? Traces of phosphine may be a sign of biological activity
Life on Venus? Traces of phosphine may be a sign of biological activity
Adjunct Research Fellow, Dr Lucyna Kedziora-Chudczer, discusses the discovery that turned planetary science on its head. In the harshly acidic clouds of Venus, scientists have discovered a gas that indicates the presence of microbes.
Analysis for The Conversation by Dr Lucyna Kedziora-Chudczer, Adjunct Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology, Dr Brendan Paul Burns, Senior Lecturer, University of New South Wales, and Dr Laura McKemmish, Lecturer, University of New South Wales. The discovery that the atmosphere of Venus absorbs a precise frequency of microwave radiation has just turned planetary science on its head. An international team of scientists used radio telescopes in Hawaii and Chile to find signs that the clouds on Earth’s neighbouring planet contain tiny quantities of a molecule called phosphine. Phosphine is a compound made from phosphorus and hydrogen, and on Earth its only natural source is tiny microbes that live in oxygen-free environments. It’s too early to say whether phosphine is also a sign of life on Venus – but no other explanation so far proposed seems to fit. This video shows how methane was detected in the atmosphere of Mars. The process is the same for finding phosphine on Venus. What makes an atmosphere? The molecular makeup of a planet’s atmosphere normally depends on what its parent star is made of, the planet’s position in its star’s system, and the chemical and geological processes that take place given these conditions. There is phosphine in the atmospheres of Jupiter and Saturn, for example, but there it’s not a sign of life. Scientists think it is formed in the deep atmosphere at high pressures and temperatures, then dredged into the upper atmosphere by a strong convection current. Although phosphine quickly breaks down into phosphorus and hydrogen in the top clouds of these planets, enough lingers – 4.8 parts per million – to be observable. The phosphorus may be what gives clouds on Jupiter a reddish tinge. Things are different on a rocky planet like Venus. The new research has found fainter traces of phosphine in the atmosphere, at 20 parts per billion. Lightning, clouds, volcanoes and meteorite impacts might all produce some phosphine, but not enough to counter the rapid destruction of the compound in Venus’s highly oxidising atmosphere. The researchers considered all the chemical processes they could think of on Venus, but none could explain the concentration of phosphine. What’s left? On Earth, phosphine is only produced by microbial life (and by various industrial processes) – and the concentration in our atmosphere is in the parts per trillion range. The much higher concentration on Venus cannot be ignored. Signs of life? To determine whether the phosphine on Venus is really produced by life, chemists and geologists will be trying to identify other reactions and processes that could be alternative explanations. Meanwhile, biologists will be trying to better understand the microbes that live in Venus-like conditions on Earth – high temperatures, high acidity, and high levels of carbon dioxide – and also ones that produce phosphine. When Earth microbes produce phosphine, they do it via an “anaerobic” process, which means it happens where no oxygen is present. It has been observed in places such as activated sludge and sewage treatment plants, but the exact collection of microbes and processes is not well understood. Biologists will also be trying to work out whether the microbes on Earth that produce phosphine could conceivably do it under the harsh Venusian conditions. If there is some biological process producing phosphine on Venus, it may be a form of “life” very different from what we know on Earth. Searches for life beyond Earth have often skipped over Venus, because its surface temperature is around 500℃ and the atmospheric pressure is almost 100 times greater than on Earth. Conditions are more hospitable for life as we know it about 50 kilometres off the ground, although there are still vast clouds of sulfuric acid to deal with. Molecular barcodes The researchers found the phosphine using spectroscopy, which is the study of how light interacts with molecules. When sunlight passes through Venus’s atmosphere, each molecule absorbs very specific colours of this light. Using telescopes on Earth, we can take this light and split it into a massive rainbow. Each type of molecule present in Venus’ atmosphere produces a distinctive pattern of dark absorption lines in this rainbow, like an identifying barcode. The full visible spectrum of sunlight, showing the dark ‘barcodes’ that indicate the presence of different atoms and molecules. N.A.Sharp, NOAO/NSO/Kitt Peak FTS/AURA/NSF This barcode is not always strongest in visible light. Sometimes it can only be detected in the parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that are invisible to the human eye, such as UV rays, microwave, radio waves and infrared. The barcode of carbon dioxide, for example, is most evident in the infrared region of the spectrum. While phosphine on Jupiter was first detected in infrared, for Venus observations astronomers used radio telescopes: the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT), which can detect the barcode of phosphine in millimetre wavelengths. New barcodes, new discoveries The discovery of phosphine on Venus relied not only on new observations, but also a more detailed knowledge of the compound’s barcode. Accurately predicting the barcode of phosphine across all relevant frequencies took the whole PhD of astrochemist Clara Sousa-Silva in the ExoMol group at University College London in 2015. She used computational quantum chemistry – basically putting her molecule into a computer and solving the equations that describe its behaviour – to predict the strength of the barcode at different colours. She then tuned her model using available experimental data before making the 16.8 billion lines of phosphine’s barcode available to astronomers. Sousa-Silva originally thought her data would be used to study Jupiter and Saturn, as well as weird stars and distant “hot Jupiter” exoplanets. More recently, she led the detailed consideration of phosphine as a biosignature – a molecule whose presence implies life. This analysis demonstrated that, on small rocky exoplanets, phosphine should not be present in observable concentrations unless there was life there as well. But she no doubt wouldn’t have dreamed of a phone call from an astronomer who has discovered phosphine on our nearest planetary neighbour. With phosphine on Venus, we won’t be limited to speculating and looking for molecular barcodes. We will be able to send probes there and hunt for the microbes directly. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
16 September 2020 11:52
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/09/life-on-venus-traces-of-phosphine-may-be-a-sign-of-biological-activity/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/09/life-on-venus-traces-of-phosphine-may-be-a-sign-of-biological-activity/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing
Science
false
-
Reducing carbon emissions in astronomy
Reducing carbon emissions in astronomy
A new study sheds light on carbon emissions produced by the Australian astronomical community.
A new study sheds light on carbon emissions produced by the Australian astronomical community The study makes recommendations for reducing the impact of conducting research on our planet Since the study was conducted, Swinburne has reduced its overall carbon emissions by 70 per cent Many aspects of being an astronomer result in the emission of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. These include direct emissions from flights, and indirect emissions from the electricity required to power supercomputers, observatories and other facilities. A study published in Nature Astronomy sheds light on carbon emissions produced by the Australian astronomical community and makes recommendations for how astronomy and other industries can carry out cutting-edge research with a reduced impact on our planet. The new study, led by Swinburne alumni Dr Adam Stevens and Dr Sabine Bellstedt, and including Professor Michael Murphy from the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS), found that the work-based emissions of the average Australian astronomer are equivalent to around 37 tonnes of carbon dioxide per year. On a per-capita basis, this is 40 per cent higher than the average Australian adult and five times the global average. Carbon emissions at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing The study found that the use of Swinburne’s OzSTAR supercomputer – used for astrophysical simulations and processing astronomical data – was by far CAS’s largest carbon emissions source, followed by air travel, then emissions from electricity use in on-campus workplaces. Another important factor, but one that is difficult to estimate, Professor Murphy says, is the carbon emissions from CAS’s use of world-wide astronomical observatories. “We are very fortunate to have access to the W M Keck Observatory in Hawai’i through a collaborative agreement with Caltech in the USA, but of course we then share in the carbon emissions for operating these amazing telescopes. However, our audit found this is a relatively small part of CAS’s carbon budget at present. "We are also travelling to Hawai’i less often after installing the world's most remote observing facility on our Hawthorn campus." Reducing emissions at Swinburne Since the study was conducted, Swinburne has signed a contract with Infigen Energy to procure 100 per cent renewable electricity from July 2020. This will drastically reduce Swinburne’s carbon footprint as emissions from our electricity represent more than 70 per cent of our total emissions. This includes the OzSTAR supercomputer as well as carbon emissions from office electricity use. At the time of the study, the OzSTAR supercomputer was being powered by electricity from Victoria's brown-coal-dominated grid. It is now powered by 100 per cent renewable electricity. “Members of CAS were strong proponents of the move to 100 per cent renewable electricity in Swinburne, primarily because our supercomputing needs have such large electricity requirements,” Professor Murphy says. “This single action has likely reduced CAS's carbon emissions by more than 80 per cent, based on pre-COVID–19 figures.” Reducing air travel emissions will be more difficult. Professor Murphy says that a positive outcome from the current pandemic may be the long-term reduction of air travel for conferences and meetings as the quality and experience of virtual conferences improves. He adds that every profession has a responsibility to understand and reduce its carbon footprint, and astronomy is no exception. “We've now completed an initial audit of Australia's astronomy carbon emissions, so we know very well how to reduce them. We just need to get on with it and many astronomy institutes around the country are well on their way."
11 September 2020 08:23
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/09/reducing-carbon-emissions-in-astronomy/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/09/reducing-carbon-emissions-in-astronomy/
Astronomy
Research,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET)
Sustainability
false
-
First ever detection of monster black hole collision
First ever detection of monster black hole collision
Two monster black holes collided to form an intermediate-mass black hole, about 150 times as heavy as the Sun.
Astronomers have reported the first-ever direct observation of the most massive black hole merger to date Two monster black holes collided to form an intermediate-mass black hole, about 150 times as heavy as the Sun Astronomers from the LIGO and Virgo Scientific Collaboration (LVC) have reported the first ever direct observation of the most massive black hole merger to date. Two monster black holes collided to form an even more massive object—an intermediate-mass black hole, about 150 times as heavy as the Sun. Researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) contributed to the detection and used the computing resources of the new Gravitational-Wave Data Centre to infer the masses of the merging black holes. The online detection team at the University of Western Australia detected the event, GW190521, seconds after the gravitational-wave data were available, and helped generate public alerts for the LIGO Scientific Collaboration. How are black holes formed? The rare event has prompted researchers to question how the black hole formed, its origins and how the two black holes found each other in the first place. OzGrav postdoctoral researcher at Swinburne and LVC member Dr Simon Stevenson says: “These ‘impossibly’ massive black holes may be made of two smaller black holes which previously merged. If true, we have a big black hole made of smaller black holes, with even smaller black holes inside them—like Russian Dolls.” Since gravitational waves directly measure the masses of the colliding black holes, this measurement should be much more robust than the similar mass black hole previously reported by Liu et al (published in the journal Nature last year). That measurement was based on an interpretation of the spectrum of light from the Galactic star system LB-1, which has since been refuted. Based on the current study’s mass measurements, researchers found that this kind of black hole couldn’t have formed from a collapsing star – instead, it may have formed from a previous black hole collision. “We are witnessing the birth of an intermediate mass black hole: a black hole more than 100 times as heavy as the Sun, almost twice as heavy as any black hole previously observed with gravitational-waves,” Dr Stevenson says. “These intermediate mass black holes could be the seeds that grow into the supermassive black holes that reside in the centres of galaxies.” These gravitational waves came from over 15 billion light years away! But isn't the Universe only around 14 billion years old, you ask? It turns out that the Universe was actually around 7 billion years old when these two black holes collided. As the gravitational waves rippled out through the Universe, the Universe was expanding. Consequently, the measured distance to this collision is now further than the product of the speed of light and the time travelled—mind (and space) bending stuff! This shows gravitational waves can probe the ancient history of the Universe, when galaxies were forming stars at a rate around 10 times higher than the present day.
03 September 2020 17:10
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/09/first-ever-detection-of-monster-black-hole-collision/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/09/first-ever-detection-of-monster-black-hole-collision/
Astronomy
false
-
Swinburne celebrates astronomy as part of National Science Week
Swinburne celebrates astronomy as part of National Science Week
For this year’s National Science Week, Swinburne invites you to take a journey through the cosmos in a series of fun and interactive activities.
Swinburne invites you to take a journey through the cosmos in a series of fun and interactive activities as part of National Science Week. A Flash of Discovery Later in the day, the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing will present its annual State of the Universe talk virtually. To join Dr Jielai Zhang online for an interactive lecture uncovering the State of the Transient Universe, please register here. SciVR livestream event We will end National Science Week with a bang with the SciVR live-stream talk by Dr Rebecca Allen and Professor Alan Duffy. Through the immersive medium of virtual reality, the two astrophysicists will guide participants on an exploration of the origins of mysterious and energetic phenomena, tracking events as they occur. “The Universe is waiting to be discovered – from special global events using dozens of telescopes to daily monitoring of the radio sky in Australia,” says Dr Allen. “We will take you on the hunt for things that go boom!” Dr Allen and Professor Duffy will share research using Australian facilities, like the CSIRO Parkes telescope, to reveal more about the nature of these extreme and transiting objects. You can join them live on Friday 21 August at 8.00om AEST for the online streaming talk for adults and on Saturday 22 August at 11.30am AEST for the online streaming talk for families. SciVR is available free for Apple or Android, on whatever smartphone you have, and is best enjoyed through our foldable headsets or through google cardboard. If you don't have a headset, don’t worry, SciVR will still let you explore the cosmos in non-VR mode. Visit the website for more information. For this year’s National Science Week, Swinburne invites you to take a journey through the cosmos in a series of fun and interactive activities. Women in Space We will launch into the week with two special events. On Monday 17 August, the Swinburne Space Office will host a Women in Space panel, moderated by Swinburne Dean of Science Professor Virginia Kilborn, where women in roles across the space sector in Australia will share all the exciting things they do in space. The panellists include: Kim Ellis is the discipline co-ordinator for Space Technology at Swinburne. Kim is an international lawyer and space research professional with a background in metals, mining and mineral processing. She is a specialist in designing and delivering Lunar, Interplanetary, Space Resource Utilisation, Innovation and International Space Law workshops in collaboration with NASA and ESA and STEM activities for students in the US and Australia and online technical education programs. Dr Deanne Fisher, whose research at Swinburne is characterising the properties of galaxies and determining how they relate to galaxy evolution. Anu Rajendran is a PhD researcher at the Institute for Intelligent Systems Research and Innovation at Deakin University. Anu’s research focuses on the human factors of going to space and using technology as a tool to assist astronauts mitigate risk, manage emergencies and monitor physiological and psychological health of the crew for long duration missions. Register here to receive the link to the event. A Flash of Discovery Later in the day, the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing will present its annual State of the Universe talk virtually. To join Dr Jielai Zhang online for an interactive lecture uncovering the State of the Transient Universe, please register here. SciVR livestream event We will end National Science Week with a bang with the SciVR live-stream talk by Dr Rebecca Allen and Professor Alan Duffy. Through the immersive medium of virtual reality, the two astrophysicists will guide participants on an exploration of the origins of mysterious and energetic phenomena, tracking events as they occur. “The Universe is waiting to be discovered – from special global events using dozens of telescopes to daily monitoring of the radio sky in Australia,” says Dr Allen. “We will take you on the hunt for things that go boom!” Dr Allen and Professor Duffy will share research using Australian facilities, like the CSIRO Parkes telescope, to reveal more about the nature of these extreme and transiting objects. You can join them live on Friday 21 August at 8.00pm AEST for the online streaming talk for adults and on Saturday 22 August at 11.30am AEST for the online streaming talk for families. SciVR is available free for Apple or Android, on whatever smartphone you have, and is best enjoyed through our foldable headsets or through google cardboard. If you don't have a headset, don’t worry, SciVR will still let you explore the cosmos in non-VR mode. Download the free app at www.scivr.com.au A Flash of Discovery Later in the day, the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing will present its annual State of the Universe talk virtually. To join Dr Jielai Zhang online for an interactive lecture uncovering the State of the Transient Universe, please register here. SciVR livestream event We will end National Science Week with a bang with the SciVR live-stream talk by Dr Rebecca Allen and Professor Alan Duffy. Through the immersive medium of virtual reality, the two astrophysicists will guide participants on an exploration of the origins of mysterious and energetic phenomena, tracking events as they occur. “The Universe is waiting to be discovered – from special global events using dozens of telescopes to daily monitoring of the radio sky in Australia,” says Dr Allen. “We will take you on the hunt for things that go boom!” Dr Allen and Professor Duffy will share research using Australian facilities, like the CSIRO Parkes telescope, to reveal more about the nature of these extreme and transiting objects. You can join them live on Friday 21 August at 8.00om AEST for the online streaming talk for adults and on Saturday 22 August at 11.30am AEST for the online streaming talk for families. SciVR is available free for Apple or Android, on whatever smartphone you have, and is best enjoyed through our foldable headsets or through google cardboard. If you don't have a headset, don’t worry, SciVR will still let you explore the cosmos in non-VR mode. Visit the website for more information. Astro in the Home Throughout the week, you’ll be able to try your own astronomy experiments at home through the new Youtube series Astro in the Home, being launched by ASTRO 3D, the ARC Centre of Excellence in All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions, of which Swinburne is a member. Find out how to measure the speed of light in your kitchen or explore the colours of galaxies using cleaning supplies. One new video will be posted every day during National Science Week (15-23 August). Each video will feature an astronomer taking you through a space activity you can do within your own home, while explaining how it relates to their own ASTRO 3D research. “Our astronomers are searching to understand the evolution of the matter, light and elements from the Big Bang to the present day. With this series, you can do the same,” says series creator Emma Barnett. You can learn how to break light into a rainbow, model the Universe in your own backyard and make a mini light-bending galaxy.
12 August 2020 15:44
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/08/swinburne-celebrates-astronomy-as-part-of-national-science-week/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/08/swinburne-celebrates-astronomy-as-part-of-national-science-week/
Astronomy|Science
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET)
false
-
Curious Kids: what does the Sun’s core look like?
Curious Kids: what does the Sun’s core look like?
What does the Sun's core look like? Let's find out.
What does the Sun’s core look like? Sophie, aged 8, Perth. What does the Sun’s core look like? This is a fantastic question Sophie, and one we will need to go on an adventure to answer! We are about to take a journey to the centre of the Sun. The action begins about 148 million kilometres from our planet when we arrive at the Sun’s surface in our space ship. It’s hot here at the surface, about 5,700 degrees Celsius, and the light is brilliant and blinding. As we look closer, the surface appears to bubble, just like boiling water. Some of the bubbles look darker than the others. The darker bubbles are slightly cooler than the rest, but every inch of the surface is still blisteringly hot. From zone to zone We continue on our journey, diving through one of these giant bubbles on the surface, and head towards our first stop: the convective zone. Surrounding us is a hot fluid called plasma, filled with bubbles by the constant movement of hot gases rising and cool gases falling. The bubbles are moving, growing and shrinking. Some are even popping as our space ship travels down further, rocking from side to side like a boat in a high sea. After travelling down for 200,000 kilometres (that’s about 15 times the width of the whole Earth!) the rocking finally stops. We’ve made it to our second stop, the radiative zone. This part of the Sun is very hot. It is now 2 million degrees outside our space ship. If we could see individual light particles, called photons, we’d see them bouncing between the tiny particles, called atoms, that make up the plasma. These bounces forwards and backwards and from side to side make up a dance scientists call a “random walk”. It can take one photon hundreds of thousands of years to randomly walk its way out of this layer. Our spaceship is going full speed ahead, so we move through it much more quickly. The weight of all the plasma above us pressing down means the plasma around us is denser than gold, and the temperatures are soaring up towards 15 million degrees! We have almost reached the final stop on our tour, the Sun’s core. Welcome to the core Before we enter the core, we’re going to have to shrink down to the size of an atom. It is the only way we will get to see what is happening in here, because what we are trying to see in here is atoms, millions of times smaller than a grain of sand! The core of the Sun is home to billions and billions of atoms of hydrogen, the lightest element in the universe. The immense pressure and heat pushes these atoms so close to one another that they squish together to create new, heavier atoms. This is called nuclear fusion. The hydrogen atoms that get squished together form an entirely different substance called helium. So now that we are in the core of the Sun, what does it actually look like? Not only is everything blindingly bright, but it just might have a pretty pink colour! We can’t be entirely sure what the core would look like to human eyes, but we have seen in labs here on Earth that hydrogen plasma has a pink glow. So we can make an educated guess that hydrogen plasma in the core of the Sun would look about the same. When atoms merge together, they release large amounts of energy in the form of light. The light works its way up through the core, into the radiative zone where it bounces around, until it finally makes it into the convective zone. Then the light travels up to the surface of the Sun through massive bubbles of plasma, and from the surface it is free to travel uninterrupted through the sky. It’s time to leave the hottest place in our solar system and head back to Earth. Our journey has taken us 700,000 kilometres deep into the interior of the Sun, past the bubbles of the convective zone, through the billions of the light rays in the radiative zone and into the mysterious atom-fusing core. As we land back on Earth and look towards the Sun in the sky, it’s almost like looking back in time. We know now the light we are seeing was created hundreds of thousands of years ago, in the hottest place in the Solar system! This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
06 July 2020 10:55
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/07/curious-kids-what-does-the-suns-core-look-like/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/07/curious-kids-what-does-the-suns-core-look-like/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET)
Education
false
-
Scientists find mysterious astrophysical object in black hole collision
Scientists find mysterious astrophysical object in black hole collision
Have scientists discovered the heaviest neutron star or the lightest black hole ever observed?’
The LIGO and Virgo observatories have announced the detection of gravitational waves caused by the collision of a black hole, weighing up to 25 times the mass of the Sun, accompanied by a mysterious astrophysical object—around 2.5 times the mass of the Sun. Researchers predict the object is likely to be either a dense star, or another black hole; however, its mass contradicts this theory: it’s heavier than expected for a neutron star and lighter than a black hole. Understanding what caused the gravitational waves in this cosmic event (called GW190814) is a classic ‘big data’ challenge for scientists. But this discovery is much more unusual and exciting than scientists had ever expected. Artist’s impression of black hole collision. Credit: Alex Andrix Black holes and neutron stars are two of the most extreme objects ever observed in the Universe—they are born from exploding massive stars at the end of their lives. Typical neutron stars have a mass of one and a half times the mass of the Sun, but all of that mass is contained in an extremely dense star, about the size of a city. Imagine scooping up a whole mountain from the Earth—it would equate to a mere teaspoon of the total mass of a neutron star. Black holes are even more extreme objects than neutron stars: they have a lot of mass, normally at least three times the mass of our Sun, in a tiny amount of space. Their gravitational pull is so strong that not even light can escape if it passes too close to a black hole. Calculations reveal the black hole collision happened between 700 million and one billion years ago, but it has taken that long for the gravitational waves to travel to the Earth. Artwork by Robert Hurt, Caltech The fact that a black hole weighing 25 times the mass of the Sun could collide with either a super-heavy neutron star or an ultra-light black hole has challenged the accepted understanding of star life-cycles and galaxies. OzGrav PhD student Debatri Chattopadhyay at Swinburne uses simulations to understand how binary systems form, evolve and eventually merge over the course of their lives. “A couple of things make this event unique: mergers of black holes or neutron stars seem to prefer mass companions that are similar in mass, like birds of a feather,” says Ms Chattopadhyay. “This event has a black hole that is ten times more massive than its partner. The less-massive partner also has a mass range about 2.5-2.8 times the mass of the sun which falls in the ‘mass-gap’ region—the apparent interval between neutron stars and black holes.” The GW190814 event poses some interesting questions as to how the strange object formed. The evolution of a binary system—two orbiting stars that are gravitationally bound to each other—describes the history of its formation and life. Gravitational-wave observations of pair mergers provide a window into the past lives of the binary companions. Binary systems may live in isolation—far away from neighbouring stars. Or they may live within dense communities of stars which influence and interact with each other over their lives. However, as Ms Chattopadhyay explains: “The difference in masses between the companions makes it less probable that the system formed in isolation.” So, it seems likely that GW190814 formed in a different way. One theory is that it was formed inside a star cluster, where there is a higher density of stars living together in the same neighbourhood. It's possible that each object was the result of a chain of collisions between many stars and black holes. “In these dense environments, like star clusters, stars interact with each other more often. They form and break star pairs throughout their lives. This can create mergers between objects with very different masses,” says Ms Chattopadhyay. Alternatively, one of the companions of GW190814 could have been in several collisions with other objects in the star cluster, before this observation. The possibility of an electromagnetic signal accompanying this gravitational wave event was also considered. Scientists hope to soon unravel the mystery with more gravitational-wave observations in the future. LINK TO PAPER: https://dcc.ligo.org/P190814/public/
24 June 2020 00:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/06/scientists-find-mysterious-astrophysical-object-in-black-hole-collision/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/06/scientists-find-mysterious-astrophysical-object-in-black-hole-collision/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Expedition Earth
Expedition Earth
Swinburne’s newest astronomy movie takes viewers on a search for other Earth-like planets.
While we wait to resume our 3D AstroTours in Swinburne’s Virtual Reality Theatre, our Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS) has released a 2D version of its latest movie that can be viewed online. “In our latest AstroTour movie, Expedition Earth, we journey through space in search of more planets like Earth,” says Swinburne Astronomy Online Coordinator, Dr Rebecca Allen. “Our new movie is suitable for everyone, with Year 7-12 school students being our primary focus.” Viewers can learn how to find new planets using inspiration from the past; and appreciate the power of the Kepler Space Telescope and how it discovered thousands of new worlds. “We as humans have always been fascinated with the idea that our planet and species may be unique and that we have long been searching for other life in our vast Universe, says Dr Allen. “The search for a world just like our own makes us question what is so special about our planet, and to appreciate how challenging it is to simply find worlds beyond our solar system and then to be able to characterise them.” The movie runs for almost 13 minutes and took just over a year to create from draft story to the final animation. Using innovative Virtual Reality technologies developed by CAS, AstroTours are designed to educate and entertain audiences about astronomy. The movies, animations and simulations used to explore the Universe are all produced by our in-house team of astronomers, visualisation researchers, animators, artists and programmers. Watch the movie
23 June 2020 17:06
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/06/expedition-earth/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/06/expedition-earth/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Astronomers see ‘cosmic ring of fire’, 11 billion years ago
Astronomers see ‘cosmic ring of fire’, 11 billion years ago
An unusual galaxy is set to prompt rethink on how structures in the Universe form.
Astronomers have captured an image of a super-rare type of galaxy – described as a “cosmic ring of fire” – as it existed 11 billion years ago. The galaxy, which has roughly the mass of the Milky Way, is circular with a hole in the middle, rather like a titanic doughnut. Its discovery, announced in the journal Nature Astronomy, is set to shake up theories about the earliest formation of galactic structures and how they evolve. The galaxy, named R5519, is 11 billion light-years from the Solar System. The hole at its centre is truly massive, with a diameter two billion times longer than the distance between the Earth and the Sun. To put it another way, it is three million times bigger than the diameter of the supermassive black hole in the galaxy Messier 87, which in 2019 became the first ever to be directly imaged. <p class="Paragraph SCXW163622618 BCX0">“It is a very curious object that we’ve never seen before,” says lead researcher Dr Tiantian Yuan, from Australia’s ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D). “It looks strange and familiar at the same time.” </p> Animation of the ring galaxy “It is making stars at a rate 50 times greater than the Milky Way,” says Dr Yuan, who is an ASTRO 3D Fellow based at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne. “Most of that activity is taking place on its ring – so it truly is a ring of fire.” Working with colleagues from around Australia, US, Canada, Belgium and Denmark, Dr Yuan used spectroscopic data gathered by the WM Keck Observatory in Hawaii and images recorded by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to identify the unusual structure. The evidence suggests it is a type known as a 'collisional ring galaxy', making it the first one ever located in the early Universe. There are two kinds of ring galaxies. The more common type forms because of internal processes. Collisional ones form – as the name suggests – as a result of immense and violent encounters with other galaxies. In the nearby 'local' Universe they are 1000 times rarer than the internally created type. Images of the much more distant R5519 stem from about 10.8 billion years ago, just three billion years after the Big Bang. They indicate that collisional ring galaxies have always been extremely uncommon. ASTRO 3D co-author, Dr Ahmed Elagali, based at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research in Western Australia, says studying R5519 would help determine when spiral galaxies began to develop. “Further, constraining the number density of ring galaxies through cosmic time can also be used to put constraints on the assembly and evolution of local-like galaxy groups,” he adds. Another co-author, Professor Kenneth Freeman from the Australian National University, says the discovery has implications for understanding how galaxies like the Milky Way formed. “The collisional formation of ring galaxies requires a thin disk to be present in the ‘victim’ galaxy before the collision occurs,” he explains. “The thin disk is the defining component of spiral galaxies: before it assembled, the galaxies were in a disorderly state, not yet recognisable as spiral galaxies.” “In the case of this ring galaxy, we are looking back into the early Universe by 11 billion years, into a time when thin disks were only just assembling. For comparison, the thin disk of our Milky Way began to come together only about nine billion years ago. This discovery is an indication that disk assembly in spiral galaxies occurred over a more extended period than previously thought.”
26 May 2020 05:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/05/astronomers-see-cosmic-ring-of-fire-11-billion-years-ago/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/05/astronomers-see-cosmic-ring-of-fire-11-billion-years-ago/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research
Science
false
-
We asked astronomers: are we alone in the Universe? The answer was surprisingly consistent
We asked astronomers: are we alone in the Universe? The answer was surprisingly consistent
'I think that we will discover life outside of Earth in my lifetime. If not that, then in your lifetime,' one astronomer told us.
Are we alone in the Universe? The expert opinion on that, it turns out, is surprisingly consistent. “Is there other life in the Universe? I would say: probably,” Daniel Zucker, Associate Professor of astronomy at Macquarie University, tells astrophysics student and The Conversation’s editorial intern Antonio Tarquinio on today’s podcast episode. “I think that we will discover life outside of Earth in my lifetime. If not that, then in your lifetime,” says his fellow Macquarie University colleague, Professor Orsola De Marco. And Lee Spitler, a Senior Lecturer and astronomy researcher at the same institution, was similarly optimistic: “I think there’s a high likelihood that we are not alone in the Universe.” The big question, however, is what that life might look like. We’re also hearing from Danny C Price, project scientist for the Breakthrough Listen project scanning the southern skies for unusual patterns, on what the search for alien intelligence looks like in real life - and what it’s yielded so far. The Parkes radio telescope is scanning the southern skies, searching for signals from intelligent alien life. AAP/MICK TSIKAS Additional audio credits Kindergarten by Unkle Ho, from Elefant Traks. Lucky Stars by Podington Bear, from Free Music Archive Illumination by Kai Engel, from Free Music Archive Podcast episode recorded and edited by Antonio Tarquinio. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
10 March 2020 10:32
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/03/we-asked-astronomers-are-we-alone-in-the-universe-the-answer-was-surprisingly-consistent/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/03/we-asked-astronomers-are-we-alone-in-the-universe-the-answer-was-surprisingly-consistent/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET)
Science
false
-
Self-confessed ‘space nerd’ earns coveted place in NASA training program
Self-confessed ‘space nerd’ earns coveted place in NASA training program
Self-confessed ‘space nerd’, Swinburne Senior Lecturer in Space Research and Law Kim Ellis, has won a place in NASA’s PoSSUM training program.
Space lawyer and scientist, Kim Ellis, has been accepted into the highly competitive and prestigious PoSSUM NASA training program at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida in the United States, commencing in April 2020. Kim is a Senior Lecturer in Space Research and Law at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne. Project PoSSUM is a non-profit research and education program researching Earth’s mesosphere and communicating the critical role that it plays towards understanding our global climate. Its Scientist-Astronaut Program prepares candidates for suborbital human space flight to build unprecedented models of this region of our atmosphere through tomographic imaging and in-situ sampling of noctilucent clouds, tenuous cloud-like phenomena in the upper atmosphere of Earth. It involves a five-day training intensive with three weeks of preparatory webinars commencing 3 March. After graduation, Kim will be eligible to conduct aviation and/or spaceflight missions for the NASA 501 astronautics research and education program. Kim’s journey to space Kim’s pathway to the NASA program has taken a few twists. “My plan was to go to university and be a veterinary scientist, but I didn’t get quite enough marks for that,” she says. Instead, she studied science part-time, specialising in chemistry, while working at the mining company BHP as a trainee industrial chemist. After five years at BHP, Kim moved on to Rio Tinto where she worked in a mineral sample analysis lab for three years before returning to BHP in their uranium technology team. With the closure of BHP’s Newcastle site in the late 1990s, Kim was made redundant. A subsequent conversation with a recruitment consultant about her plans for the future motivated her to follow her dreams to connect with what she really loved... space! After taking a career break to have and raise her two children, Kim went on to study law. During this time she founded her company International Earth and Space Technology Pty Ltd, which delivers specialty space and STEM education consultancy services around the world, including at the International Space University in France. Kim (fourth from left) with the teaching assistants she supervised at the NASA Kennedy Space Center. In 2012 she received an Australian Endeavour Award from the Australian Government, which enabled her to participate in an international cooperation project in the US and work at the International Space University at the Kennedy Space Center.
05 March 2020 09:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/03/self-confessed-space-nerd-earns-coveted-place-in-nasa-training-program/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/03/self-confessed-space-nerd-earns-coveted-place-in-nasa-training-program/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Astronomy,Law,Science
false
Yes
-
Our Milky Way has been ‘reverse engineered’
Our Milky Way has been ‘reverse engineered’
Like taking apart a piece of technology, our galaxy – the Milky Way – has been reverse engineered to find out how it was assembled.
Like taking apart a piece of technology, our galaxy – the Milky Way – has been reverse engineered to find out how it was assembled. Using ancient star clusters, Swinburne’s Professor Duncan Forbes traced back the evolution of our Milky Way galaxy to identify those star clusters formed within the original Milky Way and those that were acquired over time as the Milky Way swallowed up small satellite galaxies. Professor Forbes attributes most of these acquired star clusters to only five satellite galaxies – the satellite galaxies themselves have long been disrupted but their compact star clusters have lived on for billions of years. From the motions, ages and chemical composition of the star clusters, Professor Forbes inferred that several of the satellites contained bright nuclei at their centres and contained gas, the material needed for new star formation.
03 March 2020 11:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/03/our-milky-way-has-been-reverse-engineered/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/03/our-milky-way-has-been-reverse-engineered/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research
Science
false
-
Swinburne astronomer awarded Pawsey Medal for scientific excellence
Swinburne astronomer awarded Pawsey Medal for scientific excellence
Associate Professor Adam Deller has been awarded the Pawsey Medal by the Australian Academy of Science.
Swinburne’s Associate Professor Adam Deller has been awarded the prestigious Pawsey Medal by the Australian Academy of Science. The Pawsey Medal recognises outstanding research in physics by early-mid career scientists. Associate Professor Deller is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow and an Associate Investigator of the Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Research, known as OzGrav, which is headquartered at Swinburne. He uses radio imaging to study neutron stars and black holes, the most compact objects in the Universe. To do so, he has developed new instrumentation capable of jointly processing signals received by radio antennas spread across the Earth and even on orbiting satellites. This instrumentation has been adopted by major astronomy facilities worldwide. Associate Professor Deller’s use of these facilities had led to breakthroughs in astronomy including directly imaging the explosive aftermath of a merger of two neutron stars in a galaxy 125 million light years away. This ultra-high zoom radio movie determined the orientation of the stars as they collided, and fed new insights into the analysis of the burst of gravitational waves emitted when they coalesced. Closer to home, he has pinpointed the location of neutron stars within the Milky Way galaxy with unprecedented precision, using radio observations so precise they could discern motion no greater than the width of a human hair at a distance of 2,000 kilometres. Associate Professor Deller is passionate about astronomy. “I love the challenge of radio astronomy in particular – it has a tight relationship with engineering which is something that I studied as an undergraduate,” he says. “But the main thing that draws me in is the search for discovery. It doesn’t often happen all at once in a classic lightbulb moment, but when you get that breakthrough, or see that first image, and you know that at that instant you’re the only person in the world that has that information – it’s incredibly exciting and you can’t wait to get out there and share it with everyone else.” “Science is a question multiplier,” he adds. “Every new answer you find tends to lead to not one, not two, but usually five more questions. It’s very rare that we get to the end of a study and everything is wrapped up in a neat little bow and we think ‘ah, now we understand’. But that’s also the beauty of it. There’s always more to understand about the Universe.” Distinguished Professor at Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Karl Glazebrook, says Associate Professor Deller is an amazing astronomer and computer scientist. “We are especially proud of him as he studied here as a Swinburne undergraduate and also for his PhD, and he is the first of those students to return here as a permanent member of the astronomy staff. “Adam’s research and work on interferometry software has had an enormous impact on the worldwide community and the Pawsey Medal is very well deserved,” Professor Glazebrook adds. Associate Professor Deller says he is honoured to be awarded the Pawsey Medal by the Australian Academy of Science and acknowledges his fellow researchers. “Science is always a team effort, and all of these results have been dependent on my collaborators, my mentors, and my students, and so this award is as much a recognition of their work as it is of mine,” he says.
03 March 2020 09:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/03/swinburne-astronomer-awarded-pawsey-medal-for-scientific-excellence/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/03/swinburne-astronomer-awarded-pawsey-medal-for-scientific-excellence/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Award Winners,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research
Science
true
-
Neil deGrasse Tyson visits Swinburne
Neil deGrasse Tyson visits Swinburne
Renowned American astrophysicist and science communicator, Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson, recently paid a visit to Swinburne’s Hawthorn campus.
Superstar American astrophysicist, Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson, and the original creator of the world-renowned Cosmos science documentary, Ann Druyan, recently stopped by Swinburne. While here, Dr Tyson recorded an episode of the series In Class With… for Australia’s Science Channel with astrophysicist Professor Alan Duffy, where Dr Tyson answered questions about the universe and humanity’s future sent in by school students from across Australia. “Australia can sometimes feel a long way from the rest of the world. Having an astrophysicist of Dr Tyson’s stature visit and connect with schools nationwide helps reduce that sense of isolation,” says Professor Duffy. “The school students and their questions were the real stars of the show. They covered everything from the beginnings of the universe, the possibility of life on other worlds, ways in which humans might explore these planets and even considered different fates of the universe itself,” Professor Duffy adds. View the full In Class With… episode Ms Druyan was also interviewed by Professor Duffy about the importance of communicating science with passion and wonder, and the challenges facing our society if science literacy levels slip. This interview will be released on Australia’s Science Channel in the coming weeks. Connecting over science After recording In Class With…, Dr Tyson dropped into the WM Keck Observatory Remote Viewing Facility and surprised a group of students and Swinburne astronomers who were conducting a live observation. “We were working collaboratively with a team at Caltech to develop a new method to image the faint, diffuse gas that surrounds galaxies” explains ARC Future Fellow at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Associate Professor Deanne Fisher. Dr Tyson spent some time with the students chatting all things astro and of the power of science communication. “The students were clearly excited. Many come from small towns in foreign countries and Neil deGrasse Tyson was their early exposure to astronomy. It was a childhood fantasy come true,” Associate Professor Fisher adds. Swinburne students and astronomers got the rare opportunity to engage with Dr Tyson when he visited the WM Keck Remote Observatory Facility Some of Swinburne’s students and staff using the facility for their individual projects had the opportunity to talk through their research with Dr Tyson. “One of the coolest projects is ‘Deeper, Wider, Faster’, which sees dozens of astronomers connected to 70 telescopes worldwide exploring images across a range of wavelength of lights, all at once in the remote observing facility,” explains Professor Duffy. Swinburne’s ‘Deeper, Wider, Faster’ program connects astronomers from around the globe seeking to make new discoveries in astronomy Examining humanity’s future Dr Tyson and Ms Druyan were in Australia as part of a worldwide promotional tour for the upcoming Cosmos: Possible Worlds television series for National Geographic. The Emmy and Peabody award-winning series brings chemistry, physics, biology, astronomy and Earth science all under one umbrella of learning. The third season of Cosmos will be hosted by Dr Tyson and will cover topics such as humanity’s future, the history of extinction and the history of the universe. It premieres on National Geographic on 9 March.
28 February 2020 11:32
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/02/neil-degrasse-tyson-visits-swinburne/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/02/neil-degrasse-tyson-visits-swinburne/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science,Education
false
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Small world: atom-scale materials are the next tech frontier
Small world: atom-scale materials are the next tech frontier
A new but rapidly developing field known as ‘Atomaterials’ has the potential to revolutionise the manufacturing future.
Every age in the history of human civilisation has a signature material, from the Stone Age, to the Bronze and Iron Ages. We might even call today’s information-driven society the Silicon Age. Since the 1960s, silicon nanostructures, the building-blocks of microchips, have supercharged the development of electronics, communications, manufacturing, medicine, and more. How small are these nanostructures? Very, very small – you could fit at least 3,000 silicon transistors onto the tip of a human hair. But there is a limit: below about 5 nanometres (5 millionths of a millimetre), it is hard to improve the performance of silicon devices any further. So if we are about to exhaust the potential of silicon nanomaterials, what will be our next signature material? That’s where “atomaterials” come in. What are atomaterials? “Atomaterials” is short for “atomic materials”, so called because their properties depend on the precise configuration of their atoms. It is a new but rapidly developing field. One example is graphene, which is made of carbon atoms. Unlike diamond, in which the carbon atoms form a rigid three-dimensional structure, graphene is made of single layer of carbon atoms, bonded together in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice. Diamond’s rigid structure is the reason for its celebrated hardness and longevity, making it the perfect material for high-end drill bits and expensive jewellery. In contrast, the two-dimensional form of carbon atoms in graphene allows electron travelling frictionless at a high speed giving ultrahigh conductivity and the outstanding in plane mechanical strength. Thus, graphene has broad applications in medicines, electronics, energy storage, light processing, and water filtration. Using lasers, we can fashion these atomic structures into miniaturised devices with exceptional performance. Using atomaterials, our lab has been working on a range of innovations, at various stages of development. They include: A magic cooling film. This film can cool the environment by up to 10℃ without using any electricity. By integrating such a film into a building, the electricity used for air conditioning can be reduced by 35%, and summer electricity blackouts effectively stopped. This will not only save electricity bills but also reduce greenhouse emissions. Baohua Jia and Han Lin with the graphene cooling film. CTAM Global OpenLab, Author provided Heat-absorbing film. Some 97% of Earth’s water is in the oceans, and is salty and unusable without expensive processing. Efficiently removing salt from seawater could be a long-term solution to the growing global freshwater scarcity. With a solar-powered graphene film, this process can be made very efficient. The film absorbs almost all the sunlight shining on it and converts it into heat. The temperature can be increased to 160℃ within 30 seconds. This heat can then distil seawater with an efficiency greater than 95%, and the distilled water is cleaner than tapwater. This low-cost technology can be suitable for domestic and industry applications. Smart sensing film. These flexible atomaterial films can incorporate a wide range of functions including environmental sensing, communication, and energy storage. They have a broad range of applications in healthcare, sports, advanced manufacturing, farming, and others. For example, smart films could monitor soil humidity near plants’ roots, thus helping to make agriculture more water-efficient. Ultrathin, ultra-lightweight lenses. The bulkiest part of a mobile phone camera is the lens, because it needs to be made of thick glass with particular optical properties. But lenses made with graphene can be mere millionths of a millimetre thick, and still deliver superb image quality. Such lenses could greatly reduce the weight and cost of everything from phones to space satellites. Near-instant power supply. We have developed an environmentally friendly supercapacitor from graphene that charges devices in seconds, and has a lifetime of millions of charge cycles. By attaching it to the back of a solar cell, it can store and deliver solar-generated energy whenever and wherever required. You will be free and truly mobile. The graphene supercapacitor could help mobile power truly live up to its name. CTAM Global OpenLab, Author provided Where to next? It can take years for some of these laboratory technologies to reach fruition. To try and speed up the process, we established the CTAM Global OpenLab to engage with industry, academia, government and the wider community and to promote sharing and collaboration. The lab was launched earlier this month at the International Conference on Nanomaterial and Atomaterial Sciences and Applications (ICNASA2020). The world is facing pressing challenges, from climate change, to energy and resource scarcity, to our health and well-being. Material innovation is more vital than ever and needs to be more efficient, design-driven and environmentally friendly. But these challenges can only be solved by joint effort from worldwide researchers, enterprise, industry and government with a sharing and open mindset. By Professor Baohua Jia, Founding Director of Centre for Translational Atomaterials and Research Leader, Swinburne University of Technology. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
12 February 2020 13:28
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/02/small-world-atom-scale-materials-are-the-next-tech-frontier/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2020/02/small-world-atom-scale-materials-are-the-next-tech-frontier/
Astronomy
false
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Swinburne experts relive the best space news of 2019
Swinburne experts relive the best space news of 2019
Experts from Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing list their favourite space stories from the year.
The Universe is constantly expanding, which certainly gives humanity a reason to question, investigate and explore far beyond Earth’s orbit. In no particular order, Dr Rebecca Allen and PhD candidate Sara Webb from Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing compiled this list of the best in space news from 2019. 50th Anniversary of the Apollo Moon Landing Image credit: NASA On 20 July 1969, the words “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” echoed across television sets broadcasting the Apollo 11 Moon landing to 600 million people across the world. Fifty years later, in 2019, NASA marked the anniversary by streaming footage of the launch online to a new generation of stargazers and aspiring astronauts. The agency held a "Man on the Moon" parade, projected a life-sized Saturn V rocket on the Washington Monument and unveiled astronaut Neil Armstrong's spacesuit. The announcement of the Artemis mission also proposed to land the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024, and explore more of the lunar surface than ever before. First image of a black hole Image credit: Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration On 10 April, a team of international astronomers revealed the first image of a black hole. The picture was taken over five days of observations in April 2017, using eight telescopes around the world - a collaboration known as the Event Horizon Telescope. It depicts bright gas swirling around a supermassive black hole at the centre of M87, a galaxy about 54-million light-years away. A visit to Ultima Thule Image credit: NASA On 1 January, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft returned the sharpest possible images of 486958 Arrokath, an object located in a region at the outer edges of our solar system known as the Kuiper belt. Also known as Ultima Thule, a Latin term for the most distant place beyond the borders of the known world, it is the farthest object explored so far. Total solar eclipse in Chile Image credit: Martin Bernetti (AFP) On 3 July, astronomers and tourists alike scattered across the Atacama Desert in Chile to view the total solar eclipse, a moment where the moon completely blocks out the sun. The path of total darkness spread from Chile to Argentina, with just two and a half minutes for observers to catch the ‘ring of fire’. Elon Musk’s mission to Mars Image credit: SpaceX In September, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed a prototype for the Starship spacecraft and Super Heavy Rocket, both designed to carry crew and cargo to Earth’s orbit, the Moon, Mars and beyond. While the prototype is still in testing stages, Starship is predicted to carry up to 100 people and be completely reusable after each mission. Monsters in the dark In October, astronomers accidentally discovered the footprints of a monster galaxy in the early Universe that had never been seen before. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), a collection of 66 radio telescopes high in the Chilean mountains, researchers noticed a faint emission of light in sensitive observations. The researchers estimate that the signal came from so far away that it took 12.5 billion years to reach Earth, therefore giving us a view of the Universe in its infancy. Study co-author, Swinburne’s Professor Ivo Labbé, says the monster galaxy is forming new stars at 100 times the rate of our Milky Way. Goodbye, Oppy Image Credit: NASA NASA’s Mars rover, Opportunity, reached its final resting place on the red planet in February. The rover was active from June 2004, travelling more than 45 kilometres across the dusty surface and returning more than 200,000 images. It also exceeded its 90-day life expectancy 60-fold. Opportunity stopped communicating after a severe dust storm blanketed its location in 2018. It remained unresponsive despite more than a thousand commands to restore contact until 13 February.
17 December 2019 15:13
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/12/swinburne-experts-relive-the-best-space-news-of-2019/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/12/swinburne-experts-relive-the-best-space-news-of-2019/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science,Technology
false
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Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Aleksandar Subic addresses National Press Club on the future of Industry 4.0
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Aleksandar Subic addresses National Press Club on the future of Industry 4.0
Industry 4.0 will transform the world we live in, as Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Aleksandar Subic discusses at the National Press Club.
The fourth industrial revolution (Industry 4.0) is transforming the world we live in, with rapid advancements in technology. The trend towards automation and data exchange is creating new challenges and opportunities for business across the board – from global manufacturing giants to the smallest producers. Swinburne’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development), Professor Aleksandar Subic, recently joined Siemens Chairman and Asia Pacific CEO, Jeff Connolly, to explain why Industry 4.0 may just be the most important economic and social topic for Australia. Here is the transcript of that event, moderated by Treasurer of the National Press Club, Tony Melville. TONY MELVILLE: Thanks very much, Jeff. We’ll just start off with some questions and I’ll do the first couple and then will open up to our media members. But maybe just the first big question to you Jeff, you talked about a lot of the things that are happening with the business and the government, the collaboration standards, test labs and the 4.0 task force. So you also spoke of the German government’s leadership on it, and the Prime Minister coming in and getting involved. So do you think our government - and not just the federal level and state level - are doing enough and what could they do to really kick start it? Is there are a couple of big priorities you think that might move this to the higher level and break through into the public consciousness? JEFF CONNOLLY: Yeah, thanks Tony. It’s a chicken and egg, like most things. I think Aleks and I decided pragmatically to get started in producing skills that we knew were going to be necessary. And curiously enough, once we built curriculum and we built test labs, people came and started to understand it and actually adopt it and say, okay, this is not so bad. And the initial resistance was gone. So education is a key part, but not seeing individual elements in isolation, but being more holistic. Those elements, those work streams that were set up by Germany is their approach. We don’t have to fill in the same content as another country. But I think the framework is relevant because it covers those critical parts that’s necessary to move industrial manufacturing, digitalised- industrial digitalisation forward to the future. TONY MELVILLE: And the states and the feds getting together on this stuff? JEFF CONNOLLY: There has been positive signs, I would have to say. Perhaps Aleks can say a little bit more about that. Certainly federally the current Education Minister has created forums, and they are state based contributors to how do we step that education piece forward. Most of the states have their own advanced manufacturing initiatives. I would like to see those a little more coordinated or at least structured in a similar way. But there is an awareness I think that manufacturing is one of the greatest contributors to economic wealth in the country. TONY MELVILLE: Good. I’ll bring Aleks into- as I mentioned earlier, Professor Aleksandar Subic is the Deputy Vice-Chair of Research and Development at Swinburne University, who is passionate about these issues. Do you want to add to that? And I’ve got another question for you, the state government and federal government. ALEKSANDAR SUBIC: Well I think we do need to acknowledge the bipartisan support for what we’ve been doing, because- and I think we didn’t leave much options of not allowing them to support us. I think we brought the ideas and we were very agile and forthcoming. But as Jeff mentioned, Mathias Cormann and the Department of Industry has basically supported our test lab- national test lab network development and the blueprint we put forward, as well as the task force. And more recently, in our state government, for example, Victorian Government has supported us to establish the state of Victoria SME hub for Industry 4.0 to help transform the SME ecosystem in the manufacturing sector in Victoria. So we are seeing support for concrete programs and concrete initiatives where the outcomes and the value adds the benefits are clear. TONY MELVILLE: Okay. So question for you, Aleks. The business and university collaboration that’s all key to it as well as we’ve been hearing. And so what’s happening there? And are we seeing leaps and bounds with the university and businesses, and are there some strategies that you’re applying? ALEKSANDAR SUBIC: I mean, that is one of the core areas of my attention, and one of the core areas of the taskforce attention from the very start, because we realise that this is a very complex ecosystem. If you’re going to achieve transformative impact across the industry, as well as across education and training and in society in general, all the elements of that ecosystem in this society have to work together. You know, it’s not one or the other, and it’s a very fragmented ecosystem at present and it requires a fair bit of effort to connect, to interconnect those and to actually play together to achieve that transformation. We’ve rolled out a number of pilots, and we’ll talk about that as we progressed through this through this panel discussion. Pilots in terms of programs in Industry 4.0, pilots in terms of test labs and industry hubs, and so on, and what we’re doing to scale up. All of that required all the parties to work together. But in particular, it required on one side the universities and training in education institutions to let the outside in. And that’s sometimes daunting for more traditional organisations. For those that have been set up by industry or by industrialists like Swinburne, it was a little bit easier but still not easy to do, because there’s functional and structural barriers you have to overcome. But also it’s not that easy for industry and business, because they are not used to doing that. Especially now ecosystem and- they need the encouragement and they need an opportunity to sit around the same table and co-design, which universities don’t often offer as an opportunity to industry and business. TONY MELVILLE: Just on that last point, you talk about complex ecosystems, and so for a lot of businesses and particularly SME’s, they’ll look at this and they may well say, this is just too hard, too big. So what’s your message to them? ALEKSANDAR SUBIC: It’s quite true. And that is one of the biggest obstacles, I think, all of us are facing if we are going to achieve transformational scale. We’ve been testing a number of initiatives which are providing a fair bit of learning for us, where we are trying out programs at hubs, clusters, that are large scale. So one of the principal reasons why we’ve established the National [indistinct] Industry 4.0 test labs one in Victoria at Swinburne, one in Western Australian, University of Western Australian, one in South Australian, University of South Australia, one in Queensland, University of Queensland, New South Wales, University of Technology Sydney, Tasmania, University of Tasmania. Each one, let me just explain the concept. Each one is about developing a major robust facility in the shape of a pilot plant, a fully operational Industry 4.0 pilot plant that meets the criteria of being true Industry 4.0. With cybersecurity, [indistinct] things, artificial intelligence, machine learning, full autonomy, all aspects integrated in a working operating system, and with teams that engage industry, education, and training, is a cluster in that transformation journey. From business model innovation all the way to delivering an innovative process that produces an innovative product. Each one of them aligned with a particular growth industry sector that are priority in Australia. Those six test labs will engage more than 200 companies as they operate, but together as a portfolio that is networked, are basically bridging those boundaries and bridging the gap between industry, business and education. And all of them had to focus on education and training across the entire lifecycle, from vocational education all the way to PHD graduates, which for some is easy, but for some of the G08’s that are involved in that construct, it’s hard because they don’t have a vet with infrastructure, and also that traditionally have never engaged with a vet. So there is a lot of cultural change in that as well. And as you can see by design, we’ve actually disrupted the whole sector because we brought in some of the GO8’s, some of the ATN’s, some of the independents, where they also forget their own individual boundaries and their own individual kind of stigmas, and actually play together is a collegial network that is actually focused on only one thing, and that is achieving impact. TONY MELVILLE: Jeff? JEFF CONNOLLY: I think what Aleks is describing there is very profound. We intentionally chose one university per state to eliminate that natural competition, to attract students, but again, gave each of the universities some significant incentive to go down the path, to apply for Commonwealth grant to build a test lab, provided they put money in themselves, and also the encouragement that they really needed to go across the road and find themselves a local vocational education institution, TAFE primarily, and work with them. Can you imagine Uni WA, going across the road to Perth TAFE and saying: by the way, you can use this environment and we will we will do accreditation and training on the same tools that we’re using in Uni WA? Can you imagine how profound that is for a Group of Eight university? So it actually- what Aleks did was it was brilliant, because we actually eliminated the competition. And again, it wasn’t- it will build once we’ve got the standard there, but to get it started, to get the momentum going forward, that was the path we chose. I just want to add, sorry, to your question - SME’s, and well, to say, yeah but that’s all fine for you, but I’m too small – it’s actually not the case. We’ve got a couple of great examples of SME’s, more mediums and of course small, micro distillers, micro brewers, there’s a company in the Sunshine Coast – HeliMods - that do digital twins of rescue helicopters and they fit out the internals for the taking of stretchers, and actually, they’re working on putting MRI into the helicopters, if you can imagine how difficult that would be to put an x-ray machine in a helicopter. But actually being able to simulate exactly what the consequences of what they’re doing in the configuration, and these are small firms, if not more than 20 people who are very clever graduates - in this particular case of University of Queensland, who are thirsting for those sorts of skills, for people to be creative on those design tools, simulation tools that we’re describing in Industry 4.0. TONY MELVILLE: Interesting. We’ll open up questions to the floor now and our media members. And starting with Tim Shaw. QUESTION: Thank you, Tony. Tim Shaw, gentlemen, National Press Club director. Thank you both so much for your address. I want to draw you to the recommendation 7 in the Transforming Australian manufacturing report. Continue to remove the barriers between vet and higher education in Australia’s tertiary education, you both touched on that now. Here in Canberra, we celebrate the great achievements of Seeing Machines, Aspen Medical Canberra data centre. These were small and medium enterprises right at the beginning. And a small hub, if you like, Canberra, which I noted was excluded from the academic hubs that you referred to there. Do we need to break down the silos even further? Minister Cormann is happy to invest in Canberra data centre. We’ve seen enormous growth in achievement. But where are the industries that we need to truly target? And as part of that COAG process that Tony touched on there, do we need to be more specific about what the objectives are from a national perspective, both from a business point of view and from an academic break down the silo point of view? ALEKSANDAR SUBIC: I’ll start. Thank you, Tim. That’s a very important- it’s a critical question. I recognise that there are a number of committees and groups that are looking at this issue because it is an essential issue. At the moment there’s also the Australian Quality- Qualifications Framework review as well, which might produce some outcomes in this regard. But the question of blurring the boundaries, you know, across the ecosystem and allowing that seamlessness across the whole lifecycle of education and training is critical to meeting the needs, in my view, industry and business going forward in the future, but also meeting the needs of the general population - not just young people. Those 60 year olds that are in jobs right now that also need to transform, because I don't subscribe always to this term - the future workforce. What about the current workforce that we need to transform? So there's workforce transformation, there’s upskilling, there's reskilling, and so on. For that to be effective and timely and more agile, we need a system that's interconnected where we move seamlessly through that lifecycle, where people move in, move out, move in, move out as the education and training needs occur at various stages of their work, at various stages of their careers. That requires of us to have an integrated education and training system that actually makes that easy, that qualifications are transferable, that the standards are clear, that recognition is very clear, and that they know that that applies to micro credentials as well. You know, for that uptake to happen, people need certainty in terms of quality assurance, in terms of recognition, in terms of how that adds up. There's a lot of work to be done, but those boundaries, those boundaries must be blurred. It must be a more interconnected, seamless ecosystem. JEFF CONNOLLY: Thanks for the question, Tim. We have defined several years ago, in the face of picking winners, the picking winners argument - you know, should government support one industry or another - we defined areas of comparable advantage that we would work on. I think there were five growth centres, and then there was the enabling one, advanced manufacturing. I actually believe in the approach because I don't think an economy of our size can be all things to all industries all at once. If you pick those ones that have got the biggest critical mass, what you’ll find actually is that the skills and the learnings from those will also be applied in other industries, particularly if you develop the manufacturing capabilities and research parts that are the enablers for those industries. So my response, I guess, to part of your question would be: we shouldn't walk away from concentrating our efforts in certain areas and hoping that that multiplies out into other areas. TONY MELVILLE: Next question’s Nic Stuart. QUESTION: My editor has always said that it's really not a matter of AI - getting any form of intelligence involved in my column would be a significant leap forward. [Laughter] QUESTION: But I naturally disagree with him. You would be aware, of course, of the Harvard Review, which has this week said that Australia isn't transforming goods, it's not an intelligent society. You yourself drew that brilliant example of the VFT, the Very Fast Train, which I remember reporting on years and years ago when I was young, if you can imagine back that far. What do you think is going to change? We're here today - admittedly Parliament's sitting up the hill, but to my observation there's no politicians who are actually present in the room, and that indicates a lack of awareness, a lack of willingness to grapple with the real future. And secondly, Aleks, can I ask you particularly about- we have a very rigid university structure. To what extent does this rigidity, the silos that Tim was talking about, actually militate against achieving what you're trying to do? I mean, we were talking earlier about journalism schools. You know, now you can't begin a journalism degree without actually having a journalism qualification from a university. There's all this credentialism. To what extent does that actually present a barrier to achieving new things in a new environment? JEFF CONNOLLY: Quite a lot of questions in that one. Perhaps a couple of comments. You're referring to this this commentary in the Fin Review that was talking about Australia get- is dumb and getting dumber, on learning to be lazy as a consequence of the mining resources. As I tried to say, I think the world will open in both directions. That we will be able to export skills out, provided we've got them - engineering type skills - but we'll be subject to the incoming challenges of other people wanting to sell into our markets. So a double edged sword. I think there's an opportunity there, but we have to run fast. That the ministers are not here doesn't concern me because I know actually there is an interest from Minister Andrews. There's certainly an interest from Mathias Cormann to spread further the concept - not that the Finance Minister necessarily would be involved in those decisions directly - but it came out of out of the Australian-German advisory group. So there's an awareness. I know the Education Minister has formed subgroups at the moment looking at this question: how do we change the outcomes or incentivise universities to produce something that we, society, want right now? And that's not just a static output independent of what's happening in the economy at a point in time. How do we change it further? The White Paper that was written by the Germans when they first conceived this talked about accelerating the journey via lighthouse projects. So your procurement policy needs to say: after I have built the submarine, I need to have more than just a submarine. I need to have the skills uplift, and it actually needs to be described in and amongst the specifications and the outcomes that are required of the contractors. So there's some work to be done there and I know around the states there's some discussion on how that would be implemented. Aleks? ALEKSANDAR SUBIC: I might continue with your second question. I think you're right. I mean, I share your view that that our system and tertiary sector, as well as the universities, could be more flexible and should explore new models and should be open to that innovation in that regard, and I think it has to happen quicker. I don't know how many of us here would agree that the university of the future would look like the university today. Is that realistic to expect? I don't think so, because the model is more or less the model that's been developed in the previous century, with the changes that have been happening slowly but in an incremental fashion and primarily through funding model changes. So that needs to change while maintaining the quality, the rigor, the credibility so that the society maintains trust in the system because of that independence and the expertise and the rigor that we have. So trying to achieve that in that context I think is where we need to go. That's why we are testing a number of models through these pilots. So when we developed The Factory of the Future, you know, to create a hub for the SMEs or the pilot program with Siemens and Australian Industry Group in Industry 4.0 as the first diploma program to offer nationally in situ, but using Siemens as a cluster, but bringing the supply chain together so that actually the workforce that’s the first cohort is actually the workforce that will seamlessly transition into the supply chain. Through all of those models, we are actually experimenting how we can change ourselves because we have to be prepared to change ourselves, because we are also being disrupted as an integral part of the society. And I think the successful universities of the future will be the ones that through innovation are able to transition into new models, but that also maintain that independence, rigor, quality and so on. Just on your first question, because they’re in a way connected, because it's the two elements of the ecosystem changing. I don't know how many of you know the metaphor of the falling whale, you know, there’s this metaphor of the falling whale when the whale reaches the end of their life and they slowly start sinking, slowly. As they sink to a new level, all these water creatures and animals start eating it away, you know, biting and taking it away and growing something new. As it falls down ultimately to the end, to the bottom of the sea and it's dead, there's a whole new ecosystem created, you know. Is that something that we are going to witness here with the resources industry the next 50 years and the new ecosystem created? What we are trying to do is we're trying to actually fast track our transformation using the fourth industrial revolution as the catalyst. And Jeff was quite right in his opening remarks in his speech, that ultimately this is really not just about technology. It's about society transformation and about creating the society of the future that we want to be. And you're right, your question is absolutely right - the education and training sector, the business sector, all of us will transform and all of us have to be ready to innovate, look in and change ourselves. But that change won't happen by us looking inward and doing it just ourselves. It will happen hopefully by us working together and co-creating. This is why we've let the outside in. You have to let the outside in. I usually say that, and that’s industry, business, community, society because through that, you actually look for new models because ultimately we are there to meet the needs of those stakeholders. TONY MELVILLE: I think if I can comment, Nic. Nic's Industry 4.0 as well. He told me some months ago when he'd written a defence column: oh, there's 25 people reading that story in the Russell offices right now. And he could see that online, you know. So, the media adjusts to the technology as well. I might just jump in with a question on the older workers - no reference back to Nic. But the older workforce is growing in size and significance globally, and this is one for Aleks. So how- you know, we've seen the automotive industry shut down in- all over the place but those workers being replaced. So how can we best draw on that talent and experience of all the workers in this Industry 4.0 context? ALEKSANDAR SUBIC: And that was part of- one important part- thank you for asking that. That was one of the important parts of my answer previously. You will find, and I think we've seen that information in recent times through Innovative Manufacturing CRC or Manufacturing Forum and Statistics Bureau, that last two years we've actually grown by about 85,000, 100,000 jobs in manufacturing, while previously over 10 years we dropped by 100,000. So something's happening there, the ecosystem. And they are not the workforce of the future. These are the people coming out of the automotive sector and many of the other sectors that are transforming, closing or leaving, and actually innovating and creating new enterprises or collaborating, working together to create new enterprises in manufacturing. There's enormous talent there. And our biggest fear when automotive industry was closing in terms of manufacturing and assembly was that we will lose that capability. That's why there's such a kind of a fast tracking of pilots and our fast tracking of initiatives that all of us are collectively implementing, including federal and state government, to maintain that talent pool, that experience, decades of experience. So the hubs we've created like the one in The Factory of the Future at Swinburne or across the test labs also aim to bring that talent. We’re actually also employing those people, creating teams that will be actually interfacing with industry and so on, and many of them actually starting their own businesses or collaborating to start businesses in a collective manner. And it's that innovation that's actually allowing us now to actually start growing the manufacturing jobs despite all the odds, which is a positive mark. So our focus on workforce transformation is on that. So the report that Tim mentioned that we've developed together with PwC but also with Siemens, Swinburne, and the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union - as the largest union - was really about identifying best practice and also the learnings from best practice that can inform not just education and training but also business and industry and government on what kind of programs, incentives, and schemes can help transform the workforce in current industry more effectively, in a more bespoke manner, so that we maintain that talent because they have enormous experience, and use their talent in a different setting within different skill set. TONY MELVILLE: And the next question’s from Michelle Price from AustCyber. QUESTION: Hi, colleagues. Obviously cyber security is a really big component of this. We hear a lot about the threat side of things. I think that unlike Industry 4.0, cyber security has received a lot of attention but from the negative side of things over the past couple of years, which does create the opportunity for us to talk about the growth side of the equation. I'm interested in both of your views around how cyber security and cyber resilience into Industry 4.0 is almost like a match made in heaven for exponential growth. JEFF CONNOLLY: I'll start the batting. Yes, of course. The Germans actually, interesting enough, in their work stream call it network security because it's trying to contain it into the industrial Internet environment of manufacturing - well, maybe expand out to process industries. But it's consistent with the rest of the speech on the sorts of skills that we imagine are going to be necessary in the near future, a) to protect ourselves but b) to generate new jobs. Yours is a growth centre by definition, I guess. The traditional definition of the growth centres was we've already got something of comparable advantage. In your case, it was something that we want to have a skill set in to be able to export, and I think that's absolutely right. I was thinking just a few moments ago you were talking about what are the applications in new technologies other than the existing growth centres. The Chief Scientist Alan Finkel’s been talking about ushering in hydrogen, and Aleks and I have already been having a discussion about couldn’t you imagine a university with a net zero ambition building solar, having an electrolyser there, and then building curriculum to operate in that well, which will come. ALEKSANDAR SUBIC: [Talks over] A living lab. JEFF CONNOLLY: It will come. And what are all the things associated that, that you build curriculum at based on a vision of what's going to happen in the future. That's quite exciting, I think, Aleks. ALEKSANDAR SUBIC: And Michelle, what you mentioned is I think we should say that all research and reports show that the manufacturing sector is in the top three sectors that are exposed to and disrupted or potentially disrupted by cyber attacks and being cyber vulnerable. I think this is why we've pushed also within the industry for zero qualification criteria, that every test lab must also address the cyber by design, the cyber protection by design, you know, from system point of view as well as from each technological element point of view, because the machines have to have that ability as well in a smart machine kind of a learning process. So that is an essential ingredient. It's not an option, it's not extracurricular, and it has to be done by design, as you frequently say, and not as an afterthought. So for the manufacturing sector, which we are primarily talking about, it has now really I think been established, or we hope it will be established as a critical technology just like standards or any other element within the Industry 4.0 platform. TONY MELVILLE: And our final question is from Misha Schubert. QUESTION: Hi, gentlemen. Misha Schubert as the director of the National Press Club but declaring, for the record, my other hat for Universities Australia. I wondered if I could ask you to both give us a few thoughts on R&D investment and the level of investment. The ABS latest data out last month told us that whilst OECD countries, on average, are investing sort of 2.38 per cent of their total economy in R&D, Australia is now at 1.79 per cent. So, well behind that average figure across those advanced economies. How concerned are you about the overall level of investment in R&D? And if you are concerned about it, what should we be doing about it to lift that level of investment? JEFF CONNOLLY: That's your area, Aleks. ALEKSANDAR SUBIC: I's a very important question, I think, because we sometimes tend to speak about innovation within this country disconnected from research and development, but actually it's research-led innovation and you can't have high impact innovation that's of global significance without actually high impact research that's the catalyst of that innovation. So, I think it's an essential question. And thanks, Misha. But I have two views about that because I think there's two things that are very important there. Coming from an institution where I've been driving the strategy, as of last year 63 per cent of all of R&D external income came from industry and business because very early on in the strategy, we've learned that we can't wait on government or just rely on government or expecting that the government kind of investing in our research alone. So we've put a very elaborate strategy that’s focused on impact-oriented strategy of working with industry, business community and that brought us to 63 per cent of income coming from industry and business. From that perspective, I know we can do more. I know that there's a potential and capacity there. But actually, we have to be able to convey a compelling value-add proposition to industry and business and I don't think that universities frequently do that. I think they frequently engage in an activity of developing some amazing solutions and then go off and look for problems to those solutions. We have to focus on understanding the business, industry and community needs and we have to be able to propose compelling value propositions that actually can be addressed through high level or high quality research. I think there's a whole developing maturity that has to happen. On the other hand, I do also agree. And when we look at OECD results, let's say 2017 OECD reports, we’re among the lowest in terms of public- private sector investment in R&D as a country. That has to go up. But the problem is- it's an interesting problem and we have to contextualise it. Ninety-five per cent of the manufacturing sector are SMEs of 20 employees or below. They are fighting to survive. So for us, the main prerogative must be that we build our capability and our standards and the technology we work on to a level in innovation, to a level that allows us to integrate with global supply chains, whether directly or whether working with global players like Siemens and others. Integrating in global supply chains is not an option. For us, it's a prerogative because that's the main way we're going to grow SMEs, select SMEs to medium and large. With that, the investment in research will grow. So, we have to look at the context, the ecosystem we are in and where the funding can come. I think that we probably can also use the R&D tax concession scheme as well more effectively and we need to look at that as well and whatever's there available to actually incentivise that. TONY MELVILLE: Final word, Jeff? JEFF CONNOLLY: No, I'll leave it there. I think Aleks knows more about research - other than to say from an industry point of view, of course we've got an objective in mind when we work with a university on a research project. It can't be just to hand over the money and have an outcome that's not specific to the need. Siemens has its own R&D expenditure of about AUS$6.5 billion a year and typically, what's happening in that research spend is that we will go around the world looking not for an institution, but for a specialist who's the thought leader in that particular node of an overall project. And those R&D teams are actually put together in a virtual basis on specific individuals. And I think that's quite a different challenge for the way we've always seen a room full of white coat researchers trying to do from end to end on a single project. TONY MELVILLE: Well, thanks for that. I think the discussion didn't live up to the hype and peril warning we had. The frog does die in the end in the boiling water, I should say, as we mentioned. JEFF CONNOLLY: Or the whale. TONY MELVILLE: And the dead whale. So- and that's a warning to us all. And so, please thank Aleks Subic and Jeff Connolly. [Applause] Transcript produced for THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB OF AUSTRALIA by ISENTIA.
31 October 2019 12:58
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/10/deputy-vice-chancellor-professor-aleksandar-subic-addresses-national-press-club-on-the-future-of-industry-40/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/10/deputy-vice-chancellor-professor-aleksandar-subic-addresses-national-press-club-on-the-future-of-industry-40/
Astronomy
Industry 4.0
Technology
true
-
Cosmic Yeti from the dawn of the Universe found lurking in dust
Cosmic Yeti from the dawn of the Universe found lurking in dust
Astronomers have found the footprints of a monster galaxy in the early Universe that has never been seen before.
Astronomers have accidentally discovered the footprints of a monster galaxy in the early Universe that has never been seen before. Like a cosmic Yeti, these galaxies have been regarded by the scientific community as folklore, given the lack of evidence of their existence. Now, for the first time astronomers in the US and Australia have managed to snap a picture of the beast. The discovery provides new insights into the first growing steps of some of the biggest galaxies in the Universe. Using the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA), a collection of 66 radio telescopes high in the Chilean mountains, Dr Christina Williams, lead author of the study, noticed a faint light blob in new sensitive observations. Strangely enough, the shimmering seemed to be coming out of nowhere, like a ghostly footstep in a vast dark wilderness. “It was very mysterious because the light seemed not to be linked to any known galaxy at all,” says Dr Williams, a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at the University of Arizona Steward Observatory. "When I saw this galaxy was invisible at any other wavelength, I got really excited because it meant that it was probably really far away and hidden by clouds of dust." The researchers estimate that the signal came from so far away that it took 12.5 billion years to reach Earth, therefore giving us a view of the Universe in its infancy. They think the observed emission is caused by the warm glow of dust particles heated by stars forming deep inside a young galaxy. The giant clouds of dust conceal the light of the stars themselves, rendering the galaxy completely invisible. “We figured out that the galaxy is actually a massive monster galaxy with as many stars as our Milky Way but brimming with activity, forming new stars at 100 times the rate of our own galaxy, says study co-author, Professor Ivo Labbé from Swinburne University of Technology.
23 October 2019 05:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/10/cosmic-yeti-from-the-dawn-of-the-universe-found-lurking-in-dust/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/10/cosmic-yeti-from-the-dawn-of-the-universe-found-lurking-in-dust/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research
Science
true
-
Q&A: Garry Foran
Q&A: Garry Foran
PhD candidate Garry Foran discusses his career in Astrophysics with The Weekend Australian Magazine.
At 12 you were diagnosed with a degenerative eye disorder. Did you know you would eventually go blind? Yes, but the speed of that varies. As a teenager growing up in Sydney I had night-blindness, but I drove a car until I was 30 and I was able to pursue my PhD in chemistry and my career as a scientist. In 1992 I was one of the foundation team members of the Synchrotron project, which generates powerful X-rays to analyse the molecular structure of various substances, and I worked in that field for more than 20 years. But after I turned 40 my visual field began collapsing inwards and my capacity to operate precision equipment was really affected. In 2010 you retired prematurely due to your blindness – that must have been distressing. It was a dark period; there was a lot of self-pity and despair at what I’d lost, because one of the joys of working on the Synchrotron had been collaborating with scientists from different fields – drug design, the mining industry, earth sciences, optics. Colleagues in Japan offered me a desk role at a particle physics facility but after three years there I returned to Australia looking for a new direction. So you decided to become an astrophysicist. Why? Part of my make-up is to take on challenges. I’d always been interested in astrophysics and I still had a bit of vision in one eye; it wasn’t enough to analyse visual data but I’d been using screen-reading software for several years. I guess I had blind faith, no pun intended. In 2015 I heard a radio interview with some of the astrophysics team from Swinburne University; my wife Atsuko and I lived nearby. I approached them and they were fantastically supportive, particularly my supervisor, Professor Jeff Cooke. Shortly after, you discovered you weren’t the world’s only blind astrophysicist… In 2016 Jeff told me he’d seen a TedX talk by blind astronomer Wanda Diaz Merced, who had devised technology that translates digital data from telescopes into different sounds. Wanda was an inspiration and we are now collaborating on refining these sonification methods with the help of Jeff Hannam, a sound designer at RMIT University. What’s the advantage of listening to data from telescopes rather than looking at it? Humans respond faster to sound than to vision; also, our ears are very good at selecting unusual signals out of noise. One of my interests is studying violent explosions in distant galaxies – these can be very fast and transient events, so we often have many telescopes around the world sharing data as we race to observe them before they fade. Transforming the data into sound can speed up the process. You also work with the ARC Centre of Excellence in Gravitational Wave Discovery… Gravitational waves are caused by massive events such as collisions between neutron stars that cause a ripple to pass through space like the wave on a pond. By studying the light from these events millions of years ago, we hope to explain why the universe looks like it does and what might happen to it in the future. What’s been the impact of your new career? The ability to feel enabled rather than disabled has restored my balance in life – I owe a lot to the team at Swinburne and my wife. My vision is reduced to perceiving light and dark, and discerning shapes with one eye, but my trusty guide dog Trooper gets me around. I hope the research we’re doing into sound will ultimately help sight-impaired people in many walks of life, not just astrophysics. Garry Foran is a PhD candidate at Swinburne University of Technology. This Q&A was orginally published by The Australian in The Weekend Australian Magazine, 12-13 October.
17 October 2019 10:39
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/10/qa-garry-foran/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/10/qa-garry-foran/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Helen Kapalos named VC’s Fellow for Multicultural Engagement
Helen Kapalos named VC’s Fellow for Multicultural Engagement
Journalist Helen Kapalos has been appointed as Swinburne’s inaugural Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow for Multicultural Engagement.
Journalist Helen Kapalos has been appointed as Swinburne’s inaugural Vice-Chancellor's Fellow for Multicultural Engagement. The appointment was announced during Swinburne's ‘Cultural diversity at work’ panel discussion, for which Ms Kapalos was a panellist. As the former Chair of the Victorian Multicultural Commission, Ms Kapalos has initiated powerful engagement programs with local communities, championed disadvantaged migrant groups and continues to be a tireless advocate for multiculturalism in Victoria. Ms Kapalos has previously worked closely with Swinburne and has shown a deep commitment to the university’s ongoing multicultural engagement programs, in particular its Charter of Cultural Diversity. In 2017, Ms Kapalos launched the Victorian Multicultural Commission Film Festival, co-presented with Swinburne as a proud partner and sponsor. The festival provides a powerful platform for Australian filmmakers from different backgrounds to improve our collective understanding of the many diverse and rich cultures in our society Ms Kapalos is also an accomplished journalist, presenter and producer with an extensive career in broadcast media. A Swinburne welcome Opening the ‘Cultural diversity at work’ panel discussion, Swinburne’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Linda Kristjanson AO, officially welcomed Ms Kapalos to Swinburne. “The Vice-Chancellor’s Fellowship is a new initiative. Launched this year, it allows us to work more closely with experts in our Swinburne community and seek their input on important issues,” Professor Kristjanson said. “I commend Helen’s tireless support of marginalised communities and her championing of equity and access principles - principles which are also important to Swinburne.” Cultural diversity at work: panel discussion at Swinburne, hosted by Mr Chris Hennessy, featuring Ms Helen Kapalos, Mr William Lye OAM QC and Ms Anoushka Gungadin. As Vice-Chancellor’s Fellow, Ms Kapalos will consult with Swinburne and provide valuable insights and strategic advice on multicultural engagement programs and interactions with cultural communities in Victoria. “I thank the Vice-Chancellor for this incredible opportunity, which comes at a time that we need it most” says Ms Kapalos. “I feel extraordinarily privileged to be named the inaugural VC’s Fellow for Multicultural Engagement.” The announcement follows the appointment of the inaugural Vice-Chancellor's Fellow for Indigenous Leadership, Dr Jackie Huggins AM, which was announced as part of Swinburne's Annual Barak-Wonga Oration in August.
11 October 2019 15:23
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/10/helen-kapalos-named-vcs-fellow-for-multicultural-engagement/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/10/helen-kapalos-named-vcs-fellow-for-multicultural-engagement/
Astronomy
University
false
-
Red planet rumbles: NASA’s recordings of ‘marsquakes’ let us listen to the martian heartbeat
Red planet rumbles: NASA’s recordings of ‘marsquakes’ let us listen to the martian heartbeat
Dr Rebecca Allen explains what a NASA sound recording from Mars tells us about the processes at play inside the red planet.
Thanks to the audio recordings of distant rumblings on Mars released this week by NASA, we finally know what the red planet sounds like. NASA’s InSight lander captured a range of sounds, most tantalisingly the low rumbles of “marsquakes” – seismic ripples rumbling through Mars’ interior. So does this mean Mars is noisy, or quiet? Do these terms even make sense on a different planet? Does sound travel in the same way on Mars? If a tree falls in Australia (even if no one is there to hear it), it makes a whooshing sound followed by a ground-shaking thud. These sounds travel by causing air molecules to vibrate, which in turn cause their neighbours to vibrate, and before you know it you have a sound wave. Mars certainly doesn’t have any trees that we know of, but many things can cause vibrations, such as wind. Mars has an atmosphere too, albeit quite different from the air here on Earth. For a start, there’s a lot less of it and it’s more spread out. It’s also made mostly of carbon dioxide, whereas our air thankfully contains plenty of oxygen. These important details affect how those vibrations travel as sound waves. If you were to drop a tree on Mars (let’s pretend the gravity is the same), the whoosh would be much quieter. But that doesn’t mean it’s less likely to drown out other sounds, because they would all be quieter too. Sounds and vibrations are important, they tell us about the medium they’re travelling through. With some very sensitive tools, we can hear the sounds of Mars like never before. So what do these martian sounds tell us? The song of its history On the surface, Mars looks like a planet long past its prime. There is no water, no lush forests, not much of an atmosphere, and the Solar system’s biggest volcano lies dormant. But we do see clues it has had an interesting history. It has water ice at its poles, and its surface shows signs flowing liquid water was once present. What makes this red world so different from our own? To answer this, astronomers need to know more about how Mars formed. We are pretty certain all four of the rocky or terrestrial planets formed in a similar way (well, maybe not Mercury, but we’ll leave that for another day). We’re also pretty sure their interiors have similar structures: rocky outer crust, liquid rock mantle, and metallic core. The interiors of rocky worlds. NASA/JPL These layers form as the molten planets cool down in the aftermath of their violent formation. Denser elements such as metals sink to the centre; whereas lighter materials rise up to form the outer layers. While we can confirm this for Earth, doing so for the other planets requires we go there and listen to them. Insights from InSight When NASA’s InSight lander touched down on Mars almost a year ago, its aim was to probe the interior of the red planet to understand more about its formation and current geological activity. Equipped with sophisticated instruments, InSight could measure vibrations from things like wind above ground and detect any rumblings from beneath the surface too. The InSight lander fitted with instruments to listen to Mars. NASA/JPL In the same way we monitor earthquakes on Earth, InSight’s seismometer would be able to detect even very weak “marsquakes” – seismic waves travelling through the red planet. These waves would reveal information about Mars’ interior and could confirm whether its structure is similar to Earth’s. It took months for InSight to sense anything below the surface. But since April 2019 it has made more than 100 detections. Not all of them are marsquakes – there are other sounds too. Meteor impacts on Mars’ surface would also cause sound waves to traverse the planet. And InSight itself pings and creaks as its parts move and its components expand and contract with the changes in temperature. To understand just what was detected, NASA’s scientists had to decode the data. A sleeping giant This week, engineers and scientists from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory confirmed at least 20 of the detections are bona fide marsquakes. The quakes are very weak and would only register around a magnitude 3 on our earthquake scale. This remarkable achievement highlights the sensitivity and capability of InSight’s German-made seismic sensor. The next step is to try to understand exactly what caused these mini-marsquakes. This is quite challenging with only one instrument on the planet and hopefully more detections will help reveal the cause of these soft vibrations. But what about our original question? What does it sound like on Mars? Thanks to InSight, we can hear the martian wind, the pings and scrapes of Insight’s movements, and now even the planet’s faint seismic heartbeat. While the vibrations have been altered a bit so our ears can actually pick them up, you can now hear the marsquakes for yourself! While it may not have the sounds of life we hear on Earth, Mars is far from quiet. And its sounds are helping us learn even more about the red planet. By Dr Rebecca Allen, Swinburne Space Office Project Coordinator, Swinburne University of Technology. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
04 October 2019 14:33
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/10/red-planet-rumbles-nasas-recordings-of-marsquakes-let-us-listen-to-the-martian-heartbeat/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/10/red-planet-rumbles-nasas-recordings-of-marsquakes-let-us-listen-to-the-martian-heartbeat/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
-
What has the search for extraterrestrial life actually yielded and how does it work?
What has the search for extraterrestrial life actually yielded and how does it work?
Astrophysicist, Dr Danny Price, discusses the search for extraterrestrial life.
What has the search for extraterrestrial life actually yielded and how does it work? – Rose, age 13. Hi Rose, great question! I am lucky enough to be a professional “alien hunter” for the Breakthrough Listen project, which is the biggest search for extraterrestrial intelligence we humans have ever undertaken. My role in the search is to use data from the Parkes radio telescope in Australia to look for signals from space that might have been be sent by intelligent extraterrestrial life. The Breakthrough Listen program has been going for three years, and we have another seven years of searching to go. But people have been searching the skies for signs of intelligent life since the 1960s and to date we have found… zero aliens. But don’t lose hope! The Universe is mind-bogglingly large, and with the latest technology, the search is only just starting to heat up. There are three exciting ways we might detect life beyond Earth in the coming years. Probes to planets and moons The first is by sending probes to planets and moons in the Solar system. We already know there isn’t any other intelligent life in the Solar system, but there could be simpler life like microbes. You may have heard about the NASA missions to Mars – the latest is the Curiosity Rover, and it has special equipment that might detect simple life like microbes on the red planet’s surface. NASA has sent the Curiosity Rover to Mars to investigate the planet’s surface. Shutterstock Curiosity recently uncovered an intriguing mystery: occasionally its sensors pick up methane gas in the atmosphere. Methane is produced here on Earth by animals (in particular, cows and sheep), so finding methane could point to there being some microbes in the soil. That would be an amazing discovery, but it could still be something less interesting, like a chemical reaction between rocks. Another upcoming mission is called Dragonfly, which will venture to Saturn’s moon Titan (which, amazingly, has an atmosphere) and will fly around looking for signs of life. NASA says its Dragonfly drone will fly around Saturn’s moon Titan looking for signs of life. Studying the atmospheres of other star systems The second way we might detect life is by looking closely at the atmospheres of planets in other star systems, which are called exoplanets. Astronomers have detected lots of exoplanets, and recently found water in the atmosphere of one exoplanet, but we still can’t tell if there is life on the surface. Excitingly, the next generation of optical telescopes will be able to detect gases in the atmospheres of nearby exoplanets. If we see that an exoplanet’s atmosphere has a mix of gases like Earth, that would be strong evidence that we are sharing the galaxy with other beings. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence or ‘SETI’ The search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or “SETI” as it is known, is the third way scientists are looking for life. In SETI, we look for signals from space that look artificial or that don’t seem natural. Detecting an artificial signal would tell us that there was not only life, but life capable of producing advanced technology. SETI could detect an artificial signal from much, much further away than the other two methods; the disadvantage is that intelligent life is almost certainly rarer. We just don’t know yet how rare, and that’s the reason we need to look. The best explanation for why we haven’t found life beyond Earth yet is simply that we haven’t been looking hard and long enough, and our technology has not advanced enough. There are hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way alone, and there are more stars in the Universe than there are grains of sand here on Earth. As SETI pioneer Jill Tarter is fond of saying: You wouldn’t dip a glass in the ocean, come up with no fish inside and conclude, ‘No fish exist’. The tide pools and coral reefs of the Universe may be filled with life, we just need to keep dipping our glasses into the darkness. Hello, curious kids! Have you got a question you’d like an expert to answer? Ask an adult to send your question to curiouskids@theconversation.edu.au By Dr Danny C Price, Astrophysicist, Swinburne University of Technology. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
30 September 2019 10:56
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/09/what-has-the-search-for-extraterrestrial-life-actually-yielded-and-how-does-it-work/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/09/what-has-the-search-for-extraterrestrial-life-actually-yielded-and-how-does-it-work/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
-
Galaxy found to float in a tranquil sea of halo gas
Galaxy found to float in a tranquil sea of halo gas
• Swinburne researchers pinpointed the location of a fast radio burst and have analysed its properties.
Using one cosmic mystery to probe another, a team of astronomers has analysed the signal from a fast radio burst (FRB) – an enigmatic blast of cosmic radio waves lasting less than a millisecond – to explore the diffuse gas in the halo of a massive galaxy. In November 2018, the astronomers, co-led by Swinburne’s Dr Ryan Shannon, used the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) in Western Australia to pinpoint a fast radio burst named FRB 181112. To their surprise, the burst passed through the halo of a massive galaxy on its way toward Earth, allowing them for the first time to get clues to the nature of the halo gas from an elusive radio signal. Follow-up observations with optical telescopes in Chile showed not only its host galaxy but also a bright galaxy in front of it. The new findings have been published online in the journal Science. “The signal from the fast radio burst exposed the nature of the magnetic field around the galaxy and the structure of the halo gas,” says J Xavier Prochaska, Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UC Santa Cruz and lead author of the paper. “The study proves a new and transformative technique for exploring the nature of galaxy halos.” Astronomers still don’t know what produces FRBs, and have only recently traced some of these very short, very bright radio signals back to the galaxies in which they originated. “When we overlaid the radio and optical images, we could see straight away that the fast radio burst pierced the halo of this coincident foreground galaxy and, for the first time, had a direct way of investigating this otherwise invisible matter surrounding this galaxy,” says co-author, Swinburne PhD candidate Cherie Day. The Swinburne team, which also includes Associate Professor Adam Deller, pinpointed the burst’s location and analysed its properties. Understanding halo gas A galactic halo contains both dark matter and ordinary (‘baryonic’) matter, which is expected to be mostly hot gas. While the luminous part of a massive galaxy is typically 30,000 light-years across, its roughly spherical halo is ten times larger. Halo gas fuels star formation as it falls in toward the centre of the galaxy, while other processes (such as supernova explosions) eject material out of the star-forming regions and into the galactic halo. One reason astronomers want to study the halo gas is to better understand these ejection processes, which can shut down star formation. Contrary to expectations, the results of the new study indicate a very low density and a feeble magnetic field in the halo of this intervening galaxy. “This galaxy’s halo is surprisingly tranquil,” Professor Prochaska says. “The radio signal was largely unaffected by the galaxy, which is in stark contrast to what previous models predict would have happened to the burst.” The signal of FRB 181112 consisted of several pulses, each lasting less than 40 microseconds (ten thousand times shorter than the blink of an eye). The short duration of the pulses puts an upper limit on the density of the halo gas, because passage through a denser medium would lengthen the radio signals. The researchers calculated that the density of the halo gas must be less than a tenth of an atom per cubic centimetre (equivalent to several hundred atoms in a volume the size of a child’s balloon). The FRB signal also yields information about the magnetic field in the halo, which affects the polarisation of the radio waves. “The magnetic field in the halo is a billion times weaker than that of a refrigerator magnet,” Professor Prochaska says. At this point, with results from only one galactic halo, the researchers cannot say whether the unexpectedly low density and magnetic field strength are unusual or if previous studies of galactic halos have overestimated these properties. ASKAP and other radio telescopes will use FRBs to study many more galactic halos and resolve their properties. Additional coauthors are from eight institutions in Australia, Chile, South Korea, and the United States. This work was funded in part by the Australian Research Council. World-first advances in FRB research In August this year, Swinburne student Wael Farah built an automated system that uses artificial intelligence to capture fast radio bursts (FRBs) in real-time. Five bursts were captured using the machine learning system. Earlier this year, Swinburne astrophysicists Dr Adam Deller and Dr Ryan Shannon, from the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, were part of a team that determined the precise location of a one-off FRB for the first time. Dr Shannon also led the discovery of 20 FRBs in 2018, nearly doubling the known number of bursts at that time.
27 September 2019 06:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/09/galaxy-found-to-float-in-a-tranquil-sea-of-halo-gas/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/09/galaxy-found-to-float-in-a-tranquil-sea-of-halo-gas/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research
false
-
India’s moon mission should be considered a success, and a lesson in spacefaring
India’s moon mission should be considered a success, and a lesson in spacefaring
Despite a last-minute crash-landing, efforts behind India's moon mission should be applauded and used as an example for other emerging space programs.
Over the weekend, India attempted to make history by becoming just the fourth nation to successfully land a probe on the Moon. It came agonisingly close, but after journeying millions of kilometres, the Vikram lander lost contact in the final few hundred metres and crash-landed on the lunar surface. But it would be both unfair and plain wrong to label the mission a failure. Two-month trip After a postponed launch, India’s Chandrayaan-2 spacecraft began its journey to the Moon on July 22. Onboard it carried the Vikram lander and Pragyan rover, equipped to search the lunar south pole for water and other valuable resources. Everything seemed to be going according to plan. Chandrayaan-2 completed several orbits around Earth and then the Moon, slowly making its way closer to the lunar surface and taking photographs the whole time. Trajectory of the Chandrayaan 2 spacecraft. Source: Indian Space Research Organisation. On September 2, the Vikram lander separated and began to make its descent. All communications were normal until the lander was within 2km of its goal. Then it went silent – a space engineer’s worst nightmare. Chandrayaan-2 Surveys the lunar surface. Indian Space Research Organisation Vikram, do you copy? So far, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) engineers have not been able to reestablish communications with the lander. It’s likely Vikram landed with enough force to damage its communications equipment, as well as other instruments. But all hope was not lost, as Chandrayaan-2 remained in orbit above the Moon and, with its high-resolution camera, was able to spot the lander. If oriented favourably, Vikram could still manage to power itself up. ISRO has not admitted defeat and will keep trying to connect to Vikram for the next two weeks. However, the chances of success diminish with time. While the Chandrayaan-2 mission has not gone as expected, it cannot be called a failure. The Chandrayaan-2 orbiter will continue to monitor the Moon for up to seven years and the high-resolution images it takes will be vital to future international efforts to land on the Moon. Technically a success The near success of Vikram’s landing should be celebrated. To appreciate just how hard it is, let’s delve into some physics. Earth is rotating and also hurtling through space at more than 100,000km per hour. The Moon is almost 400,000km away and travelling around 4,000km per hour as it orbits Earth. To reach the Moon, you first have to escape Earth’s gravity and ensure you’re going at the right speed to orbit Earth a few times before moving far enough to be caught by the Moon. Then you slowly decrease your distance to the lunar surface, inching closer over several orbits until you are low enough to use powered assistance to land. It took the United States and Russia decades to design, plan and execute missions to the Moon. In fact, the ISRO was founded shortly after the successful Apollo 11 mission. We should applaud the hard work India has done over the past 50 years to get this far. This sentiment was clear as Indian prime minister Narendra Modi addressed his country, all of whom stood in solidarity with the scientists who spent countless hours in pursuit of their goal. A global space community The story of the Indian lander echoes that of the failed Israeli landing attempt earlier this year. The Beresheet lander was built by private company SpaceIL, which was chasing the coveted Google Lunar XPrize when an engine malfunction caused it to swan dive into the Moon’s surface. I mention this mission to reiterate just how hard the task is, but also to demonstrate that the old Cold War space superpowers are no longer the only ones in the game. Countries and even private companies across the world are gaining spacefaring capabilities and undertaking incredible missions that will enable humankind to go further than ever before. In the next five years, more than a dozen missions to the Moon from six different countries, including Japan and Korea, are slated. This doesn’t include NASA’s ambitious Artemis mission that seeks to put the first woman on the Moon. But as the cliché goes, with great power comes great responsibility. Now that countries across the world can send things into space, we must have solidarity as a global spacefaring community to consider how our actions up there will affect us on Earth and to ensure long-term success in space ventures. This is not the last international space mission you will hear about in the news this year. In coming years, we may even be discussing Australian ventures into space – and maybe even to the Moon itself. By Rebecca Allen, Space Office Project Coordinator, Swinburne University of Technology. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
10 September 2019 15:13
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/09/indias-moon-mission-should-be-considered-a-success-and-a-lesson-in-spacefaring/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/09/indias-moon-mission-should-be-considered-a-success-and-a-lesson-in-spacefaring/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
-
Swinburne uses AI to detect fast radio bursts in real-time
Swinburne uses AI to detect fast radio bursts in real-time
A Swinburne PhD student has built a fully automated, machine learning system that could help solve the mystery of what causes fast radio bursts.
A Swinburne PhD student has built an automated system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionise our ability to detect and capture fast radio bursts (FRBs) in real-time. FRBs are mysterious and powerful flashes of radio waves from space, thought to originate billions of light years from the Earth. They last for only a few milliseconds (a thousandth of a second) and their cause is one of astronomy’s biggest puzzles. Wael Farah developed the FRB detection system, and is the first person to discover FRBs in real-time with a fully automated, machine learning system. Mr Farah’s system has already identified five bursts – including one of the most energetic ever detected, as well as the broadest. His results have been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Capturing fast radio bursts in real-time Mr Farah trained the on-site computer at the Molonglo Radio Observatory near Canberra to recognise the signs and signatures of FRBs, and trigger an immediate capture of the finest details seen to date. The bursts were detected within seconds of their arrival at the Molonglo Radio Telescope, producing high quality data that allowed Swinburne researchers to study their structure accurately, and gather clues about their origin. Mr Farah says his interest in FRBs comes from the fact they can potentially be used to study matter around and between galaxies that is otherwise almost impossible to see. “It is fascinating to discover that a signal that travelled halfway through the universe, reaching our telescope after a journey of a few billion years, exhibits complex structure, like peaks separated by less than a millisecond,” he says. Molonglo project scientist, Dr Chris Flynn says: “Wael has used machine learning on our high-performance computing cluster to detect and save FRBs from amongst millions of other radio events, such as mobile phones, lightning storms, and signals from the Sun and from pulsars.” Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow and project leader, Professor Matthew Bailes says: “Molonglo’s real-time detection system allows us to fully exploit its high time and frequency resolution and probe FRB properties that were previously unobtainable.” One of the FRBs shows remarkable structure in time and radio frequency. The fine details seen here could only be captured because the computers had been trained to spot FRBs within seconds of their arrival at the Earth. Image credit: Wael Farah/Swinburne The five bursts were found as part of the UTMOST FRB search program - a joint collaboration between Swinburne and the University of Sydney. The Molonglo telescope is owned by the University of Sydney. World-first discoveries In June, Swinburne astrophysicists Dr Adam Deller and Dr Ryan Shannon, from the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, were part of a team that determined the precise location of a one-off FRB for the first time. Dr Shannon also led the discovery of 20 FRBS in 2018, nearly doubling the known number of bursts at that time.
05 August 2019 07:32
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/08/swinburne-uses-ai-to-detect-fast-radio-bursts-in-real-time/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/08/swinburne-uses-ai-to-detect-fast-radio-bursts-in-real-time/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Swinburne goes underground in search for dark matter
Swinburne goes underground in search for dark matter
A $5 million funding boost will help build an underground physics laboratory to study one of the greatest scientific challenges of this century.
Swinburne University of Technology will be a key institution in the international project to explore and search for dark matter, following an announcement that Victoria's state government will contribute $5 million to build the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory. The funding has been announced by Victoria’s state Minister for Regional Development, Jaclyn Symes, and matches the federal government’s funding commitment confirmed in April. The laboratory will be built one kilometre underground, within the Stawell Gold Mine, as a bespoke excavated cavity 30 metres long, 10 metres wide and 10 metres high. It will provide ultra-low background research facilities (free from the particles that form background radiation) needed in the ground-breaking search for dark matter. Swinburne is one of six international institutes involved in the project, led by the University of Melbourne. The search for dark matter Swinburne astrophysicist, Associate Professor Alan Duffy, says understanding dark matter is one of the greatest scientific challenges of this century. “Astronomers have seen the movement of stars pulled by the gravity of an unseen companion. We now think that this unseen companion, dark matter, makes up five times more of the Universe than everything we can see combined,” he says. “The attention of the world’s physicists will now be on regional Victoria as a leader in the search for dark matter.” Associate Professor Duffy says that the establishment of Stawell as a physics research hub will also provide local education benefits. “This Lab will undoubtedly inspire local students to study physics in school and at university, but it also means that if they want to be part of a global scientific experiment, they can do that right here in Stawell.” The project is expected to deliver economic value to the region of $180.2 million in its first ten years, and support ongoing jobs. Ms Symes says: “With nearly 80 ongoing jobs connected to the Lab, this project will diversify Stawell’s economy – attracting a new highly-skilled workforce to the region to live and work.” University of Melbourne project leader, Professor Elisabetta Barberio, says the laboratory will be home to important scientific experiments. “The investment by both the state and federal governments ensure the Lab is large enough to host dark matter experiments as well as everything from fundamental cancer research into how radiation affects cells growing, to creating new ultra-sensitive detectors and novel geological exploration techniques,” she says. The project is a collaboration between six international partners. It will be led by the University of Melbourne alongside Swinburne, the University of Adelaide, the Australian National University, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) and the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics. The first dark matter detector Swinburne is heavily involved in building the largest experiment to take place in the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory - SABRE (Sodium-iodide with Active Background Rejection), which is the Southern Hemisphere’s first dark matter detector. The vessel will be arriving at Swinburne’s Wantirna campus in August, where it will undergo a rigorous assembly and electronics fit-out process, including leak testing and internal reflective surface coating. Only once the international team is satisfied that it meets the exacting standards for this kind of precision experiment will it move to the underground laboratory where the search for dark matter can begin.
29 July 2019 11:13
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/07/swinburne-goes-underground-in-search-for-dark-matter/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/07/swinburne-goes-underground-in-search-for-dark-matter/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing recruits new director from the US
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing recruits new director from the US
With her extensive experience in the field of astrophysics, Professor Jean Brodie will help CAS build on its strong reputation for space research.
Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS) has appointed a new director, starting in March 2020. Jean Brodie joins Swinburne from the University of California Santa Cruz, where she is a Distinguished Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics. Professor Brodie succeeds CAS’ current director, Professor Karl Glazebrook, who will commence an ARC Laureate fellowship focused on understanding the early Universe. Research interests and background Professor Brodie brings extensive experience in astronomy and research to this new role. With a PhD in astronomy from the University of Cambridge, Professor Brodie’s research interests include globular star clusters and galaxy formation. She uses globular star clusters as fossil tracers of galaxy history as they are among the oldest radiant objects in the universe and provide important clues about the formation and evolution of galaxies. Professor Brodie is also the founder and chief investigator of SAGES (Study of the Astrophysics of Globular clusters in Extragalactic Systems), an international research group whose members include Swinburne researchers. This network investigates globular clusters and their host galaxies with a focus on using the world’s best observational facilities to provide fresh clues. Strong leadership Professor Brodie says she is delighted to join Swinburne and describes the university as “dynamic and forward-thinking.” “I am committed to helping Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing build on its already strong foundation. The centre has excellent people and rapidly growing international recognition,” she says. Deputy-Vice Chancellor (Research and Development), Professor Aleksandar Subic, says the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing is achieving world-leading outcomes. “This is an exciting time as we work together to position Swinburne at the pinnacle of the space research discipline globally,” he says. “In the past five years, the Centre has achieved remarkable growth by successfully participating in two new ARC Centres of Excellence, and by hosting two ARC Australian Laureate Fellows and Highly Cited researcher in space science,” he says. “I would like to welcome Professor Jean Brodie, one of the leading female astronomers in the world, and thank Professor Karl Glazebrook for his leadership of the Centre since 2014.” Recent achievements The Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing was recently awarded the Pleiades Silver Award from the Australia Society for Astronomy. The Pleiades Awards aim to encourage organisations to promote equity and inclusion. The Silver Pleiades recognises organisations with a sustained record of at least two years monitoring and improving the working environment and being an example of best practice to other astronomy organisations. Recent figures show the number of women gravitating towards astronomy-related study at Swinburne is increasing. For example, around 22 per cent of students enrolled in postgraduate courses in astronomy are female – higher than the national average of 17 per cent for women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
22 July 2019 13:44
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/07/centre-for-astrophysics-and-supercomputing-recruits-new-director-from-the-us/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/07/centre-for-astrophysics-and-supercomputing-recruits-new-director-from-the-us/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Swinburne buys Invicta House in Melbourne CBD
Swinburne buys Invicta House in Melbourne CBD
Swinburne has bought Invicta House in Melbourne’s CBD and is considering uses that align with its commitment to innovation and transformational learning.
Swinburne has successfully completed the purchase of Invicta House in Melbourne’s CBD. The historic eight-storey building is located at 226-232 Flinders Lane in a high-traffic area close to Swanston Street and the Degraves Street walkway. As part of its 2025 strategy, Swinburne is committed to innovation and transformational learning, and is always seeking to improve the use of space and facilities across the university. The purchase offers exciting opportunities for Swinburne, and a range of options for how the property will be used is currently being considered. These include a teaching and learning location, event spaces to showcase our teaching and research, or rental spaces to generate income. Staff will be consulted as part of the process. The acquisition is an opportunity to increase exposure to the Swinburne brand and deliver a uniquely Swinburne experience in the heart of Melbourne. It also allows Swinburne to better serve the eastern corridor, from the CBD to the Swinburne Centre in Richmond and Cremorne, through Hawthorn and Prahran, to its campuses in the outer eastern suburbs of Croydon and Wantirna. The design process is scheduled to begin later this year, with the upgrade and refurbishment set to get underway in May 2020. A date for occupancy is expected to be announced in early 2021.
17 July 2019 13:30
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/07/swinburne-buys-invicta-house-in-melbourne-cbd/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/07/swinburne-buys-invicta-house-in-melbourne-cbd/
Astronomy
Business
false
-
Unique Swinburne short courses offer skills for the space industry
Unique Swinburne short courses offer skills for the space industry
Swinburne is launching two new micro units to equip people to work in and with fast-growing space industries.
To meet the needs of growing space industries in Australia and globally, Swinburne is launching two unique short courses in August. Swinburne’s new six-week micro units are aimed at researchers, consultants, entrepreneurs and legal professionals looking to work in and with these fast-growing space industries. New space micro units The ‘Space Applications in the Australian Context’ micro unit will help researchers and entrepreneurs navigate the complexities of the domestic and international space industries’ ecosystem. Experts will guide participants through the current and potential applications and capabilities of Australia’s space industry, as well as the fundamentals of operating in a space environment. The ‘Space Regulatory Frameworks’ micro unit focuses on the key legislation, agreements, treaties and conventions that govern domestic and international space operations. Developing necessary skills and knowledge Senior Lecturer in Space Research, Governance and Law, Kim Ellis, says the micro units provide a comprehensive overview for those wishing to take advantage of opportunities in the space industries. “The micro units are the first-of-their-kind in Australia and provide the necessary skills and knowledge to begin, or level-up, your career in the space industry, regardless of your current field. That includes understanding the unique challenges that are faced by Australian space industry entrepreneurs, researchers or lawyers trying to navigate new space rules and regulations,” she says. Swinburne is fast becoming a leader in space and the global space industries. In April, Swinburne was announced as a key player in the new Cooperative Research Centre for Smart Satellite Technologies and Analytics – the biggest investment in space industry research and development in Australia’s history. Dean of Science, Professor Virginia Kilborn, says the micro units are a natural next step for Swinburne and will equip Australians with skills and knowledge to be at the forefront of the international space industry. “The global space economy is only going to get bigger. Opportunities include artificial intelligence, robotics, big data analytics and next-generation communications to enable broadband space-to-earth communication, as well as innovation in antenna, rocket and spacecraft systems,” she says. The micro units will be mostly delivered online, and include a one-day intensive and networking event. Combining online delivery with an in-person workshop allows participants to access flexible learning, find their niche and grow their network with leading industry players. Find out how Swinburne can equip you to work in the space industry: http://www.swinburne.edu.au/space-technology/
11 July 2019 13:21
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/07/unique-swinburne-short-courses-offer-skills-for-the-space-industry/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/07/unique-swinburne-short-courses-offer-skills-for-the-space-industry/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
University
false
-
Australian-led team of astronomers make history in a split second
Australian-led team of astronomers make history in a split second
In a world first, Swinburne is part of a team of astronomers who have determined the location of a powerful one-off burst of cosmic radio waves.
In a world first, an Australian-led, international team of astronomers has determined the precise location of a powerful one-off burst of cosmic radio waves known as ‘fast radio bursts’. The discovery was made by a team, including Swinburne astrophysicists Dr Adam Deller and Dr Ryan Shannon, using CSIRO’s new Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope in the Western Australian outback. The galaxy from which the burst originated was imaged by three of the world’s largest optical telescopes, with the results published online in Science today. A big breakthrough “This is the big breakthrough that the field has been waiting for since astronomers discovered fast radio bursts in 2007,” says CSIRO lead author Dr Keith Bannister. In the 12 years since then, a global hunt has netted 85 of these bursts. Most have been ‘one-offs’, but a small fraction are ‘repeaters’ that recur in the same location. Fast radio bursts last less than a millisecond, making it difficult to accurately determine where they come from. In 2017, astronomers found a repeater’s home galaxy. However, localising a one-off burst has been much more challenging. Dr Bannister’s team developed new technology to freeze and save data from the new CSIRO telescope less than a second after a burst arrives at the telescope. This technology was used to pinpoint the origin of the fast radio burst, identified as the outskirts of a galaxy just smaller than the Milky Way, about 4 billion light-years away. "If we were to stand on the Moon and look down at the Earth with this precision, we would be able to tell not only which city the burst came from, but which postcode – and even which city block,” says Dr Bannister. The CSIRO telescope used is made up of multiple dish antennas. The burst had to travel a different distance to each dish, reaching them all at a slightly different time. Swinburne astrophysicist and discovery team member, Dr Adam Deller, says: “From these tiny time differences – just a fraction of a billionth of a second – we identified the burst’s home galaxy and even its exact starting point, 13,000 light-years out from the galaxy’s centre in the galactic suburbs.”
27 June 2019 14:11
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/06/australian-led-team-of-astronomers-make-history-in-a-split-second/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/06/australian-led-team-of-astronomers-make-history-in-a-split-second/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Swinburne expands reach in Malaysia
Swinburne expands reach in Malaysia
A major partnership will take Swinburne’s innovative degree programs into West Malaysia.
After two decades serving the communities of East Malaysia through Swinburne’s Sarawak campus, a major partnership is set to take the university’s innovative degree into West Malaysia. The new agreement will see Swinburne qualifications offered in conjunction with one of South-East Asia’s most respected and trusted education brands, lNTI International University & Colleges. Swinburne’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Professor Duncan Bentley, recently travelled to Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, to launch the partnership. Professor Bentley was joined by acting Australian High Commissioner to Malaysia, Mr Michael Growder, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Chief Executive Officer of Swinburne Sarawak, Professor John Wilson. “Swinburne has been operating in Malaysia via its Sarawak campus in Kuching delivering high-quality undergraduate and postgraduate programs in partnership with the Sarawak state government for nearly two decades,” says Professor Bentley. “This new partnership with INTI will not only bring Swinburne programs to West Malaysia, but will enrich teaching and learning in both institutions by providing new resources, study tours and semester abroad programs, as well as seamless transfer opportunities for both Malaysian and Australian students between Peninsular Malaysia (West Malaysia), Sarawak and Melbourne. “INTI has more than 30 years of experience in Malaysia, 65,000 graduates, and 450 industry partners to testify to the quality of education delivered. “Swinburne is proud to be working closely with INTI to bring cutting edge qualifications to West Malaysia. “Bringing students together from all teaching locations will expose them to different styles of education and enable them to work alongside individuals from diverse cultures early in their careers. “While academic excellence opens doors, today’s universities must focus on creating global professionals who are able to adapt to the rapid changes affecting organisations and communities. We believe these are precisely the types of graduates this partnership will help create,” says Professor Bentley. Under the new partnership, Swinburne qualifications will be offered in conjunction with INTI at its West Malaysian Penang and Subang Jaya locations.
18 June 2019 14:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/06/swinburne-expands-reach-in-malaysia/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/06/swinburne-expands-reach-in-malaysia/
Astronomy
Business,Education
false
-
First nations, first astronomers: understanding Indigenous astronomy
First nations, first astronomers: understanding Indigenous astronomy
The Swinburne Annual Reconciliation Lecture was a panel discussion that revealed the many layers of Indigenous astronomy.
Indigenous astronomy embodies a wealth of knowledge including using stars as a calendar, a navigation tool and a canvas through which to tell rich stories, the audience of Swinburne’s Annual Reconciliation Lecture has heard. Titled ‘First Nations, First Astronomers’, the 2019 lecture was delivered as a panel discussion between Gunnai and Yorta Yorta custodian Uncle Wayne Thorpe, Kamilaroi woman and Monash University astrophysics student Krystal De Napoli, and cultural astronomer Dr Duane Hamacher. The event was co-hosted by Swinburne’s Moondani Toombadool Centre and the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, and the discussion was moderated by Swinburne Dean of Science, Professor Virginia Kilborn. Uncle Wayne Thorpe explained the connection to astronomy is of great significance to Gunnai people. “We had to rely on our observation and our connection to country. Looking at the stars and the night sky, we’re really reading our calendar of events. We’re looking to see what sort of foods are in season, the indicators that tell us important ceremonies are about to happen and where we need to travel to for those ceremonies,” he said. Born in Missouri in the United States of America, Dr Hamacher came to Australia to learn more about astrophysics and never expected to become so deeply embedded in, and passionate about, Australian Indigenous astronomy. “I knew that I could learn about the culture, but I didn’t have those connections and roots to the culture. But being an astronomer and having a background in astrophysics, I was armed with the tools necessary to see the science behind the traditional knowledge,” he said. Dr Hamacher explained it is a misconception that Indigenous astronomy isn’t founded in science and that it only serves as a tool for telling stories. “There are multiple layers and levels to all this knowledge I’ve learned about. One of the foundational levels of that is science. There’s a lot there that isn’t being tapped into or understood.” Interpreting the stars in diverse ways As part of her astrophysics studies, Ms De Napoli has been investigating the similarities and differences between Indigenous interpretations of certain constellations and Western astronomy. “As an astrophysics student, I’m able to explore the cross-section between my culture and my scientific studies. I’m currently working on a project looking at the Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters. The stories from different Aboriginal communities across Australia vary quite a lot in how they interpret this cluster. “I’m exploring why the number of stars mentioned in these oral traditions varies and why they are often referred to as sisters or women. This is where I get to bring in my own cultural knowledge but also use my astrophysics knowledge to look at each star.” Uncle Wayne Thorpe said he grew up learning about the Western interpretations of constellations, such as the “Saucepan”, as well as his Gunnai ancestors’ stories. “Along the way, I’ve had Elders point out constellations and explain that at certain times of the year, that pot will scoop up the evening light, travel across the sky throughout the night and then tip out the morning light,” he said. The importance of sharing Indigenous knowledge Ms De Napoli said her experience of learning about Indigenous culture at school was very different to the way her family educated her about her heritage. “At school, I was taught that Indigenous people were nomadic wanderers and that there was nothing really here before. I find this quite sad because I think it really impacts on how you start to see yourself as an Indigenous Australian,” she said. “For me, my life’s passion is to help re-write that so Indigenous people can grow up learning about the rich history of their heritage and feel proud of it. “There are incredible things to learn within Indigenous astronomy. There have been amazing discoveries in the last 200 years of modern day science that pop up in Aboriginal oral traditions, some of which date back tens of thousands of years.” Dr Hamacher said he was honoured to be involved in writing the curriculum for updated Indigenous studies being introduced into primary and secondary schools. “We wanted to showcase the depth of the knowledge and integrate the two knowledge systems. We shouldn’t be viewing traditional knowledge as some relic from the past. Western science changes all the time and we’re always learning new stuff. The same thing goes with what I’ve learned from Indigenous Elders. “So, why not look at ways these two areas can work together? If you’re teaching astrophysics and looking at star formations, why not bring in the Aboriginal traditions that talk about similar concepts?” Ms De Napoli was thrilled to hear the announcement that Indigenous astronomy is being incorporated into primary and secondary education. “I’m really excited because this is something that Indigenous students can take on board and feel a sense of pride about their heritage. But also, it’s important for all Australians to realise how lucky we are to learn from some of the oldest continuing cultures and possibly the first astronomers.”
03 June 2019 10:32
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/06/first-nations-first-astronomers-understanding-indigenous-astronomy/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/06/first-nations-first-astronomers-understanding-indigenous-astronomy/
Astronomy
Science,University
false
-
Swinburne and Lexus broadcast a message to space
Swinburne and Lexus broadcast a message to space
Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing has worked with Lexus to send a message into space in the hopes of reaching alien life.
Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS) has partnered with car manufacturer Lexus to send a message into the depths of space in the hopes of reaching alien life. As part of an exclusive partnership with the luxury car brand, CAS encoded an engine sound into an audio waveform that was then transmitted into space as part of what Lexus are calling the ‘Intergalactic Test Drive’. The message, a welcome to potential aliens, was beamed into space from the largest radio telescope in the southern hemisphere, Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (UTMOST) - located on the outskirts of Canberra, ACT. The message was broadcast from the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope near Canberra. Made from the sound of the Lexus RC F’s V8 engine, the transmission of the message coincides with the Lexus RC F coupe featuring in the new film Men In Black: International. Broadcasting the message The radio telescope facility, owned and operated by the University of Sydney, is used to listen to the galaxy, but was modified to allow the message to be beamed directly towards Orion’s Belt - a callback to the original Men In Black film. The crafting of the intergalactic invitation saying: “New Lexus RC F. Earth. We’ve been expecting you," was led by Swinburne’s Professor Matthew Bailes with help from Swinburne’s astrophysics team and the on-campus supercomputer, OzStar. The engine noise from a Lexus engine was encoded with a welcome message for alien life. “We're experts at listening to and decoding the naturally occurring radio transmissions from neutron stars, but Lexus wanted us to invert that process,” says Professor Bailes. “We had to find a solution that was both technically feasible, adhered to radio transmission regulations and didn't blow up our telescope. In a few thousand years we'll find out if anyone has heard it.” The search for alien customers Lexus Australia says this message is intended to show how far the company will go to anticipate the needs of everyone - and anything - that’s out there. “The Lexus brand is proud of anticipating the needs of its customers before they’ve communicated them, and we are excited to take that philosophy beyond Earth to new worlds in an innovative partnership while showcasing one of our most evocative powerplants,” says Scott Thompson, Lexus Australia chief executive. Full length content from The Intergalactic Test Drive and further details about the concept will be revealed in the lead up to the 13 June release of the Men In Black: International.
21 May 2019 10:27
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/05/swinburne-and-lexus-broadcast-a-message-to-space-/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/05/swinburne-and-lexus-broadcast-a-message-to-space-/
Astronomy
false
-
Swinburne researchers repurpose manufacturing technology to create new materials
Swinburne researchers repurpose manufacturing technology to create new materials
Swinburne researchers repurpose manufacturing technology to create new materials for traffic sound absorption, superlenses and earthquake proofing.
Swinburne researchers have repurposed a well-known manufacturing technology to create new materials for traffic sound absorption, superlenses and earthquake proofing. It’s already fairly common in manufacturing to simulate the incremental removal of superfluous material from a model to optimise lightweight and material-efficient design. This software-based approach is called Bidirectional Evolutionary Structural Optimisation (BESO), and is being used in the design of everything from bridges to car doors. It can also be used to design materials unlike any seen before on Earth, according to Professor Xiaodong Huang from Swinburne’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and Product Design Engineering. “The generalised BESO method, called ‘topological optimisation’, can be used to determine the spatial distribution of materials needed to achieve the best performance while satisfying multiple objectives and constraints,” explained Huang. “It is an important tool in civil, aerospace, mechanical and automotive engineering, all of which demand lightweight, low-cost, high-performance structures. But, by integrating physics, the method also has great potential in other design problems.” Multi-discipline, multi-physics topological optimisation has become a hot topic in academia and industry, because of its potential to help engineer microstructural materials or ‘metamaterials’ so they have new and sometimes incredible properties. By controlling electromagnetic, acoustic and mechanical waves, these materials could help find solutions for everything from perfect vibration and energy absorption to light bending for invisibility cloaking. The method has brought Huang’s team a string of leading research outcomes in recent years. In 2017, they co-authored a paper on the design of a 3D acoustic metamaterial that blocks low frequencies for sound cloaking in spaces such as road tunnels. Another material from a 2017 paper used light to create the properties of a superlens — lenses that take microscopes beyond the natural diffraction limit, a constraint that limits the resolution fineness of conventional lenses. In 2018, the team also developed an algorithm to optimise understandings of damping and the natural resonant frequency of macrostructures to improve earthquake resistance through the design of the microstructure of building materials. Each finding is aimed at specific industrial applications, and Huang said, once commercialised, metamaterials such as theirs “are expected to usher in a new era of engineering.”
17 May 2019 10:46
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/05/swinburne-researchers-repurpose-manufacturing-technology-to-create-new-materials/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/05/swinburne-researchers-repurpose-manufacturing-technology-to-create-new-materials/
Astronomy
Research Impact Magazine
Engineering,Technology,Science
false
-
Industry 4.0 poised to deliver growth and change through workforce transformation
Industry 4.0 poised to deliver growth and change through workforce transformation
New research identifies the ways in which businesses and workforces must adapt to changes brought about by the fourth industrial revolution.
Industry 4.0 is rapidly changing Australia’s manufacturing industry. New research undertaken by Swinburne, PwC, Siemens and the Australian Manufacturing Workers’ Union (AMWU) – as part of the Australian Industry Group (AiG) Industry 4.0 Forum agenda – identifies the ways in which businesses and workforces must adapt to these changes. The research report, titled Transforming Australian Manufacturing: Preparing businesses and workplaces for Industry 4.0, arose from the work of the Industry 4.0 Advanced Manufacturing Forum Workstream co-chaired by Swinburne’s Professor Aleksandar Subic, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development) and Andrew Dettmer, AMWU President. The report provides information and advice for government, industry, unions and peak employer bodies, and education/research institutions. It was launched during National Manufacturing Week, Australia’s largest manufacturing expo. Following previous industrial revolutions in mechanisation, mass production and computers, the fourth industrial revolution – known as Industry 4.0 – is about the fusion of cyber-physical systems that involves digitalisation across the entire industrial value chain. It includes technologies such as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), advanced automation and robotics, 3D printing, machine-to-machine communication, digital twins and sensor technology. Collaboration needed to drive innovation and transformation The report finds industry, education, unions, peak bodies and government must collaborate to drive innovation and workforce transformation for the benefit of industry and society. Among its eight recommendations, the report proposes that new funding, delivery and accreditation models be created to support lifelong learning, reskilling and upskilling throughout the work lifecycle. It details a number of case studies and highlights international and national best practice, including Swinburne’s Industry 4.0 apprenticeship program and national Industry 4.0 Testlabs network model that demonstrate how education, industry and government collaboration can be used effectively to co-create and develop education and research offerings that better meet future workforce requirements. The report also identifies the emerging skills needs of the manufacturing industry, such as: Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) intelligent data analytics higher levels of digital literacy automation cybersecurity advanced cognitive skills This will require the upskilling of existing workers for changing jobs, as well as the recruitment of new entrants to the manufacturing workforce. “The report presents findings that include international and national best practice of workforce transformation initiatives in the advanced manufacturing sector, as well as in other areas of relevance,” says Swinburne Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development) Professor Aleksandar Subic, who was a member of the Prime Minister’s Industry 4.0 Taskforce. “In order for Australian companies to access global value chains and associated benefits within an emerging Industry 4.0 world, our businesses and government must actively encourage and support new skills development in advanced industrial digitalisation across the entire continuum, from vocational training to higher education and PhDs. This requires disruptive innovation in education and training based on new models of public and private sector partnerships.” Industry 4.0 at Swinburne Swinburne is linking vocational training and higher education to create the skilled, digitally savvy workforce of the future. Swinburne’s Industry 4.0 higher apprenticeship course, the Associate Degree of Applied Technologies, developed in collaboration with Siemens and the Australian Industry Group, is a forerunner in this approach. The Advanced Manufacturing Industry 4.0 SME Hub at Swinburne is also pioneering a new model of university-industry collaboration. Students will work side-by side with industry and researchers developing and co-creating new technologies and practices. Learn more about Swinburne’s approach to Industry 4.0 National Manufacturing Week Australia’s largest manufacturing expo, National Manufacturing Week takes place at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre, with more than 90 expert speakers sharing exclusive insights into the latest developments in the manufacturing sector.
15 May 2019 11:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/05/industry-40-poised-to-deliver-growth-and-change-through-workforce-transformation/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/05/industry-40-poised-to-deliver-growth-and-change-through-workforce-transformation/
Astronomy
false
-
Swinburne joins forces with Bendigo Bank to establish FinTech degree
Swinburne joins forces with Bendigo Bank to establish FinTech degree
Bendigo Bank will co-create and co-deliver Australia’s first postgraduate degree in Financial Technology with Swinburne.
Swinburne University of Technology has built on its ongoing partnership with Bendigo and Adelaide Bank to develop and deliver a Master of Financial Technologies (FinTech). The first of its kind postgraduate course commenced in Semester One 2019, and is delivered through Swinburne’s Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship (AGSE). “We are very pleased to have Bendigo Bank on board for this new, bold collaboration that is based on the industry co-creation model which runs across all AGSE postgraduate programs,” Director of the AGSE, Mr Alexander Kaiser says. “This partnership supports Swinburne’s commitment to delivering courses that equip students with cutting-edge industry skills.” Director of the Master of FinTech, Dr Dimitrios Salampasis, says students will benefit greatly from being taught by leaders in the FinTech space. “Bendigo Bank will contribute to our students gaining the best of both worlds with industry practitioners – known as pracademics – teaching alongside Swinburne academics,” Dr Salampasis says. “This practical application provides the ultimate innovative learning experience for our students in terms of relevance and professional exposure to a wide network of capabilities.” Leading the way in FinTech education The vision for the Master of FinTech is to meet current and future market demand for skills and qualifications in emerging technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence, while helping students translate technological developments into innovative business models. Dr Salampasis says that due to rapid growth in the industry, the course is centred on real industry cases and immersive learning taught by qualified academics and leading industry practitioners. “Our approach to FinTech education encompasses the applied study of data-oriented, smart technologies and provides our students with comprehensive knowledge and specific, functional skills,” Dr Salampasis says. “Partnering with Bendigo Bank allows us to move beyond the hype and develop a cutting-edge FinTech curriculum. Guest speakers, real-life case studies, on-site events, access to data, work-integrated learning and applied projects are just a few of the opportunities to arise from this co-creation model.” Head of University Partnerships at Bendigo Bank, David Tudor, says its FinTech partnerships, innovation and strategic tertiary education partnerships, are proof of the bank’s Australian FinTech leadership. “The advent of this new, hands-on Master of FinTech course will equip Swinburne students with practical skills and real-world experiences which they can draw on to accelerate their learning and career development. “The co-designed and co-delivered course will also help us build on our own knowledge base and internal capability, improve productivity and customer experience, and assist in accelerating our vision to be Australia’s bank of choice,” Mr Tudor says. Strengthening the existing partnership This collaboration follows the launch of a Community Bank® at Swinburne, which will invest banking profits into projects, scholarships, clubs, and research at Swinburne. Swinburne’s Vice-President (Engagement), Jane Ward, believes the partnership with Bendigo Bank reflects the university’s strong commitment to innovating and creating positive social change. “We seek partnerships where our values align and where there is ample opportunity to benefit our community through funding, research, student placements or other co-created projects,” says Ms Ward. “Bendigo Bank’s strategic partnership with Swinburne is part of the continuing evolution of the Bendigo Community Bank® model and represents a further opportunity to strengthen our partnership with a leading Australian education institution and share value by feeding into the prosperity of the tertiary education sector,” says Mr Tudor.
13 May 2019 12:15
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/05/swinburne-joins-forces-with-bendigo-bank-to-establish-fintech-degree/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/05/swinburne-joins-forces-with-bendigo-bank-to-establish-fintech-degree/
Astronomy
AGSE
Business,Technology
false
-
New clues about how ancient galaxies lit up the Universe
New clues about how ancient galaxies lit up the Universe
New study using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows ancient galaxies were brighter than scientists expected and their light may have changed the Universe.
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed that our some of the earliest galaxies formed after the Big Bang were brighter than we thought. This extra light comes from the hot young stars being created in the galaxies and is thought to play an important role in transforming our Universe from being mostly opaque to the star-filled cosmos we see today. In a new study, researchers – including Swinburne’s Associate Professor Ivo Labbé – report on observations of some of the first galaxies to form in the Universe, less than one billion years after the Big Bang (or a little more than 13 billion years ago). The data shows that in a few specific wavelengths of infrared light, the galaxies are considerably brighter than scientists had expected. The study is the first to confirm this fact for a large sampling of galaxies from this period, showing that these were not special cases of excessive brightness, but that even average galaxies present at that time were much brighter in these wavelengths than galaxies we see today. “We discovered that galaxies in the early Universe were very different from today. In fact, the typical galaxy way-back-when is so extreme that there are almost no similar galaxies in the entire nearby Universe,” Associate Professor Labbé says. “The young galaxies are bursting with powerful radiation lighting up their gas, which started glowing as bright as the stars themselves at some infrared wavelengths.” No one knows for sure when the first stars in our Universe burst to life. Evidence suggests that between about 100 million and 200 million years after the Big Bang, the Universe was filled mostly with neutral hydrogen gas that had begun to coalesce into stars, which then began to form the first galaxies. By about one billion years after the Big Bang, the Universe had become a sparkling firmament. Something else had changed, too: the electrons of the omnipresent neutral hydrogen gas had been stripped away, in a process known as ionisation. The Epoch of Reionisation — the change-over from a Universe full of neutral hydrogen, to one filled with ionised hydrogen — is well documented. Before this Universe-wide transformation took place, long-wavelength forms of light, such as radio waves and visible light, traversed the Universe more or less unencumbered. Shorter wavelengths of light — including ultraviolet light, X-rays and gamma rays — were stopped short by neutral hydrogen atoms. At the same time, these collisions would strip those neutral hydrogen atoms of their electrons, ionising them. What could have possibly produced enough ionising radiation to affect all the hydrogen in the Universe? Was it individual stars? Giant galaxies? If either of these is responsible, those early cosmic colonisers would have been different than most modern stars and galaxies, which typically don't release high amounts of ionising radiation. Then again, perhaps the event was caused by something else entirely, such as quasars — galaxies with incredibly bright centres powered by huge amounts of material orbiting around supermassive black holes. "It's one of the biggest open questions in observational cosmology," says Stephane de Barros, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Geneva in Switzerland. "We know it happened, but what caused it? These new findings could be a big clue." Looking for light To peer back in time to the era just before the Epoch of Reionisation ended, Spitzer stared at two regions of the sky for more than 200 hours each, allowing the space telescope to collect light that had travelled for more than 13 billion years to reach us. These are some of the longest science observations ever carried out by Spitzer. The study, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, also used archival data from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
09 May 2019 11:38
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/05/new-clues-about-how-ancient-galaxies-lit-up-the-universe/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/05/new-clues-about-how-ancient-galaxies-lit-up-the-universe/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Swinburne joins Australia’s multi-billion dollar smart satellite revolution
Swinburne joins Australia’s multi-billion dollar smart satellite revolution
Swinburne will be a key player in one of the most significant space industry research concentrations in Australia.
Swinburne will be a key player in one of the most significant space industry research concentrations in Australia, as part of a new Cooperative Research Centre for Smart Satellite Technologies and Analytics – The SmartSat CRC. The new CRC is a national research powerhouse involving a $190 million investment in cash and in-kind from 82 research and industry partners. With the addition of $55 million of federal government funding through the Department of Industry, Science and Technology’s successful CRC program, the SmartSat CRC will be the biggest investment in space industry research and development in our history. It is set to help meet the Australian Space Agency’s goal of lifting Australia’s space industry to $12 billion, generating an extra 20,000 jobs by 2030. The bid was led by the University of South Australia (UniSA) in partnership with Nova Systems. Bid leader and SmartSat CEO designate, UniSA’s Professor Andy Koronios, says the CRC will be a game changer for Australia’s space economy. “Globally space technologies and industries are worth more than $500 billion but that success has been underpinned by serious global investment in research,” Professor Koronios says. “Australia has had a strong pedigree and a long history in space with excellent scientific capabilities in instrumentation and communications technologies but until now, the research has not been brought together to build a new industry for Australia, and to capitalise on the exponential growth of the global space economy. “Our goal in bringing together the bid for SmartSat was to show the huge potential and capacity there is in Australia to make an impact globally by developing leapfrogging technologies in areas where we have some of the best expertise on the planet – AI, advanced communications and remote sensing analytics,” Professor Koronios says. “We are excited to bring Swinburne’s world-leading capabilities in astronomical data processing and visualisation to bear on the enormous opportunities the SmartSat CRC will bring to drive the growth of the Australian space industry,” says Swinburne Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development) Professor Aleksandar Subic. “The challenges facing our industry partners within the CRC are of a global scale and we can help solve them with the cutting-edge machine learning and AI techniques developed at Swinburne as part of our internationally recognised Industry 4.0 capability.” The new CRC will be headquartered in South Australia but will establish state nodes to ensure that the whole of the nation is involved in the development of smart satellite technologies which will meet Australia’s needs to secure its defence, telecommunications and monitoring technologies into the future. Other partners in the CRC include Australian-based global companies such as AIRBUS, BAE, MDA, Northrop Grumman, Saab, SciSys, Dassault Systems, and THALES; Australian companies - Nova Systems, OPTUS, SHOAL, and FrontierSI; Australian startups - including X-Lab, Myriota, Fluorosat, Fleet, Innovor, Lyrebird, Delta-V and x-lab; Australian universities and research organisations – UniSA, ANU, UNSW, RMIT, QUT, Curtin, CSIRO, DST, the Universities of Queensland, Adelaide, Western Australia and Western Sydney; and international collaborators, UCL, Catapult, NASA, the European Space Agency and the National University of Singapore among many more.
16 April 2019 08:28
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/04/swinburne-joins-australias-multi-billion-dollar-smart-satellite-revolution/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/04/swinburne-joins-australias-multi-billion-dollar-smart-satellite-revolution/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Industry 4.0,Research
Science
false
-
Observing the invisible: the long journey to the first image of a black hole
Observing the invisible: the long journey to the first image of a black hole
A picture of a black hole has been captured for the first time ever.
The first picture of a supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy shows how we have, in a sense, observed the invisible. The ghostly image is a radio intensity map of the glowing plasma behind, and therefore silhouetting, the black hole’s “event horizon” — the spherical cloak of invisibility around a black hole from which not even light can escape. The radio “photograph” was obtained by an international collaboration involving more than 200 scientists and engineers who linked some of the world’s most capable radio telescopes to effectively see the supermassive black hole in the galaxy known as M87. Read more: First black hole photo confirms Einstein's theory of relativity So how on Earth did we get to this point? From ‘dark stars’ It was the English astronomer John Michell who in 1783 first formulated the idea of “dark stars” so incredibly dense that their gravity would be impossible to run from — even if you happened to be a photon able to move at the speed of light. Things have come a long way since that pioneering insight. In January this year, astronomers published an image of the emission coming from the radio source known as Sagittarius A*, the region immediately surrounding the supermassive black hole at the centre of our galaxy. Impressively, that image had detail on scales down to just nine times the size of the black hole’s event horizon. Now, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has succeeded in resolving the event horizon around the supermassive black hole in M87, a relatively nearby galaxy from which light takes 55 million light years to reach us, due to its distance. Astronomical figures Astronomical objects come with astronomical figures, and this target is no exception. M87’s black hole has a mass that is 6.5 billion times that of our Sun, which itself is one-third of a million times the mass of the Earth. Its event horizon has a radius of roughly 20 billion kilometres, more than three times the distance Pluto is from our Sun. It is, however, far away, and the incredible engineering feat required to see such a target is akin to trying to observe an object 1mm in size from a distance of 13,000km. This Nobel Prize-worthy result is, of course, no accidental discovery, but a measurement built on generations of insight and breakthrough. Predictions without observation In the early 1900s, considerable progress occurred after Albert Einstein developed his theories of relativity. These enduring equations link space and time, and dictate the motion of matter which in turn dictates the gravitational fields and waves within spacetime. Soon after, in 1916, astronomers Karl Schwarzschild and Johannes Droste independently realised that Einstein’s equations gave rise to solutions containing a “mathematical singularity”, an indivisible point of zero volume and infinite mass. Studying the evolution of stars in the 1920s and 1930s, nuclear physicists reached the seemingly unavoidable conclusion that if massive enough, certain stars would end their lives in a catastrophic gravitational collapse resulting in a singularity and the creation of a “frozen star”. This term reflected the bizarre relative nature of time in Einstein’s theory. At the event horizon, the infamous boundary of no return surrounding such a collapsed star, time will appear to freeze for an external observer. While advances in the field of quantum mechanics replaced the notion of a singularity with an equally bewildering but finite quantum dot, the actual surface, and interior, of black holes remains an active area of research today. While our galaxy may contain millions of John Michell’s stellar-mass black holes — of which we know the whereabouts of a dozen or so — their event horizons are too small to observe. For example, if our Sun were to collapse down to a black hole, the radius of its event horizon would be just 3km. But the collision of stellar-mass black holes in other galaxies was famously detected using gravitational waves. Looking for something supermassive The EHT’s targets are therefore related to the supermassive black holes located at the centres of galaxies. The term black hole actually only came into use in the mid- to late 1960s when astronomers began to suspect that truly massive “dark stars” powered the highly active nuclei of certain galaxies. Numerous theories abound for the formation of these particularly massive black holes. Despite the name, black holes are objects, rather than holes in the fabric of spacetime. In 1972, Robert Sanders and Thomas Lowinger calculated that a dense mass equal to about one million solar masses resides at the centre of our galaxy. By 1978, Wallace Sargent and colleagues had determined that a dense mass five billion times the mass of our Sun lies at the centre of the nearby galaxy M87. But these masses, slightly revised since then, might have simply been a dense swarm of planets and dead stars. In 1995, the existence of black holes was confirmed observationally by Makoto Miyoshi and colleagues. Using radio interferometry, they detected a mass at the centre of the galaxy M106, within a volume so small that it could only be, or soon would become, a black hole. Read more: Sizes matters for black hole formation, but there's something missing in the middle ground Today, around 130 such supermassive black holes at the centres of nearby galaxies have had their masses directly measured from the orbital velocities and distances of stars and gas circling the black holes, but not yet on a death spiral into the central gravitational compactor. Despite the increased sample, our Milky Way and M87 still have the largest event horizons as seen from Earth, which is why the international team pursued these two targets. The shadowy silhouette of the black hole in M87 is indeed an astonishing scientific image. While black holes can apparently stop time, it should be acknowledged that the predictive power of science, when coupled with human imagination, ingenuity, and determination, is also a remarkable force of nature. Written by Alister Graham, Professor of Astronomy, Swinburne University of Technology. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
11 April 2019 10:25
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/04/observing-the-invisible-the-long-journey-to-the-first-image-of-a-black-hole/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/04/observing-the-invisible-the-long-journey-to-the-first-image-of-a-black-hole/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Swinburne researcher wins Saleem Shah Early Career Award
Swinburne researcher wins Saleem Shah Early Career Award
Dr Stephane Shepherd has won the 2018 Saleem Shah Early Career Award from the American Psychology Law Society.
Swinburne’s Dr Stephane Shepherd has won the American Psychology Law Society’s 2018 Saleem Shah Early Career Award for his work in identifying factors associated with offending and violence. The Saleem Shah Award recognises early career excellence and contributions to the field of psychology and law with a focus on forensic practice, research or public policy. Dr Shepherd, Senior Lecturer from Swinburne’s Centre for Forensic Behavioural Science (CFBS), says he is honoured to have won for a variety of reasons. “First, to be recognised internationally by my peers in the field, second, to know that my work is having a global impact, and third to obtain an award named after Dr Saleem Shah who was a highly respected pioneer of law and mental health,” he says. Identifying risks associated with violence Dr Shepherd’s research identifies the risk and protective factors that are associated with offending and violence. “I am interested in how these factors may differ due to an individual’s socio-cultural context,” he says. “People who are at risk for criminal behaviour and violence often live in environments where they are less likely to have a strong support network, positive role models, opportunities for employment, encouragement to succeed at school and services to address complex needs.” Dr Shepherd says that these environments may be connected to post-migration re-settlement challenges or a flow-on from historical circumstances. “It is important that people who have contact with the justice system have access to mental health and rehabilitation services that meet their personal and cultural needs in order to help them successfully re-integrate back into their communities.” His research informs efforts to prevent crime and improve the capacity of justice professionals to provide effective care for minority clients. Swinburne history and support Dr Shepherd credits Swinburne and the support of CFBS Director Professor James Ogloff for helping achieve this award. “Professor James Ogloff, in particular, has been especially influential on my career. Swinburne has also provided me with support during several visiting scholar positions at overseas based universities over the past few years which has enabled me to develop an international profile,” he says. Professor Ogloff was the first recipient of the Saleem Shah Early Career award in 1995 and praises Dr Shepherd for his achievement. “Many previous award recipients have gone onto forge successful careers and have made significant impacts on the field. This is a great accomplishment for Stephane, recognising the early impact of his work,” says Professor Ogloff. Dr Shepherd hopes the recognition from winning the award will give him greater opportunities for collaboration. “The recognition from receiving this award allows for greater exposure of my work and increases the potential for collaboration with international researchers, government agencies and community organisations.”
01 April 2019 16:24
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/04/swinburne-researcher-wins-saleem-shah-early-career-award/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/04/swinburne-researcher-wins-saleem-shah-early-career-award/
Astronomy
false
-
Swinburne startups make their mark in India
Swinburne startups make their mark in India
Startups from Swinburne’s Innovation Precinct travelled to India’s top engineering institute to transform their ideas into business ventures.
Three startup teams from Swinburne’s Innovation Precinct travelled to India’s top engineering institute to participate in an incubator program to take their ideas from the laboratory to the marketplace. Equipping entrepreneurs I-NCUBATE is an intensive program at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The program helps researchers and entrepreneurs validate whether their technological ideas could become scalable and sustainable businesses. In the program, participants interact with potential customers, produce a product that can be tested in the marketplace, and receive mentoring to formulate a business model. Swinburne startups The Swinburne startups that took part cover a diverse range of ideas and industries: Cathease Catheter Forceps: Dr Andrew Dyall, an emergency medicine physician and Swinburne PhD student, has designed forceps to reduce infection caused when inserting urinary catheters. Low-cost, environmentally-friendly apartments: Swinburne graduate Andrew Steed wants to use prefabricated Hempcrete panels to build dwellings that can be constructed in a fraction of the time of typical buildings. Bond coating for turbine engines: Swinburne researcher Andrew Ang and PhD student Ashok Meghwal are developing a new thermal coating to improve turbine engine performance in jet engines. Dr Andrew Dyall says the I-NCUBATE program helped him to understand the entrepreneurial spirit in India and make valuable connections. “I got a real feel for the kinds of products that are useful to the Indian market in a relatively low-resource environment, and I spoke with a number of doctors about setting up a trial. My key takeaways are to be open, curious and really listen to potential customers,” he says. Product Design Engineering graduate Andrew Steed, says the program equipped him with the skills to progress his idea and start conducting interviews with potential customers. “The biggest reason startups fail is because they don’t listen to their customers and understand their needs,” says Andrew. “The program gave me a better understanding of what’s next. The program didn’t give me the answers – it gave me the questions to ask.” For PhD student Ashok Meghwal, the project management and customer liaison skills he learnt will enable him to progress his team’s idea into domestic and international markets. “I’m from a technology background so I’ve never learnt much about managing a project and interacting with customers – that was the most important thing for me. We need to learn what the customer wants and needs and model our product in that way,” he says. Research, innovation and commercialisation Executive Director of Swinburne's Innovation Precinct Dr John Morrison travelled to India with the teams and believes the program fosters an entrepreneurial mind-set. “It’s an essential pit-stop on the journey of transforming an idea into something bigger. India is a fascinating, highly-segmented market, and it has been a huge learning experience for the teams,” says Dr Morrison. Last year Swinburne and IIT Madras established a jointly funded research centre to explore and link the research, innovation and commercialisation capabilities of the two institutions. Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development) Professor Aleksandar Subic says the partnership with IIT Madras enlarges Swinburne’s international research innovation and commercialisation ecosystem. “We want to produce research with impact and be an innovative enterprise. Joint research centres and global partnerships enable Swinburne to do that. “This partnership is helping us to transform industry and positively impact lives and communities across the world. IIT Madras brings a scale to projects that is impossible in Australia,” says Professor Subic.
22 March 2019 10:54
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/03/swinburne-startups-make-their-mark-in-india/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/03/swinburne-startups-make-their-mark-in-india/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Research,Innovation Precinct
Engineering,Technology,University
false
-
Finding a home in Australia
Finding a home in Australia
Compelling accounts of refugee and migrant settlements in Australia - Chelsea Tial
When Chelsea was three years old, her mother, a teacher, was transferred from their town to a village some kilometres away. Chelsea moved with her while her father remained in the town for work purposes. For the next few years, Chelsea lived in the village with her mother and the three younger brothers. Similar to the others around them, their lives were a struggle due to the family’s low income and the restrictions imposed on them. Life for the Tials was further disrupted when Chelsea was in Grade 2 or 3. ‘My father decided to escape from Myanmar and go to Malaysia as an illegal immigrant. He did this both for safety and to help our family financially. Escaping to Malaysia, generally to the Kuala Lumpur area, is a well-trod but risky path for Chin people. Their new lives usually turn out little better than the ones they have left. The refuge and protection they seek does not exist. As they lack legal status, they are open to abuse of rights, oppressive treatment by employers and authorities, and poor levels of housing, education and medical care. Their hope is for eventual recognition as refugees by the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees), which makes them eligible for resettlement in a third country. This is what happened to Chelsea’s father, who came to Australia, alone, in 2008. Reunion with his family finally took place in 2013, in Melbourne. Life in Chin State Even with the intermittent financial assistance of her husband in Malaysia when he was able to provide it, Chelsea’s mother found it very hard to provide for her children. ‘On top of that,’ says Chelsea, ‘it was quite difficult to communicate with Dad once he had left. Determined that her daughter would nonetheless receive a good education, Chelsea’s mother sent her to board with her paternal aunt and her family who lived in the town. Despite her new school being better than the one in the village, ‘learning in the classroom was not enough, so my mum had to find the money for extra tuition fees outside class. Luckily, I was a good student. I loved to study: it was my first priority and interest, whatever else was going on, and so I did it well.’ Change of plan Chelsea remained within her aunt’s household until she had completed Matriculation (Year 12), when she left in order to undertake a Bachelor of Science at a university located just over the border from Chin State. Her aim was to become a teacher. ‘I graduated but a further qualification was required for teaching so I then attended a college to do a Diploma in Teacher Education Competency.’ It was in 2012, while she was at the college, that Chelsea and her family received a major but welcome shock: an email arrived from her father in Melbourne, telling them that he had been living there with his cousin independently for some years. Further, now that he’d been able to make contact, he would start the process of applying for his wife and children to join him in Australia. Chelsea recalls that, ‘I got my Diploma of Teacher Education Competency and had just commenced work as a government primary school teacher when the papers arrived for our migration from Myanmar. Along with my mother and my brothers I arrived here in September 2013.’ Reunion at last In Melbourne the family had an ‘amazing reunion’. It was also tinged with sadness – their father was chronically unwell. Shortly after arrival Chelsea enrolled in the Migrant English course at Swinburne, where she was initially placed in Level 2 but very soon moved to Level 3. As she recalls it, ‘Swinburne is a soft landing place and a welcome home for people like us, newly arrived migrants who are nervous all the time’. She found the teachers ‘talented mentors, very honest and caring. They are amazing.’ The helpfulness of a Swinburne counsellor whom Chelsea consulted over her considerable concerns in relation to future study and employment pathways was also greatly appreciated. Chelsea progressed to higher English studies at the university, with the goal in mind of becoming an Emergency Department nurse. To this end she did a short course at Swinburne in order to become a Patient Services Assistant, which gave her the basic skills to commence employment in her chosen field. She then undertook a Diploma of Nursing, graduating in 2017, while working as an employee at an Eastern Health hospital. Later this year, she intends to commence a Bachelor of Nursing. ‘Australia is my favourite country. I feel now like it’s my home, my actual home.’ This story is available in full in the publication ‘Finding our Place’ by Serena Seah, Susan Powell and Susan Bradley and is available through Swinburne Commons.
18 March 2019 11:42
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/03/finding-a-home-in-australia/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2019/03/finding-a-home-in-australia/
Astronomy
Education,Student News
false
-
Fossil from the Big Bang discovered with giant telescope
Fossil from the Big Bang discovered with giant telescope
Swinburne astronomers have led the discovery of a rare fossil which offers new information about the Big Bang.
A relic cloud of gas, orphaned after the Big Bang, has been discovered in the distant universe by astronomers using the world’s most powerful optical telescope. The discovery of such a rare fossil, led by PhD student Fred Robert and Professor Michael Murphy of Swinburne University of Technology, offers new information about how the first galaxies in the universe formed. “Everywhere we look, the gas in the universe is polluted by waste heavy elements from exploding stars,” says Mr Robert. “But this particular cloud seems pristine, unpolluted by stars even 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. “If it has any heavy elements at all, it must be less than 1/10,000th of the proportion we see in our Sun. This is extremely low – the most compelling explanation is that it’s a true relic of the Big Bang.” The Swinburne researchers used the twin 10-metre telescopes of the W. M. Keck Observatory in Hawai'i to observe the spectrum of a quasar behind the gas cloud. The quasar – the bright glow of material falling into a supermassive black hole – provides a light source against which the spectral shadows of the hydrogen in the gas cloud can be seen. “We targeted quasars where previous researchers had only seen shadows from hydrogen and not from heavy elements in lower-quality spectra,” says Mr Robert. “This allowed us to discover such a rare fossil quickly with the precious time on the Keck telescope.” Professor Murphy says that it is now possible to survey for these fossil relics of the Big Bang. “That will tell us exactly how rare they are and help us understand how some gas formed stars and galaxies in the early universe, and why some didn’t.” Co-authors of the research, Professor John O’Meara, formerly of St. Michael’s College, and Professor Michele Fumagalli, Durham University, discovered the only two other fossil clouds known in 2011. “Those were serendipitous discoveries, and we thought they were the tip of the iceberg. But no-one has discovered anything similar – they are clearly very rare and difficult to see. Now it’s fantastic to finally discover one systematically,” says Professor O’Meara. The paper, “Exploring the origins of a new, apparently metal-free gas cloud at z = 4.4,” is to be published by Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The preprint is available at http://arxiv.org/abs/1812.05098. The research was funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant and Professor Fumagalli's contribution was partially funded by a European Research Council grant. Professor O’Meara is now Chief Scientist at the W. M. Keck Observatory.
18 December 2018 08:22
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/12/fossil-from-the-big-bang-discovered-with-giant-telescope/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/12/fossil-from-the-big-bang-discovered-with-giant-telescope/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Eyes on the sky
Eyes on the sky
What do star-gazing and big data have to do with blinding eye disease?
Scientists at the Centre for Eye Research Australia (CERA) are teaming up with Swinburne astrophysicists to better understand the mathematics behind diagnosing eye diseases. The team, led by ophthalmologist Dr Peter van Wijngaarden from CERA and Associate Professor Christopher Fluke from Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, will work together to apply the same big data analysis used by astronomers in their study of the Universe, to the field of ophthalmology. CERA researchers want to use these principles to improve their understanding of the data generated with a new type of spectral imaging camera, which provides unique insights into diseases of the eye and brain including Alzheimer’s disease. “We hope to learn from the Swinburne team how to ‘crunch the numbers’ more effectively, so we can generate clinically relevant information to allow faster and earlier diagnosis of ageing eye diseases in the future,” says Dr Xavier Hadoux, postdoctoral research fellow at CERA. “Astronomy is a great training ground for tackling big data challenges,” says Swinburne astronomer Dr Edward Taylor, who is also involved in the project. “The hyperspectral camera works on a very similar principle to instruments that astronomers use to study how distant galaxies work. “We are excited by the opportunities to work with CERA on transferring our approaches to a new discipline, and we expect to learn new ways of studying our data in return.” The collaboration will be formalised thanks to a generous donation from Australian entrepreneur Dr Steven Frisken, CEO of ophthalmic tech company Cylite. He was one of four people jointly awarded the Prime Minister’s Prize for Innovation. Dr Frisken and his colleague Dr Simon Poole received the prize for their work to transform optical telecommunication networks by developing the optical switching technologies that are needed for efficiently connecting the global internet. “It is truly inspiring to me that the spectrum of light – whose different colours are central to inter-connecting us all through a web of optical fibres across the globe – also brings information to us about farthest galaxies or reveals hidden terrestrial information through satellite imagery,” Dr Frisken says. “These same photons and colours can also be used to probe the tiniest structures of the eye. I’m thrilled to be helping to enable this this multi-disciplinary research, which leverages discoveries and world-best expertise from these apparently disparate fields. The outcomes could be revolutionary in providing a window to non-invasive screening and support of therapies for many diseases of our ageing population.”
18 October 2018 11:44
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/10/eyes-on-the-sky/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/10/eyes-on-the-sky/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research,Digital Research Innovation Capability Platform (DRICP)
Science,Technology
true
-
More ‘bright’ fast radio bursts revealed, but where do they all come from?
More ‘bright’ fast radio bursts revealed, but where do they all come from?
Australian researchers have found 20 more bursts, averaging one for every 14 days of observing.
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are one of the great astrophysical mysteries. They are brief, bright flashes of radio waves that last a few milliseconds. Despite happening frequently – thousands occur over the entire sky every day – only a couple dozen have ever been seen. But we’ve found 20 more bursts, averaging one for every 14 days of observing, with the results published in Nature today. There are two main reasons why astronomers like me are really excited by FRBs. First, they represent a new, very unusual, unexpected phenomenon. The bursts come from other galaxies, meaning incredible amounts of energy are required to produce them – some bursts contain more energy than our Sun produces in decades. Second, FRBs have the potential to be a new tool that we can use to understand the structure of matter in the universe. The key property of the bursts that could turn them into a valuable tool is their dispersion: shorter (bluer) wavelength radio waves arrive at the telescope before the longer (redder) ones. This dispersion is the result the radio waves passing through hot gas (plasma), which slows down the radio waves by an amount that depends on the wavelength. The amount of dispersion tells us how much matter the bursts have travelled through, and until now it has been unclear where that matter is. An FRB’s journey to Earth. A fast radio burst leaves a distant galaxy (see the video above), travelling to Earth over billions of years and occasionally passing through clouds of gas in its path. Each time a cloud of gas is encountered, the different wavelengths that make up a burst are slowed by different amounts. Timing the arrival of the different wavelengths at a radio telescope tells us how much material the burst has travelled through on its way to Earth and allows astronomers to to detect “missing” matter located in the space between galaxies. Location, location, location There are two places where this matter could be. It could be in the FRB host galaxy, in this case FRBs would be coming from relatively close galaxies. The other, exciting possibility is that the dispersion is the result of matter in between galaxies. This matter, referred to as the cosmic web, is nearly impossible to study any other way. Cosmic web simulation. Galaxies and clusters of galaxies reside on filaments, which are separated by almost empty regions called voids. Surrounding the filaments is diffuse gas that can be probed by fast radio bursts. NASA, ESA, and E Hallman (University of Colorado, Boulder) Figuring out where it resides is another outstanding problem in astronomy. In this case, the FRBs would be coming from more distant objects. Our collaboration decided the first step to solve the FRB mystery was to find more of them, and find them quickly. To do this we decided to go wide and simultaneously stare at as much sky as possible. We used the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), a radio telescope in regional Western Australia that consists of 36, 12-metre dish antennas. Each antenna is equipped with phased array feeds – radio cameras that would enable searches 36 times wider than could be seen with older technology. We further widened the searches by pointing the antennas in different directions like a fly’s eye. While these searches would be less sensitive than those that found bursts previously, mostly with the 64-metre Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales, we were relatively confident bright ones existed in sufficient numbers that we should find more. To conduct the searches, we used six to nine of the ASKAP antennas, while the rest were used for other observing projects. Our first discovery came after just over three days of observing, as mentioned earlier in The Conversation. It turns out that we were a bit lucky to find the first one as soon as we did. I was responsible for scheduling the observing, which could run 24/7, and searching the data. It was an exciting time, and I was very happy to be on the front line and be the first one to spot a new burst. Over the course of the next year, we found the 19 additional bursts reported. The ASKAP FRB sample. For each burst, the top panels show what the FRB signal looks like when averaged over all frequencies. The bottom panels show how the brightness of the burst changes with frequency. The bursts are vertical because they have been corrected for dispersion. Ryan Shannon and the CRAFT collaboration Not the usual FRB As the burst count started to rise, we noticed differences with the previously detected ones. The ASKAP bursts have less dispersion than the ones found at Parkes. This, combined with the fact that the ASKAP bursts are much brighter, indicates that there is a correlation between burst brightness and dispersion. If all the dispersion was coming from within host galaxies, this would not be the case. We were now able to confidently say that the bursts are experiencing the effects of the diffuse matter in the cosmic web. It also says that bursts are coming from vast distances – from galaxies half way across the universe. A second key result of our survey is that none of the bursts repeated. As part of our searches, we observed the same regions of sky almost daily, and in total we had spent 12,000 hours (500 days) staring at the positions where we found FRBs. This makes the bursts different than the best studied, known as FRB 121102 – aptly called “the repeater” – from which hundreds of pulses have been detected. Are there two classes of FRBs? It can be scientifically fraught to subdivide phenomena such as FRBs into sub-classes when so few are known. But the differences between the repeater and the rest of the FRBs are starting to become too big to ignore. On closer inspection The next step for our project is to commission a mode for ASKAP that can be used to localise bursts. Instead of using the fly’s eye approach, we’ll point all of the antennas in the same direction, search for bursts in real time, and then make an image of the sky for the millisecond the FRB emission was passing by Earth. We’ll be able tie bursts to host galaxies and accurately measure their distances. By combining the distances with the dispersions we’ll be able to start making a 3D map of the cosmic web. Ryan Shannon, Jean-Pierre Macquart and Keith Bannister describe their work on fast radio bursts (FRBs) and the telescope used for their discovery. Credit: CSIRO. Written by Ryan Shannon, Postdoctoral fellow, Swinburne University of Technology, Swinburne University of Technology. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
11 October 2018 17:12
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/10/more-bright-fast-radio-bursts-revealed-but-where-do-they-all-come-from/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/10/more-bright-fast-radio-bursts-revealed-but-where-do-they-all-come-from/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research
Science
false
-
Australian scientists double known number of mysterious fast radio bursts
Australian scientists double known number of mysterious fast radio bursts
Australian telescope almost doubles the known number of fast radio bursts.
Australian researchers using a CSIRO radio telescope in Western Australia have nearly doubled the known number of ‘fast radio bursts’ – powerful flashes of radio waves from deep space. The team’s discoveries include the closest and brightest fast radio bursts ever detected. Their findings have been reported in the journal Nature. Fast radio bursts come from all over the sky and last for just milliseconds. Scientists don’t know what causes them but it must involve incredible energy—equivalent to the amount released by the Sun in 80 years. “We’ve found 20 fast radio bursts in a year, almost doubling the number detected worldwide since they were discovered in 2007,” says lead author Dr Ryan Shannon, from Swinburne University of Technology and the OzGrav ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery. “Using the new technology of the Australia Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), we’ve also proved that fast radio bursts are coming from the other side of the Universe rather than from our own galactic neighbourhood.” Co-author Dr Jean-Pierre Macquart, from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), said bursts travel for billions of years and occasionally pass through clouds of gas. “Each time this happens, the different wavelengths that make up a burst are slowed by different amounts,” he says. “Eventually, the burst reaches Earth with its spread of wavelengths arriving at the telescope at slightly different times, like swimmers at a finish line. “Timing the arrival of the different wavelengths tells us how much material the burst has travelled through on its journey. “And because we’ve shown that fast radio bursts come from far away, we can use them to detect all the missing matter located in the space between galaxies – which is a really exciting discovery.”
11 October 2018 06:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/10/australian-scientists-double-known-number-of-mysterious-fast-radio-bursts/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/10/australian-scientists-double-known-number-of-mysterious-fast-radio-bursts/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research
true
-
Neutron star merger launched superfast ‘jet’ of materials
Neutron star merger launched superfast ‘jet’ of materials
Radio observations trace ‘jet’ of particles from neutron star merger moving at almost the speed of light.
Precise tracking of the radio glow generated by the merger of a pair of neutron stars in a distant galaxy has shown that the cataclysmic event launched a narrow jet of particles moving at almost the speed of light. This finding strengthens the connection between neutron star mergers and the phenomenal explosions known as gamma-ray bursts. The neutron star merger, known as GW170817, occurred 130 million light-years from Earth and sent a burst of both gravitational and electromagnetic waves rippling through space that reached the Earth one year ago. In the aftermath of the violent collision, GW170817 was observed worldwide by telescopes across the electromagnetic spectrum. Interaction with surroundings By tracking changes in the optical, radio, and X-ray emission of the afterglow, scientists including Swinburne's Dr Adam Deller, from the OzGrav ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, were able to study how the material flung out during the merger interacted with its surroundings. Months after the merger one crucial question remained: had the colliding neutron stars launched a powerful, narrow ‘jet’ of very fast moving material that was able to punch clear of the rest of the merger debris? Such jets are required in order to produce the type of gamma-ray bursts that had been predicted theoretically to accompany the merger of neutron stars. The answer came when an international team tapped the collective might of three separate radio facilities - the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), the Karl G Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), and the Robert C Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT). The result was the sharpest ever images of the radio afterglow. Over the course of 150 days, the position of the radio emission shifted at a rate that appeared to exceed light speed! "We measured an apparent motion that is four times faster than light,” says Dr Kunal Mooley of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Caltech. “That illusion, called superluminal motion, results when the jet is pointed nearly toward Earth and the material in the jet is moving close to the speed of light.” Dr Deller says: "Based on our analysis, this jet most likely is very narrow, at most five degrees wide, and was pointed only 20 degrees away from the Earth's direction. To give this apparently 'superluminal' sideways motion, the material in the jet also has to be blasting outwards at over 97 per cent of the speed of light." The scenario that emerged is that the initial merger of the two superdense neutron stars caused an explosion that propelled a spherical shell of debris outward. The neutron stars collapsed into a black hole whose powerful gravity began pulling material toward it. That material formed a rapidly-spinning disk that generated a pair of jets moving outward from its poles. Observational data indicated that a jet had interacted with the debris, forming a broad ‘cocoon’ of material expanding outward. Before the high-resolution radio images were made, however, it was not clear whether the observed radio emission came from this slow-moving cocoon, or a fast jet that had successfully broken clear. "Our interpretation is that the cocoon dominated the radio emission until about 60 days after the merger, and at later times the emission was jet-dominated," says Ore Gottlieb, a lead theorist on the study, and PhD candidate at Tel Aviv University. Connecting star mergers and gamma-ray bursts The scientists say the detection of a fast-moving jet in GW170817 greatly strengthens the connection between neutron star mergers and short-duration gamma-ray bursts. They add that such narrow jets need to be pointed relatively closely toward the Earth for the gamma ray burst to be detected. "Our study demonstrates that combining observations from the VLBA, the VLA and the GBT is a powerful means of studying the jets and physics associated with gravitational wave events," Dr Mooley says. The findings are reported in the 5 September online version of the journal Nature.
06 September 2018 02:15
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/09/neutron-star-merger-launched-superfast-jet-of-materials/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/09/neutron-star-merger-launched-superfast-jet-of-materials/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research
Science
false
-
Swinburne’s Alan Duffy wins Eureka Prize for promoting science
Swinburne’s Alan Duffy wins Eureka Prize for promoting science
Associate Professor Alan Duffy has been recognised for his contribution to science communication with a Eureka Prize.
Swinburne Associate Professor Alan Duffy has been recognised for his contribution to science communication with a Eureka Prize. He has been awarded the Celestino Eureka Prize for Promoting Understanding of Science. The award is given to a scientist who has shared their expertise with a broad audience - informing, enthusing and engaging the public. Associate Professor Duffy says it is critical for Australia’s future that science is promoted and explained. “Australia is facing many challenges that require more science not less, which is why it’s so critical to promote and explain science to ensure an informed electorate can make the right choices for our future,” he says. “It’s a great honour to be recognised for helping to inform the public, but I can only do this thanks to the ongoing support of Swinburne and the Royal Institution of Australia. “I’m proud of these two organisations, as well as the award sponsor Celestino, for their drive in promoting science nationally and beyond.” This week in space on @BreakfastNews its waterworlds (yes Kevin Costner was right!), aboriginal astronomy and water on the moon https://t.co/PDkXyTqI5d — Alan Duffy (@astroduff) August 27, 2018 To date, Associate Professor Duffy has made more than 100 appearances on popular television shows, explaining everything from gravitational waves and ice ages to the distant Universe. He is also the Lead Scientist of the Royal Institution of Australia, home of Australia’s Science Channel. Mind = blown. It took some serious trickery with the studio cameras, but @astroduff explains what parallax is and how it proves the universe is expanding even more rapidly than we thought pic.twitter.com/xp3TSeRvJg — News Breakfast (@BreakfastNews) February 27, 2018 His research uses supercomputers as a virtual laboratory, watching as galaxies like our own Milky Way form from basic ingredients like atoms, using simple ‘recipes’ (or laws) like gravity. Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development) Professor Aleksandar Subic congratulated Associate Professor Duffy on his win and praised him on the work he does to promote science. “Alan has done wonderful work in promoting and reinforcing the excellence and impact of science. I am proud to see a Swinburne academic recognised for his outstanding contributions on the national stage.”
30 August 2018 12:56
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/08/swinburnes-alan-duffy-wins-eureka-prize-for-promoting-science/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/08/swinburnes-alan-duffy-wins-eureka-prize-for-promoting-science/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
-
Professor Karl Glazebrook named ARC Laureate Fellow
Professor Karl Glazebrook named ARC Laureate Fellow
Distinguished Professor Karl Glazebrook has been named Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow.
Director of the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Distinguished Professor Karl Glazebrook FAA, has been awarded an Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellowship. Professor Glazebrook’s $2.8 million fellowship will transform our understanding of the early Universe using the new James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to observe galaxy formation. The fellowship was announced yesterday by Minister for Education Simon Birmingham. Professor Glazebrook is a world leader in the field of observational cosmology and galaxy evolution and joins Professor Matthew Bailes as one of two ARC Laureate Fellows at Swinburne. Swinburne is the only university in Australia to boast two Australian Laureate Fellows in astronomy at the same time and one of only eight universities in Australia to win this prestigious award in this round. “I was thrilled to receive this news, this is a project I am extremely passionate about and support at this level will allow Australian astronomers to make astounding advances,” Professor Glazebrook says. “I have been overwhelmed by the messages of support and congratulations from my friends and colleagues around Swinburne, and around the country.” Professor Glazebrook says we are entering the golden age of astronomical data. “New ground based optical and radio telescopes will soon be producing Petabytes of imaging and millions of spectra every year. “This fellowship will transform our understanding of the early Universe using the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, the giant 6.5 metre James Webb Space Telescope, which will see things no telescope has seen before,” Professor Glazebrook says. Artist’s impression of the James Webb Space Telescope. Credit: NASA “Launching in early 2021, the JWST will observe the dawn of galaxy formation 13 billion years ago, a time that is currently shrouded in obscurity. By viewing the Universe at infrared wavelengths it will show us things never before seen by any other telescope. “The fellowship will allow us to build a JWST Discovery Centre here at Swinburne and get a first look at the surprises in the early Universe to be uncovered.” Professor Glazebrook will develop astronomical data analysis tools built on new methodologies that will enable new discoveries from future telescopes, and train young researchers in these techniques. New ARC Training Centre Minister Birmingham also announced the new ARC Training Centre in Surface Engineering for Advanced Materials (SEAM), led by Swinburne Distinguished Professor Chris Berndt, to be awarded $6,654,410 over five years. “This fantastic achievement builds on our ARC Training Centre in Biodevices, launched in 2015, and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, launched in 2017,” says Swinburne Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development) Professor Aleksandar Subic. “The ARC funding demonstrates our growing capacity and reputation for research excellence, nurtured through our engagement with industry, business and society.”
03 August 2018 10:03
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/08/professor-karl-glazebrook-named-arc-laureate-fellow/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/08/professor-karl-glazebrook-named-arc-laureate-fellow/
Astronomy
Award Winners,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research,International
Technology
true
-
Swinburne astronomer helps test Einstein’s theory of general relativity
Swinburne astronomer helps test Einstein’s theory of general relativity
A Swinburne researcher has assisted in testing Einstein’s strong equivalence principle.
A Swinburne researcher has helped test Einstein’s theory of general relativity and shown it still can’t be proven wrong, using the complicated orbital dance of three compact stars. Einstein’s strong equivalence principle says all objects should fall the same way in a gravitational field, regardless of their composition or how dense they are. The triple stellar system was discovered in 2012 and was determined to be the perfect system to test the theory due to the substantial differences in the make-up of the three stars. Swinburne’s Dr Adam Deller was part of a team of nine astronomers in this worldwide research collaboration. After five years of intensive observation of the system, the team was able to conclude that the theory of general relativity is still relevant, as seen in the research paper published in the prestigious international science journal, Nature. “This particular system consists of one ultra-dense neutron star and two less-dense white dwarf stars, which makes these stars the dream team for testing relativity,” Dr Deller says. The pulsar and the inner white dwarf are in a 1.6-day orbit. This pair is in a 327-day orbit with the outer white dwarf, much further away. | Credit: The SKA Organisation. Making the whole test possible was the fact that the neutron star can be observed as a radio pulsar, meaning the bright beam of electromagnetic radiation that it emits can be detected from Earth. “The radio pulsar star acts like a clock in the sky. It spins in a very predictable way and each time it sweeps past the Earth we see a little blip of radio emission, which we can treat like the ticks of a clock.” According to Dr Anne Archibald, the principal author of the paper from the University of Amsterdam and the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, the researchers can account for every single pulse of the neutron star since they began the observations. “We can tell its location to within a few hundred metres. That is a really precise track of where the neutron star has been and where it is going,” Dr Archibald says. This precise measurement of the pulsar’s location is the tool used to test the strong equivalence principle. “By tracking the motion of the pulsar via pulsar timing, we can tell whether it, and its nearby less dense companion, are both falling towards the third and more distant star in the same way as general relativity predicts, and we couldn’t detect any difference,” Dr Deller says. Implications of these findings Since Einstein came up with the theory of general relativity, scientists have tried to come up with a better, alternative explanation for how gravity works. A whole range of these competing theories have been severely constrained by the findings of this test. “The theory of general relativity has fixed parameters that can’t be changed, whereas other theories of gravity have parameters whose values can change to keep them consistent with this result,’ Dr Deller says. “The results of this research shrink the amount of wiggle room available to alternative theories of gravity. “We still don’t know if general relativity is correct, but now we know that the right gravitational theory must look even more similar to general relativity that we previously thought.” Dr Deller is a Senior Lecturer and ARC Future Fellow in Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing and an Associate Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence in Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav). Read the full research paper, ‘Universality of free fall shown by orbital motion of a pulsar in a stellar triple system’, in Nature.
05 July 2018 02:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/07/swinburne-astronomer-helps-test-einsteins-theory-of-general-relativity/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/07/swinburne-astronomer-helps-test-einsteins-theory-of-general-relativity/
Astronomy
Science
false
-
ABC Stargazing Live awarded David Allen Prize
ABC Stargazing Live awarded David Allen Prize
The Astronomical Society of Australia awarded the prize during its Annual Scientific Meeting hosted at Swinburne.
The ABC’s Stargazing Live 2017 program has been awarded the 2018 David Allen Prize for exceptional achievement in astronomy communication from the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA). The ASA awarded this prestigious prize during its Annual Scientific Meeting hosted by Swinburne University of Technology. The prize is awarded to individuals, groups or organisations that engage a broad audience in astronomy in a way that entertains, informs and maintains scientific integrity. Hosted by Professor Brian Cox and Julia Zemiro, Stargazing Live accurately and interestingly conveyed science concepts, instilling many with a new-found interest in astronomy. Swinburne Associate Professor Alan Duffy, who featured in the 2018 program, says it was able to succinctly communicate complex ideas and engage an audience of new and aspiring astronomers. “In 2017, tens of thousands of stargazers logged on to the show online and helped analyse the data that identified a new solar system. The greatest outcome from Stargazing Live will be in the years to come as thousands of new scientists have been inspired by this incredible effort,” Associate Professor Duffy says. ASA President Professor Stuart Wyithe says this show will foster Australia’s leadership in astronomy on the international stage. “Communicating astronomical discoveries and achievements to the broadest possible audience is really valuable to the professional astronomical community. It inspires the general public and helps to attract students to the field,” Professor Wyithe says. ABC’s Head of Factual Steve Bibb, who commissioned the series, says it is a great honour for the ABC to receive this prestigious award from the ASA. “This much-appreciated award acknowledges the ABC’s commitment to high-quality and distinctive content and pays tribute to the many people who worked very hard behind the scenes to bring astronomy to so many Australians,” Mr Bibb says. The ASA awards several prizes during their Annual Scientific Meeting. The winners of the 2018 awards are: Bok Prize for outstanding research in astronomy by an Honours or eligible Masters Student, awarded to Matthew Keen from the University of Sydney for his work in asteroseismology or starquakes. Charlene Heisler Prize for the most outstanding PhD thesis in astronomy, awarded to Dr Anish Amarsi from the Australian National University for his work in stellar spectroscopy and modelling the chemical make-up of low-temperature stars. Louise Webster Prize for outstanding research by a scientist early in their post-doctoral career, awarded to Dr Emily Wisnioski from the Australian National University for her work in galaxy evolution and as the scientific lead of the impressive KMOS (K-band Multi-Object Spectrograph) 3D survey using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope. Anne Green Prize for a significant advance or accomplishment by a mid-career scientist, awarded to Dr Barbara Catinella from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research for her achievements as an internationally recognised radio astronomer who has made unique contributions to the studies of cold gas and star-formation in galaxies. Berenice and Arthur Page Medal for excellence in amateur astronomy, awarded to Professor David Moriarty (a retired biochemist from the University of Queensland) for his work in amateur astronomy on eclipsing binary stars.
29 June 2018 07:33
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/06/abc-stargazing-live-awarded-david-allen-prize/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/06/abc-stargazing-live-awarded-david-allen-prize/
Astronomy
Science
false
-
Swinburne hosts Astronomical Society of Australia conference
Swinburne hosts Astronomical Society of Australia conference
The ASA conference is the largest national astronomy meeting in Australia.
Swinburne University of Technology will host the Annual Scientific Meeting (ASM) of the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA) for 2018 at its Hawthorn campus from 25 – 29 June. The ASM is the largest national astronomy meeting in Australia and a rare chance for hundreds of astronomers to meet, share their latest research and forge new collaborations. Scientists from all over Australia will meet at Swinburne to speak on a range of topics, including galactic astronomy, high energy astrophysics, big data and computing, extragalactic astronomy, cosmology and the future of Australian optical astronomy. Swinburne’s Associate Professor Alan Duffy says one of the meeting themes will focus on the challenges of astronomy in the petascale data era, addressing the continuing rise of machine learning in analysis of astronomical big data. “In the era of high speed survey telescopes we now have datasets too large and too complex to explore to their fullest without applying the latest artificial intelligence techniques,” Associate Professor Duffy says. “I am excited to see the research from the dozens of new researchers involved in Australia’s latest ARC Centres of Excellence in All Sky Astrophysics in 3D (ASTRO3D) and Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) who will drive Australian findings to an international level.” Swinburne’s astronomy research Associate Professor Duffy will present research on the economics of galaxies’ growth, which shows that in the first galaxies, the demand for gas to form into stars could not keep pace with the rate of infalling gas. “The internal gas consumption can’t increase fast enough as supply overwhelms demand, in economics terms the galaxy is in ‘recession’. It’s only when the Universe expands over billions of years do the rates of material falling into these growing galaxies slow enough to allow the galaxy to find that balance we see today,” Associate Professor Duffy says. New research from Swinburne will also be discussed, such as Igor Andreoni’s talk on ‘new frontiers in optical fast-transient discovery’, Leonie Chevalier’s discussion of ‘the globular cluster system of NGC 4526’ and Michelle Cluver’s paper on ‘Cool and Close Encounters of the HI Kind’. The ASA was formed in 1966 to provide a community forum for Australian astronomers.
25 June 2018 14:22
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/06/swinburne-hosts-astronomical-society-of-australia-conference/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/06/swinburne-hosts-astronomical-society-of-australia-conference/
Astronomy
Science
false
-
Victoria ideal home for new space agency
Victoria ideal home for new space agency
Swinburne hosts launch for the Victorian Government's bid to secure Australia’s space agency.
The Victorian Government has launched a new campaign at Swinburne University of Technology to make Victoria the home of the new Australian Space Agency. Minister for Industry and Employment Ben Carroll joined Victorian Lead Scientist Dr Amanda Caples and Associate Professor Alan Duffy at Swinburne to promote Victoria’s aerospace capabilities. Swinburne’s Associate Professor Alan Duffy says data science, artificial intelligence research and development collaborations showed the local industry’s strength. "Our state is ready to support the growth of the Australian space industry that operates on a global scale and beyond," says Associate Professor Alan Duffy. The launch took place at Swinburne’s world-class Eric Ormond Baker Charitable Fund Remote Observing Facility, which uniquely enables researchers to remotely control twin Keck Observatory telescopes in Hawaii from Melbourne. More than 9000 kilometres from the observatory, Swinburne astronomers have been able to control the Keck telescopes with a direct video link to the telescopes since 2009 from an on-campus control room. Using the WM Keck Observatory’s cutting-edge instrumentation, Swinburne astronomers have produced landmark discoveries about the Universe such as: The monster galaxy that grew up too fast New method solves 40 year-old mystery on the size of shadowy galaxies New spin on star forming galaxies The detection of superluminous supernovae State Industry Minister Ben Carroll says Victoria is the ideal home for the new agency and its advanced manufacturing and data science sectors, with more than one-in-five Australian space-related science and technology companies based here. “Victoria has generations of manufacturing experience and major companies willing to invest. This makes us the perfect home for the Australian Space Agency,” says Minister Carroll.
11 June 2018 10:34
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/06/victoria-ideal-home-for-new-space-agency/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/06/victoria-ideal-home-for-new-space-agency/
Astronomy
Engineering,Science,Technology,University
false
-
Swinburne Astronomy Online student wins astrophotography competition
Swinburne Astronomy Online student wins astrophotography competition
Suavi Lipinski’s astrophotography featured as part of the ABC’s Stargazing project.
A spectacular photo of a nebula, taken by Swinburne Astronomy Online student Suavi Lipinski, has been named the winner of a nationwide astrophotography competition by Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk. It has been projected onto the William Jolly Bridge in Brisbane, Queensland as part of the ABC’s Stargazing project this week. Mr Lipinski took the photo, named the Fighting Dragons of Ara, over several nights in 2017, using a small telescope in the courtyard of his inner-city Brisbane home, just four kilometres from the CBD. Brisbane was the headquarters for ABC Stargazing Live’s Australia-wide Guinness World Record attempt, where more than 40,000 people simultaneously observed the Moon through telescopes for 10 minutes on Wednesday night. A high school physics and mathematics teacher, Mr Lipinski is studying the Graduate Certificate of Science – Astronomy. “Like many others, I have always been really interested in knowing more about the 'bigger picture',” Mr Lipinski says. “For the past few years I have lived in a city where light pollution restricts astronomy. I found that imaging allowed me to 'see' many more deep space objects and in far more detail than visual astronomy.” Mr Lipinski says it took several sessions spread over a few weeks to collect sufficient data for a good picture. “Due to the location (a few kilometres from Brisbane's CBD) I have to use 3nm narrowband filters to extract deep sky object signals from light pollution. “The limited view on the sky also put a limit on the amount of data I could collect each session. “Knowing that people like my astro images gives me motivation to try to learn more and further improve my techniques. “Being a teacher, I love seeing student reactions to my images and I am very privileged to be in a position to perhaps inspire some of them a bit, and who knows, maybe a few will one day choose to study astronomy.” Mr Lipinski’s Swinburne Astronomy Online instructor, Professor Alister Graham says: “One of the great things with Swinburne Astronomy Online (SAO), is that you get to interact with many capable and accomplished scholars like Suavi. “Adults of all ages participate in SAO, including many active and retired teachers, pilots and even an astronaut.” See more of Mr Lipinski’s astrophotography at: https://www.astrobin.com/users/Slawomir/
25 May 2018 14:07
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/05/swinburne-astronomy-online-student-wins-astrophotography-competition/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/05/swinburne-astronomy-online-student-wins-astrophotography-competition/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Current Students (Higher Education)
true
-
Astronomy inspires artists
Astronomy inspires artists
Artists Pamela Bain and Carolyn Lewens explore the Universe with Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing.
Over the last six months, the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing has been hosting two in-house artists: Pamela Bain and Carolyn Lewens. The artists were inspired after being present at one of the Deeper Wider Faster real time observing programs - led by Associate Professor Jeff Cooke - which is searching for the fastest explosions in the Universe, fast radio bursts and other deep space phenomena, from a control room at Swinburne’s Hawthorn campus. The resulting exhibition, DEEPER DARKER BRIGHTER, has taken this science and conveyed it through art, into visual and sensory experiences. Through a Portal Lightly | Pamela Bains Experimental artist Pamela Bains explores the concepts of spatial orientation in relation to our personal environment. Through a passion for astrophotography, Ms Bain has created artworks such as Biotic Cosmic, an observation that humans and the Universe share mutual composition and thus, connection. Ms Bain’s artwork uses her impaired vision as a motivation to produce work that incorporates magnifying components to then reflect the atmosphere of observatories and telescopes used in studying outer space. “Expect a playground of creative wonders that references the flashing explosions in the cosmic realm and what it takes to scientifically catch them,” says Ms Bain. Bursting Light | Pamela Bains Carolyn Lewens also shares a passion for science and art. Her love for photography and the manipulation of pre-photographic processes and the post-production phase expresses the obscurity of shadows through the use of imagery, sound data, and text. Lewens’ work is a discussion of issues between art and science, focusing on climate change, existentialism and what may exist in the depths of water and space. “For this project, I want to show the strangeness of what might be out there in deep space, the mystery and otherness rather than the beauty, though there is a kind of strange uncanny beauty in my work that I hope fascinates viewers and keeps them wondering.” Says Ms Lewens. In the Photic Zone | Carolyn Lewens The exhibition will include an animation of the Deeper, Wider, Faster program prepared by Swinburne animator James Josephides. The artists have also been running regular art workshops with astronomy staff and PhD students, giving them the opportunity to show off their creative side and produce their own artworks, some of which appears in the exhibition alongside the professional work. “Arts and science are both highly creative fields. They both require research, experimentation, and a willingness to move in unexpected directions as the work unfolds.” says Associate Professor Christopher Fluke, who has been hosting the artists, “It has been particularly pleasing to see the way Pam and Carolyn have been welcomed into the daily life of the Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing, and the creative impact they are having on staff and students through their weekly Art Workshops.” Gallery visitors can hear directly from the artists to gain a deeper understanding of the artworks and the exhibition at a walk and talk tour at 1.00pm on Saturday 12 May. Town Hall Gallery’s exhibition DEEPER DARKER BRIGHTER will be showing from Saturday 12 May - Sunday 1 July.
10 May 2018 14:48
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/05/astronomy-inspires-artists-/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/05/astronomy-inspires-artists-/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Astronomy,Technology
false
-
New WM Keck Observatory remote viewing facility opens at Swinburne
New WM Keck Observatory remote viewing facility opens at Swinburne
A new world-class facility enables researchers to remotely control the twin Keck Observatory telescopes in Hawaii from Hawthorn.
Pioneering astrophysics research in Australia has received a boost with the launch of the WM Keck Observatory Remote Viewing Facility at Swinburne University of Technology’s Luton Lane offices in Hawthorn. This world-class facility enables researchers and astronomy students to remotely control the twin Keck Observatory telescopes - the world’s most scientifically productive optical and infrared telescopes – based in Hawaii. More than 9000 kilometres from the observatory, Swinburne astronomers have been able to control the Keck telescopes with a direct video link to the telescopes since 2009 from a small on-campus control room. Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development), Professor Aleksandar Subic, says the Caltech partnership and access to Keck remote viewing and observation has allowed Swinburne researchers to conduct world leading research that is leading to new discoveries and transforming knowledge. A strategic research agreement with the California Institute for Technology (Caltech) for a further five years gives Swinburne access to the W M Keck Observatory for up to 10 nights a year until 2023. “The potential discoveries have the ability to answer some of life’s biggest questions and lead to breakthrough technologies that could benefit many fields and industries. We are already seeing a huge impact that the recent discovery of gravitational waves is having,” Professor Subic says. The new facility can accommodate larger research teams and provides a new base for the Deeper, Wider Faster astrophysics program that has been searching for Fast Radio Bursts, the fastest explosions in the Universe. “The ability to remotely operate the Keck telescopes from Melbourne has placed the Swinburne campus in the frontline of international astrophysics,” says Director of Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Professor Karl Glazebrook. “It is really exciting to be in the remote observing room and see, in real time, the newest and faintest signals from the most distant objects coming in live. It allows Swinburne astronomers to make decisions on the spot that lead to major discoveries about the Universe and facilitates wide engagement of our staff and students in these moments.” Using the W M Keck Observatory’s cutting-edge instrumentation, Swinburne astronomers have produced landmark discoveries about the Universe such as: The monster galaxy that grew up too fast New method solves 40 year-old mystery on the size of shadowy galaxies New spin on star forming galaxies The detection of superluminous supernovae Astronomers from other research centres will also have access to the new facility. Researchers will also be able to remotely control the Anglo-Australian Telescope in New South Wales. The new facility was unveiled at a special event held for Swinburne alumni and donors. It has been partially funded through a generous donation from the Eric Ormond Baker Charitable fund, represented by trustee and Swinburne Online staff member Graeme Baker, and managed by Equity Trustees.
12 April 2018 15:53
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/04/new-wm-keck-observatory-remote-viewing-facility-opens-at-swinburne/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/04/new-wm-keck-observatory-remote-viewing-facility-opens-at-swinburne/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Technology
true
-
Surfing, stars and science sway Swinburne’s newest astronomer
Surfing, stars and science sway Swinburne’s newest astronomer
With one eye on the stars and the other on the surf, Swinburne’s newest astronomer has settled in to Melbourne
By his own admission, Ivo Labbe is an accidental astronomer. In fact, the newest member of Swinburne’s internationally renowned Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS) says it was more his passion for surfing than the stars that saw him tumble into the field. “My PhD adviser was very clever,” the Dutch-born researcher says of how he entered the realm of astronomy. “He took me aside and told me he had a PhD position going in astronomy and astrophysics but that it meant traveling to Hawaii. “He knew I loved surfing and wouldn’t be able to say no. He was right.” Since, Associate Professor Labbe has traversed Europe and the US becoming an international leader in the study of distant universes with one eye firmly fixed on the stars and the other on the surf. He says while the reputation of CAS and its people were the main reasons behind his move from Leiden University in the Netherlands to Melbourne, it was Swinburne’s closeness to the Australian surfing meccas of Bells Beach and Torquay that sealed the deal. “Can I surf there? Yes, tick,” he says of his final decision to move to Melbourne. “My colleagues in the Netherlands were very jealous. Mainly about the weather.” Big telescopes Associate Professor Labbe’s expertise – other than surfing - is in big telescopes. As in `Hubble Telescope’ big. “My particular field, the thing I do, is use the most powerful telescopes in the world – like the Hubble Telescope - to make pictures of the distant universe,” he explains. “The reason why I look at very distant objects is that light from very far away takes a long time to get here and so you are basically looking at things as they were, in the past. “My expertise is to take that to the extreme and go all the way back to the beginning of time essentially to try and see the first galaxies form in the universe. Ultimately we hope to see the first stars form.” World record for distant galaxy discovery He was part of the international team that famously holds the world record for discovering the most distant galaxy ever observed at 13.4 billion light years away. “So that’s looking 13.4 billion years into the past and the universe is 13.8 billion years old today. So, we’re only talking about a few hundred million years after the big bang,” he says. When asked if he thinks the first ever galaxies have yet to be observed, he is circumspect. “Galaxies were very different. They were very young, very small and very bright because they were bursting with activity. We really don’t understand what they are and what’s in them,” he says. “We don’t know whether we have seen the first galaxy. There’s no flagpole in a galaxy saying “Hey, I’m the first”. So we have to deduce all these things. And it’s very hard because we are working with pictures and the pictures are fuzzy blobs. “So based on the colour and light of the fuzzy blob, we try to deduce all these things – how many stars are in there, how far away it is etc.” Hubble replacement to help unlock distant galaxies He says he’s particularly excited about next year’s launch of the Hubble Telescope’s replacement, the $8 billion James Webb Space Telescope. Due to go online in 2020, the James Webb will have far more sophisticated and sensitive instruments than the Hubble and Associate Professor Labbe is hoping it will help unlock some of the secrets of the distant galaxies. “It has all these sensitive instruments which will allow you to dissect the light. So rather than just having pictures of fuzzy blobs, we can see what is generating the light and how old the stars are,” he says. “This will help us determine whether these galaxies are a first or not.” While at Swinburne, Associate Professor Labbe will use his connections across the globe to organise international research teams and help raise the profile of CAS. Swinburne’s commitment to astronomy He says he was drawn to Swinburne because of its well-known investment in astronomy and astrophysics and its commitment to providing researchers expensive access to big telescopes. “Swinburne is really exciting because it’s still a young university but it’s punching above its weight, especially in astrophysics. It’s very exciting,” he says. “Also, the scientific climate in Australia is very good. “Australia is a country that really invests in academia still. In other countries, this has slacked a little bit. In the US, academia is a little bit under siege. Even in Europe, the academic market is tough. “In Australia, the academic climate is really positive, well-funded, with lots of opportunities.” He’s only been here a month but Associate Professor Labbe says his time in Australia has “been a blast”. And while he has managed to secure a place to live, his already busy schedule has meant that he has only so far managed to buy a bed, a fridge and washing machine. He’s even been too busy to look for a new surfboard
28 March 2018 11:17
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/03/surfing-stars-and-science-sway-swinburnes-newest-astronomer/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/03/surfing-stars-and-science-sway-swinburnes-newest-astronomer/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Astronomy
false
-
Swinburne supercomputer to be one of the most powerful in Australia
Swinburne supercomputer to be one of the most powerful in Australia
Swinburne launches one of Australia’s most powerful supercomputers.
Swinburne has launched one of the most powerful computers in the country in a bid to help unlock the secrets of the Universe. The new $4 million supercomputer, OzSTAR, is based at Swinburne’s Hawthorn campus and features a performance peak of 1.2 petaflops. The computer, powered by Dell EMC, launches Swinburne into the petascale era of supercomputing and will enable the Swinburne-based Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery’s (OzGrav) to search for gravitational waves and study the extreme physics of black holes and warped space-time. The finished design features gas swirling around two black holes. OzGrav Director, Professor Matthew Bailes, says OzSTAR will be used to shift through reams of data and be powerful enough to search for coalescing black holes and neutron stars in real time. “In one second, OzSTAR can perform 10,000 calculations for every one of the 100 billion starts in our galaxy,” says Professor Bailes. Manager of the supercomputer, Professor Jarrod Hurley, says OzSTAR maintains Swinburne as an academic leader in supercomputing with a focus on hybrid CPU-GPU technology across the system. He says the supercomputer will also be key in enabling Swinburne’s Data Science Research Institute to tackle future data science challenges such as machine learning, deep learning, database interrogation and visualisation. Understanding gravitational waves Gravitational waves were first predicted 100 years ago by Albert Einstein in his theory of General Relativity, which described how gravity warps and distorts space-time. Einstein's mathematics showed that massive accelerating objects (such as neutron stars or black holes orbiting each other) distort both space and time and emit a new type of radiation, known as gravitational waves. But these gravitational waves remained undetected for a century until advances in detector sensitivity at the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (aLIGO) in the US enabled their detection in September 2015. Shortly after being switched on, aLIGO physically sensed distortions in space-time itself caused by passing gravitational waves generated by two colliding black holes nearly 1.3 billion light years away that moved its mirrors by just 1/10000th of the width of a proton. The supercomputer is powered by Dell EMC and features a performance peak of 1.2 petaflops. The supercomputer features 4140 SkyLake cores at 2.3Ghz across 107 standard compute and eight data crunching nodes, 230 NVIDIA Tesla P100 12 GB GPUs, 272 Intel Xeon Phi cores at 1.6Ghz across four C6320pKNL nodes, a high speed low latency network fabric able to move data across each building block at over 100Gbps with various features to ensure reliability and traffic flow and 5 petabyte of usable storage via the Lustre ZFS file system at 30GB/s throughput.
07 March 2018 10:16
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/03/swinburne-supercomputer-to-be-one-of-the-most-powerful-in-australia/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/03/swinburne-supercomputer-to-be-one-of-the-most-powerful-in-australia/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science,Technology
false
-
Immersive Science II: Revealing the Invisible Universe
Immersive Science II: Revealing the Invisible Universe
Swinburne astronomers have received a National Science Week grant to present live Virtual Reality talks exploring the Universe surrounding us.
Swinburne astronomers Associate Professor Alan Duffy and Dr Rebecca Allen have received a National Science Week grant to present public events in August exploring the invisible Universe that surrounds us. There will be two live Virtual Reality (VR) talks based on the successful Science in VR app using bespoke cardboard VR headsets, coordinated regional viewing parties, and tailored educational material for all. One will be a day-time event for families at the State Library, followed by an evening event for adults at the Mountain Goat Brewery, regional viewing parties and online video streaming. “Immersive Science II will build on existing online enquiry tools when running the app and live events as shown by the success of Immersive Science last year,” says Associate Professor Duffy. “We will be exploring new realms of science, from nanostructures to blackholes and insects to electrons in the Synchrotron.” Regional science enthusiasts will have access to online streaming of the talks, Q&A from the audience and via social media, viewing parties hosted by local societies throughout NSW, and educational material customised to the VR experience. Science in the Park: Wildlife Counts The Swinburne PrimeSCI team has also received a National Science Week grant for Science in the Park: Wildlife Counts event at the Coolart Wetlands and Homestead Reserve in Somers. This will be the third year this event catering for all ages will be held on the Mornington Peninsula. There will be science presentations, displays and hands-on activities, wildlife monitoring, and education on sustainable practices in the unique wetland environments of the Coolart Reserve. Ian Temby, author of Wild Neighbours, will be a key speaker. The National Science Week grants were announced by Assistant Minister for Science, Jobs and Innovation Senator the Hon Zed Seselja on 14 February 2018. National Science Week will be held from 11-19 August 2018.
15 February 2018 14:39
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/02/immersive-science-ii-revealing-the-invisible-universe/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/02/immersive-science-ii-revealing-the-invisible-universe/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Research,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Swinburne astronomers to help solve mystery of the Universe
Swinburne astronomers to help solve mystery of the Universe
Swinburne to play a major role in helping to uncover the exact expansion rate of the Universe
Swinburne will play a major role in helping to solve the mystery of the expansion rate of the Universe as part of a ground-breaking survey of the galaxy, known as the Taipan survey. For the first time astronomers will be able to measure the distances of millions of galaxies in the southern sky as part of the Federal Government’s $6.37 million refurbishment of the TAIPAN facility on the 1.2 meter UK Schmidt Telescope near Coonabarabran in New South Wales. The survey using the refurbished telescope will enable researchers to measure the current expansion rate of the Universe with one per cent precision, resolving a long standing discrepancy between previous measurements. The nagging discrepancy has been left because two previous measurements, the ‘distance ladder’ method and the method of measuring radiation left over from the Big Bang, don’t match. Swinburne’s ARC Future Fellow and Taipan survey member, Dr Edward Taylor, says the survey will provide the most complete survey of southern hemisphere stars and galaxies ever undertaken by measuring up to two million galaxies and two million stars to investigate dark energy, dark matter and how galaxies and stars formed and evolved. “By mapping all the sky we can see from the south, this survey will form the standard map of our half of the sky for the next 15-20 years,” he says. “It will become the go to map for astronomers of the southern half of the universe.” The TAIPAN facility will use a new technology involving mini robots known as Starbugs to undertake the survey. These mini robots rapidly and accurately align the optical fibres of a telescope to target stars and galaxies, making astronomical surveys faster and more efficient by cutting down a telescope’s configuration time from one hour to two to three minutes. Dr Taylor says this is what will make to possible to map the whole sky in a few years rather than decades. “These mini robots are demonstrator technology leading up to the next generation of 30m class telescopes. This is the start of the next generation or two in astronomy,” Dr Taylor says. Swinburne astronomer and lead scientist at Australian Science Channel, Associate Professor Alan Duffy, says the survey will help determine why the Universe is accelerating as it expands. “Now we need to answer why this incredible event is occurring,” he says. “TAIPAN will help us do that by measuring the position of galaxies and track the rate at which they appear to move apart. “Thanks to revolutionary new technology it can do this more precisely and rapidly than ever before. “We suspect an entirely new property of space-time, known as dark energy, is driving this accelerating expansion but it’s so strange, so unusual that we need these revolutionary new facilities to get the data that can help us make sense of it!” Editors note: TAIPAN refers to the hardware and facilities while Taipan refers to the galaxy survey
02 February 2018 16:26
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/02/swinburne-astronomers-to-help-solve-mystery-of-the-universe/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2018/02/swinburne-astronomers-to-help-solve-mystery-of-the-universe/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science,University,Engineering
false
-
Radio observations illuminate gravitational-wave event
Radio observations illuminate gravitational-wave event
A Swinburne astronomer is part of an international discovery bringing scientists one step closer to understanding the physics of binary neutron star mergers
A Swinburne astronomer is part of an international discovery effort bringing scientists one step closer to understanding the physics of binary neutron star mergers and the universe at large. The discovery, made by an international team of astronomers, suggests that a narrow and super-fast 'jet' of material blasted out during the cataclysmic neutron star merger, slammed into the environment surrounding the merging neutron stars and inflated a bubble-like cocoon. The findings, published in Nature, contradict a popular theory describing the aftermath of the recently observed neutron star merger — namely, that the beam-like jet thought to be associated with highly energetic phenomena called gamma-ray bursts had been seen directly, immediately after the merger. “The burst of gamma-rays from this merger didn't come directly from a tightly focused, high-speed jet that just grazed our line of sight; instead, we attribute them to a more slowly moving outflow of material that had absorbed some of the jet’s energy,” says Swinburne astronomer Dr Adam Deller, ARC Future Fellow at the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing and Associate Investigator at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery.
21 December 2017 08:55
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/12/radio-observations-illuminate-gravitational-wave-event/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/12/radio-observations-illuminate-gravitational-wave-event/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research
false
-
Research captures wonders of the universe, and imaginations
Research captures wonders of the universe, and imaginations
Professor Matthew Bailes writes on how research captures our imagination while changing the future.
One of the great things about science is that the money we invest in research often brings a return through commercially useful discoveries or advances that improve the quality of life for us all. Even in my field of astrophysics, research discoveries have been made that led to huge practical benefits. For example, Wi-Fi, which all of us use every day, is the result of CSIRO mastery of fourier techniques that were being used for both astrophysics and applied research. But astrophysics also reveals inherent wonders about the universe, and in this past year we have hit some phenomenal goals. On October 17, for the first time, scientists measured the violent death spiral of two dense neutron stars — the dense cores of stars that have exploded and died — as they collided at nearly the speed of light, creating what many called the greatest fireworks show in the universe. Not only did we see the collision, we could hear it as the two stars, each the size of a city, completed 4000 orbits in the last 100 seconds of their cosmic dance. It was a landmark discovery from an international team that included almost 100 Australian scientists and it resonated with the public in a way that only black holes, dying stars and fireballs in the universe can do. It was science at its most impressive, almost inconceivable yet intensely fascinating. It also reminded us that basic science — the science that isn’t immediately geared towards industrial applications — remains immensely important. A century ago, Albert Einstein realised that gravity could be mimicked by acceleration — that light bent when passing near massive objects, and that the fabric of space-time could be shaken by the acceleration of the stars and planets. A natural consequence of his theory was that stars beyond a certain density would collapse to become black holes, terrifying objects that possessed such strong gravity that not even light could escape them. He also predicted that the stars and planets emitted a strange and mysterious new form of radiation known as gravitational waves. But was Einstein right? Did black holes exist and did his equations correctly describe their behaviour? Does time really stand still in their vicinity and do gravitational waves permeate the universe? These are questions that are incredibly fundamental to how the universe ultimately works but that Einstein thought were impossible to verify experimentally. It appears completely ludicrous to even think about trying to do experiments on black holes when you realise that you’d have to shrink the Earth into a ball just 2cm in diameter for it to become one. For our sun the black hole diameter seems more achievable, more like 6km — except when you learn that the sun weighs about 300,000 Earths and about 18 billion tonnes has to fit in every cubic centimetre. This year’s Nobel prize winners in physics (Rainer Weiss, Kip Thorne and Barry Barish) realised that it was possible to build a machine that could hypothetically detect colliding black holes or their ultra-dense cousins, neutron stars, in the nearest million galaxies — should they exist and ever collide. Their detector, called Advanced LIGO, was the first to have a realistic chance of detecting the ripples in space-time induced by Einstein’s gravitational waves. The technology behind this facility is staggering. More than 1000 people from around the world have contributed to the instruments, which fire powerful lasers at pairs of mirrors (beautifully polished in Australia) hanging from complex suspensions 4km away in the world’s largest vacuum tubes. Australia is one of four countries in the project. When Advanced LIGO began its science operations in September 2015, it started listening for tremors in the fabric of space-time for the first time. Remarkably, it wasn’t long before LIGO saw a burst of gravitational waves from two black holes as they destroyed each other in the last few orbits of a death spiral that probably had been under way for billions of years. Black holes are deceptively simple objects, defined by their mass, spin and charge, and the pair involved in the September 2015 event were about 1300 million light years away. Their detection proved that gravitational waves existed and that black holes 30 times the mass of our sun did too. For the first time scientists got to experiment with gravity in the vicinity of a black hole. In August this year the first pair of merging neutron stars were seen by LIGO. Neutron stars are so dense that a teaspoon weighs a billion tonnes, but when they collide they produce an explosion that briefly creates a fireball in the sky. This event proved Einstein’s postulate that the speed of gravity and the speed of light were equivalent, to four parts in 10,000 trillion — one of the most precise confirmations of a physical law in the history of physics. Last Thursday the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Gravitational Wave Discovery was opened by federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham. The centre, which has been operating since April, has been born in a year that will likely go down in history as a monumental one for astrophysics. The existence of the centre, and the excitement surrounding gravitational wave science, is testament to those who believe that basic science, the science of discovery, is a goal unto itself. This year, the LIGO gravitational wave detectors acted like a stethoscope, allowing us to listen to the vibrations in the fabric of space-time. The appeal of the resultant science — which may not have any immediate monetary worth — is fascinating because it is truly universal, intangible and priceless. This article was originally published in The Australian. Read the original article here.
15 November 2017 14:08
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/11/research-captures-wonders-of-the-universe-and-imaginations/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/11/research-captures-wonders-of-the-universe-and-imaginations/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Research,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
-
OzGrav rides gravitational waves to launch
OzGrav rides gravitational waves to launch
Simon Birmingham launches ARC’s $31.3m OzGrav at Swinburne.
Minister for Education and Training, Simon Birmingham, has opened the Australian Research Council’s $31.3 million Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery at Swinburne. The centre, known as OzGrav, has been established to capitalise on the 2015 discovery of gravitational waves, which resulted recently in the awarding of the 2017 Nobel Prize to three US physicists, Professors Kip Thorne, Rainer Weiss and Barry Barish. Senator Birmingham says that OzGrav will play a critical role in keeping Australia at the leading edge internationally of gravitational wave research and discovery. “This facility builds on decades of Australian investment in gravitational wave and pulsar science and merges research activities by Australian and international researchers into a focused national program,” he says. “The Centre of Excellence will help equip researchers with cutting edge technology to further advance research across multiple disciplines, from lasers and radio instrumentations to big data and astronomy.” Swinburne will host OzGrav in collaboration with five other universities – Australian National University, the University of Western Australia, Monash University, the University of Melbourne and the University of Adelaide – as well as prestigious international partner organisations such as MIT and Caltech. The launch included a video-link congratulations from Nobel Laureate Professor Barry Barish who told the packed lecture theatre that Australian gravitational wave scientists had played an integral role in all international gravitational wave discoveries to date. At the launch, director of OzGrav, Professor Matthew Bailes, gave the audience an interactive walk-through the discovery of gravitational waves, saying the centre is an opportunity to bring together gravitational wave researchers from across Australia. He describes gravitational wave astronomy as the “hottest topic” in astronomy at present. “The field is just two years old,” he says. “This centre is Australia’s chance to maximise its involvement in the dawn of this new area of astrophysics. “It will give Australian scientists and students the opportunity to fully participate in the birth of gravitational wave astronomy. “It will also enable us to develop amazing technologies like quantum squeezing to further enhance the detectors, supercomputers and advanced algorithms to find the waves, and these will lead to a revolution in our understanding of the Universe.” Gravitational waves Gravitational waves were first predicted by Albert Einstein about 100 years ago in his Theory of General Relativity. Einstein’s theory described how gravity warps and distorts space-time. His mathematics showed that massive accelerating objects - such as neutron stars or black holes – that orbit each other distort both space and time and emit a type of radiation known as gravitational waves. Einstein did not believe gravitational waves would ever be detected. A century later, they have been. In September 2015, the California-based observatory specifically established to search for gravitational waves first sensed gravitational waves. The observatory is called aLIGO, short for the Advanced Laster Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. Shortly after being switched on in 2015, aLIGO sensed distortions in space-time. These distortions were caused by passing gravitational waves that generated more than one billion years ago when two black holes collided. Last month, the three US Professors who led the way in discovering gravitational waves were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize for Physics. Soon after, OzGrav researchers made another significant announcement - a further detection of gravitational waves from the death spiral of two neutron stars. This recent announcement adds significant weight to the importance of OzGrav as the centre of gravitational wave research in the region.
09 November 2017 15:43
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/11/ozgrav-rides-gravitational-waves-to-launch/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/11/ozgrav-rides-gravitational-waves-to-launch/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research,Digital Research Innovation Capability Platform (DRICP)
Science
true
-
The most ancient spiral galaxy confirmed using cutting-edge technique
The most ancient spiral galaxy confirmed using cutting-edge technique
The most ancient spiral galaxy discovered to date is revealing its secrets to astronomers.
The most ancient spiral galaxy discovered to date is revealing its secrets to a team of astronomers at Swinburne University of Technology and The Australian National University (ANU), part of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in All Sky Astrophysics in 3D (ASTRO 3D). The galaxy, known as A1689B11, existed 11 billion years in the past, just 2.6 billion years after the Big Bang, when the Universe was only one fifth of its present age. It is thus the most ancient spiral galaxy discovered so far. The researchers used a powerful technique that combines gravitational lensing with the cutting-edge instrument the Near-infrared Integral Field Spectrograph (NIFS) on the Gemini North telescope in Hawai‘i to verify the vintage and spiral nature of this galaxy. NIFS is Australia’s first Gemini instrument that was designed and built by the late Peter McGregor at The ANU. Gravitational lenses are Nature’s largest telescopes, created by massive clusters composed of thousands of galaxies and dark matter. The cluster bends and magnifies the light of galaxies behind it in a manner similar to an ordinary lens, but on a much larger scale. “This technique allows us to study ancient galaxies in high resolution with unprecedented detail,” says Swinburne astronomer Dr Tiantian Yuan, who led the research team. “We are able to look 11 billion years back in time and directly witness the formation of the first, primitive spiral arms of a galaxy.” Co-author, Princeton University’s Dr Renyue Cen, says: “Studying ancient spirals like A1689B11 is a key to unlocking the mystery of how and when the Hubble sequence emerges. “Spiral galaxies are exceptionally rare in the early Universe, and this discovery opens the door to investigating how galaxies transition from highly chaotic, turbulent discs to tranquil, thin discs like those of our own Milky Way galaxy.” Dr Yuan says the study shows some surprising features of A1689B11. “This galaxy is forming stars 20 times faster than galaxies today – as fast as other young galaxies of similar masses in the early Universe. However, unlike other galaxies of the same epoch, A1689B11 has a very cool and thin disc, rotating calmly with surprisingly little turbulence. This type of spiral galaxy has never been seen before at this early epoch of the Universe!” This research is an international collaboration including astrophysicists from the University of Lyon in France, Princeton University in the USA and Hebrew University in Israel. It has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal. A preprint version is available at arXiv:1710.11130.
03 November 2017 09:24
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/11/the-most-ancient-spiral-galaxy-confirmed-using-cutting-edge-technique/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/11/the-most-ancient-spiral-galaxy-confirmed-using-cutting-edge-technique/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Swinburne researchers led Australian efforts to study gravitational wave event
Swinburne researchers led Australian efforts to study gravitational wave event
An Australian story behind the most recent gravitational wave discovery.
The world-first announcement of the detection of gravitational waves from the merging of two neutron stars involved researchers from around the world, including several astrophysicists from Swinburne University of Technology. On 17 August, about two seconds after the gravitational wave detection by the LIGO and Virgo gravitational wave detectors, the FERMI Gamma-Ray Space Telescope detected a burst of gamma-rays, the most energetic form of electromagnetic radiation. Alerts of the event were sent out to astronomers worldwide, who dropped what they were doing to turn their telescopes to this event, observing it with every type of telescope at every wavelength of light. It was identified and located in a galaxy named NGC 4993, near our Milky Way galaxy and in the Southern Hemisphere of our night sky. At Swinburne, Associate Professor Jeff Cooke and PhD candidate Igor Andreoni swung into action, initiating optical and infrared observations of this event and compiling and analysing some of the data. “We have been preparing for an event like this, but didn’t think it would happen so soon and in a galaxy so close,” Associate Professor Cooke says. “Once we were alerted of the gravitational wave detection, we immediately contacted a dozen telescopes in Australia, South Africa, the USA, Chile, the US Virgin Islands, and even near the South Pole in the Antarctic and joined the worldwide effort to study this historic event.” The location of the neutron star collision in a direction in the sky near the Sun made it possible for optical telescopes to observe it for only a short time after sunset. A coordinated combination of observatories worldwide was needed to observe the event in a series of short segments as they chased the sunset around the world as the Earth turned. The researchers observed an explosion called a kilonova, which is about 1000 times brighter than a nova and more beautiful than they could have imagined. Along with gamma-ray bursts, kilonovae have been predicted to occur from neutron star mergers. Credit: LSC/Daniel Williams
17 October 2017 11:42
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/10/swinburne-researchers-led-australian-efforts-to-study-gravitational-wave-event/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/10/swinburne-researchers-led-australian-efforts-to-study-gravitational-wave-event/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Alan Duffy to join Australia’s Science Channel
Alan Duffy to join Australia’s Science Channel
Swinburne Associate Professor Alan Duffy has been appointed Lead Scientist at Australia’s Science Channel.
Swinburne Associate Professor Alan Duffy has been appointed Lead Scientist at Australia’s Science Channel, in addition to his existing role at Swinburne. Australia’s Science Channel CEO Bradley Abraham says the Lead Scientist role was developed as part of a new structure for the organisation. “We searched nationally for the right person to act as a national presence for Australia’s Science Channel, promoting the organisation and acting as a leading scientist for the team,” Mr Abraham says. “Alan brings with him an outstanding scientific credential with solid research and teaching base. The quality of Alan’s communications and his ability to explain even the most complex science was a stand-out. “We look forward to welcoming Alan to the team.”
09 October 2017 11:08
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/10/alan-duffy-to-join-australias-science-channel/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/10/alan-duffy-to-join-australias-science-channel/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Surface explosion may trigger stellar death
Surface explosion may trigger stellar death
Researchers may have found a way of forecasting supernovae.
Just as medical researchers seek ways of predicting heart attacks, so astronomers are looking for ways of forecasting supernovae – explosions in which a dying star or white dwarf briefly outshines its whole galaxy of stars. Now researchers have found the first robust proof that a theoretical stellar shell explosion scenario, proposed in the early 1980s, truly exists in our Universe. Jian Jiang, a PhD candidate at the University of Tokyo and colleagues, including Swinburne’s Emeritus Professor Jeremy Mould, discovered a precursor explosion of type Ia supernovae: a red optical flash. Within a day of this flash, the researchers discovered a Type Ia supernova (named MUSSES1604D), using the wide-field camera mounted on the 8.2-m Subaru Telescope in Hawaii, the Hyper Suprime-Cam. The small flash at the bottom right of this bright galaxy preceded the observation of a supernova explosion. Follow-up observations carried out by eight telescopes around the world showed that this supernova phase, not seen in previous less time-intensive observations, is marked by a bright flash in the first few days after the explosion. Further analysis found that the new features observed in MUSSES1604D can be explained by a specific explosion model which indicates that explosion of helium on the white dwarf surface may be the trigger for the core explosion. They found that the early-phase light, colour and spectrum of the supernova can be perfectly explained by a specific explosion mechanism, in which the accumulation of helium at the surface of the white dwarf first ignites explosively. Shock waves generated by this precursor event spread inward to ignite carbon burning in the core of the white dwarf. “Learning more about type Ia supernovae will help us chart the expansion of the Universe, following the lead of ANU’s Nobel Laureate, Professor Brian Schmidt,” Professor Mould says. Professor Mould has worked on these supernovae during his career at Swinburne and is continuing his research. He was recently in Beijing for a meeting to celebrate his contributions to research into stellar populations and the cosmic distance scale. The findings have been published in Nature.
05 October 2017 06:01
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/10/surface-explosion-may-trigger-stellar-death/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/10/surface-explosion-may-trigger-stellar-death/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Research,International
Science
false
-
Swinburne congratulates 2017 Nobel Prize winners
Swinburne congratulates 2017 Nobel Prize winners
Gravitational wave discovery earns US physicists Nobel Prize.
Swinburne congratulates the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in physics for their leadership in the revolutionary discovery of gravitational waves. Swinburne hosts the $31.3 million Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) which was established to capitalise on the gravitational wave discovery led by the three US Nobel prize winners.
04 October 2017 14:16
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/10/swinburne-congratulates-2017-nobel-prize-winners/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/10/swinburne-congratulates-2017-nobel-prize-winners/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),International
Science
false
-
OzGRav Director congratulates 2017 Nobel Physics prize winners
OzGRav Director congratulates 2017 Nobel Physics prize winners
Professor Matthew Bailes pays tribute to the researchers who played a leadership role in the discovery of gravitational waves.
The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) has congratulated the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physics for the leadership roles they played in the discovery of gravitational waves. The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has awarded the 2017 prize to US physicists Rainer Weiss, Barry C Barish and Kip S Thorne "for decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves". The discovery of gravitational waves is one of the greatest intellectual achievements in physics. The collaboration that this year’s Nobel Laureates helped put together has opened a new window on the Universe and verified that Einstein’s 1915 masterpiece, the General Theory of Relativity, is an accurate description of gravity and the motions of the stars and planets. Just last week the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) announced the discovery of a fourth burst of gravitational waves from black holes with their Virgo partners. OzGrav is proud to be part of this international team as it continues to refine and enhance the Advanced LIGO detectors, extending our knowledge of the Universe. OzGrav Director, Swinburne’s Professor Matthew Bailes, paid tribute to the perseverance of the LIGO leadership. “When I first heard talk of the LIGO detector during a visit to Caltech it seemed fanciful,” he says. “The technology required seemed too ambitious, and the targets very uncertain. But today’s prize is a fitting reward to the visionaries who persisted over decades with the scientific, technological, sociological and political challenges of building one of the great observatories of the world. “It has taken the pulse of the Universe and opened a treasure trove for fundamental physics research.” OzGrav scientists and engineers are part of the 1000-member LIGO Scientific Collaboration that helped discover gravitational waves. Many of OzGrav’s Chief Investigators have dedicated almost their entire scientific careers to the development of the technology and methods to advance the field and will be delighted by this announcement. OzGrav is headquartered at Swinburne’s Hawthorn campus. A new on-campus $4 million supercomputer will power the search for gravitational waves.
04 October 2017 07:39
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/10/ozgrav-director-congratulates-2017-nobel-physics-prize-winners/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/10/ozgrav-director-congratulates-2017-nobel-physics-prize-winners/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET)
Science
false
-
Gravitational Waves arrive in Europe
Gravitational Waves arrive in Europe
Swinburne’s Matthew Bailes explores the gravitational waves detected by Europe’s Virgo detector.
The 2015 discovery by the US gravitational wave observatory LIGO of a distant chirp from the death-spiral of two black holes was a tremendous intellectual, engineering and scientific achievement. Since then two other black hole mergers (GW151226) and (GW170104) have been identified. A new breed of “gravitational wave astronomers” is now mapping out Einstein’s universe and exploring the most extreme gravitational physics imaginable - the coalescence of black holes. Today, the fourth burst of gravitational waves was announced, and for the first time, Europe’s Virgo detector got into the act. The race to detect gravitational waves may have been “won” by the US’s LIGO observatory back in 2015, but in a remarkable display of scientific cooperation between two of the global scientific superpowers (US and Europe), Europe’s Virgo gravitational wave observatory now works in close cooperation with the LIGO Scientific Collaboration to monitor the sky for gravitational wave “triggers”. (Australian scientists and engineers are part of the LIGO Collaboration via the Australian Research Council and its new Centre of Excellence OzGrav) On August 14, 2017, at precisely 10:30:43 the two LIGO detectors (based in the US) and the Virgo detector (based in Europe) felt the characteristic “chirp” of passing gravitational waves. This time the black holes were about 30 and 25 times the mass of our Sun, and almost 2 billion light years away at the time of merger. Scientific cooperation vs competition In many areas of scientific endeavour, competition is fierce, and with hundreds of telescopes distributed around the world there is often a race to beat the competition to astronomical discovery. It isn’t always pretty to watch. Gravitational wave astronomy is quite unique in this regard because it doesn’t make a lot of sense to compete. Unlike light, gravitational waves happily travel through the Earth, and so it doesn’t matter where the Earth is pointed at the time of events. So no matter where you build your gravitational wave detector it can be part of a global network! And there are handsome dividends to be earned! Unlike the first three gravitational waves discovered, this time the delays between the arrival time of the wave at each of the three detectors could be used to “triangulate” the position on the sky. The wave hit the LIGO Livingston detector first, then 8 milliseconds later the Hanford detector saw the wave, and 14 milliseconds later the wave “arrived” in Europe - much to the delight of the Europeans! The presence of the third gravitational wave detector greatly reduces the “error box” of the wave’s origin. In this case the potential sky localisation went from over 1,000 to just 60 square degrees. The uncertainty in the origin of the gravitational wave for the four events detected so far. Without the European detector Virgo the error box is so large that sometimes we don’t even know which hemisphere it originated from! For GW170814, the error box is small enough to perform detailed searches at other wavelengths. LIGO VIRGO Collaboration CDS/Mellinger Sadly, when black holes merge there isn’t much left over to see! So although the location of the black holes may be restricted to only about 0.15% of the sky, their home galaxy is still a mystery, as many galaxies occupy the “error box” at the distance of the merger. But there are other advantages to Virgo joining the global network. The twin LIGO detectors were deliberately oriented in the same way, so that they could confirm each other’s potential detections. That strategy made a lot of sense when nothing had been discovered yet - but not perhaps now. To discover a gravitational wave requires a massive computational effort of vast areas of “phase space”, and it is hard to be convinced of the statistical significance of an event if there is only one detector in operation. When two detectors see the same pattern the chance probability of a fluke is greatly reduced. With a third the statistical significance is even further enhanced. The Polarisation of Gravitational Waves Perhaps the greatest benefit of the inclusion of the third detector was the first detailed exploration of the waves’ polarisation. In Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity very specific predictions are made about the polarisation of gravitational waves. LIGO is restricted in what it can say about polarisation because its detectors are co-aligned. The Virgo detector senses the gravitational wave differently, because the arms of its detectors point in a different direction. The LIGO-Virgo scientists’ “triple” detection permitted new tests about the essential correctness of General Relativity (GR). Once again Einstein was proved correct, with alternative theories of gravity failing to fit the polarimetric signature of the waves as well as GR. This important science result was only possible because of the high levels of trust and cooperation between the LIGO and Virgo collaborations. The masses of the four known black holes discovered by LIGO (and now Virgo!). During the formation of the larger black holes from the donor black holes the energy loss in gravitational waves is greater than the light from all the stars in the observable Universe put together! Black hole masses from our own galaxy are also shown at the lower left. LIGO Scientific Collaboration Where to from here? With four black hole mergers now detected, what is the future of this field? LIGO’s second run (O2) finished at the end of August, and the final list of detections is being refined. The detectors are now being “enhanced” and “tuned” for about a year. My colleagues at OzGrav are pitching in, developing exotic tools such as “quantum squeezers” to be deployed for the first time, new cameras and enhancing their data reduction pipelines. When they recommence operations, LIGO expects to be able to see about 30% further into the universe, and detect mergers twice as often. Virgo will join the next hunt, and over the next few years the range and event rates will continue to climb until mergers are being detected every week or so. Japan’s KAGRA observatory will join the network around 2020 and a third LIGO will appear in India some years later. Some jewels remain to be discovered. Astronomers eagerly await other “flavours” of gravitational waves, from those caused by mountains on spinning neutron stars, to bursts from exploding stars and mergers of neutron stars. Now that the universe’s content of hyper-relativistic objects is being calibrated, it is possible to predict with more confidence the benefits of building bigger and better detectors - the so-called “3G” devices. These detectors may comprise of orthogonal vacuum pipes 40km long (the US concept nicknamed “Cosmic Explorer”), or vacuum pipes buried deep underground (Europe’s “Einstein Telescope”) arranged in an equilateral triangle. The technology behind these detectors is awe-inspiring, and their scientific power difficult to comprehend. Cosmic Explorer could see 20 times further than LIGO currently does, and detect mergers 8,000 times as often! Gravitational waves travel through anything unimpeded, so offer a very unbiased view of the universe. This makes them an attractive way to monitor the extreme gravitational history of the universe. I am part of an international team currently working on the science case for a global 3G detector network. Unlike some areas of astronomy, gravitational wave astronomy will always benefit most from international cooperation and contribution towards a global network. Given the amount of science flowing from LIGO and Virgo it is almost certain that the US and Europe will construct these gargantuan 3G detectors in the decades to come. Ideally a third detector of comparable sensitivity should be constructed, and to maximise the science a Southern hemisphere location as far from Europe and the US would be preferred to maximise the scientific yield. Australia has the geological stability, dimensions and technological base to be a part of the next giant leap for this field - but only if its planning processes and political will becomes engaged in the international planning well in advance of construction. Written by Matthew Bailes, ARC Laureate Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
28 September 2017 08:11
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/09/gravitational-waves-arrive-in-europe/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/09/gravitational-waves-arrive-in-europe/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
-
Swinburne extends key astronomy research partnership with Caltech
Swinburne extends key astronomy research partnership with Caltech
Swinburne has renewed its partnership with the California Institute for Technology to 2023.
Pioneering research into supernovae, galaxy formation, Fast Radio Bursts and gravitational waves has been boosted with the renewal of Swinburne University of Technology’s research partnership with the California Institute for Technology (Caltech) for a further five years. The new agreement covers access to the world’s largest ground-based optical telescopes, located at the in Hawaii for up to 10 nights a year until 2023. It also includes collaborative research on a wide range of strategic projects, including development of advanced visualisation and machine-learning techniques, data driven discovery and joint training programs for data scientists combining teaching resources at each institution. “Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing is the largest astronomical research group in Victoria and has been privileged to have this exclusive collaboration with Caltech – owned by the California Association for Research in Astronomy – since 2008,” Swinburne Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research and Development, Professor Aleksandar Subic, says. “No other astronomy group outside the US has similar access to telescopes of this scope supported by the collaborative research effort of our leading researchers.” The Keck Observatory atop Mauna Kea, has two ten metre wide telescopes. Through their unrivalled observations of stars, planets and galaxies seen billions of years back in time, they have provided some of the most spectacular views of the Universe ever obtained. More than 9000 kilometres from the observatory, Swinburne’s Hawthorn campus houses a control room that allows Swinburne astronomers to control the Keck telescopes with a direct video link to the top of Mauna Kea. “This is the furthest distance a telescope of this class has been remotely controlled in real time,” says Professor Karl Glazebrook, Director of the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne. “Having this remote access saves travel time and money for researchers and allows staff and students to work closely while on opposite sides of the world. “With a generous donation recently received from a trust managed by former Swinburne staff member, Graeme Baker, we are now upgrading this to an even bigger facility that can accommodate larger research teams,” Professor Glazebrook says. Using the observatory’s cutting-edge instrumentation, astronomers have produced amazing discoveries about the Universe. Over the past five years, direct access to the Keck Observatory has enabled Swinburne astronomers to make landmark discoveries such as: The monster galaxy that grew up too fast New method solves 40 year-old mystery on the size of shadowy galaxies New spin on star forming galaxies The detection of superluminous supernovae
28 August 2017 08:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/08/swinburne-extends-key-astronomy-research-partnership-with-caltech/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/08/swinburne-extends-key-astronomy-research-partnership-with-caltech/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Industry and Community Partnerships,Research
Science
false
-
Explore the Final Frontier through the eyes of Australia’s famed astronomers
Explore the Final Frontier through the eyes of Australia’s famed astronomers
Dr Katie Mack and Associate Professor Alan Duffy explore the cosmos using the latest virtual reality technology as part of National Science Week.
Take a virtual tour of the Universe with renowned astronomers Katie Mack and Alan Duffy, who use the latest technology to guide budding scientists through the cosmos as part of National Science Week. Dr Katie Mack from the University of Melbourne and Swinburne's Associate Professor Alan Duffy use custom designed 3D headsets and a free-to-download App, SciVR, to allow participants to experience their own personal tour of the solar system in an event blending a live talk with virtual reality. The 13 August event at the State Library sold out within a day. The 17 August event set down for the Mountain Goat Brewery also sold out, but would-be astronomers can still take part. Almost one thousand headsets have been sent to homes around Australia, and many more people have already downloaded the SciVR app which can work without headsets. For those at home, tune into the live stream of the broadcast with Associate Professor Duffy and Dr Mack while running your SciVR app and you’ll have the same experience as those at the Brewery. Participants will learn how Australian astronomers are leading the world in mapping our galaxy, communicating with robotic explorers of the solar system and unlocking a new window into the invisible using gravitational waves to study colliding black holes. “Immersive Science is all about taking astronomy from the lecture hall and out to where the public is,” Associate Professor Duffy says. “I love that with SciVR the latest astronomy can be explored anywhere, from a library to a brewery, and all you need is your phone.” Dr Mack says the event is aimed at inspiring an interest in our Universe and hoped participants would come away with a new awareness of the latest science and a passion to learn more. “We can't send the whole audience to space, unfortunately,” says Dr Mack. "But we are trying to bring them just one small step closer than they'd get with the usual images-on-a-wall approach. We hope everyone will enjoy the journey!" The Dr Mack and Associate Professor Duffy events are part of an ‘Inspiring Australia’ initiative supported by the Australian Government as part of National Science Week with further contribution and support from Swinburne, OzGRav, and CAASTRO. The brewery event will be streamed online allowing remote audiences to enjoy the experience. Just head to www.scivr.com.au for links to social media platforms showing it. “National Science Week provides an important reminder to us all about how critical science is in our daily lives and events like Immersive Science ensure that we can get that message out to new audiences across the nation,” says Associate Professor Duffy.
11 August 2017 08:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/08/explore-the-final-frontier-through-the-eyes-of-australias-famed-astronomers/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/08/explore-the-final-frontier-through-the-eyes-of-australias-famed-astronomers/
Astronomy
Science
false
-
Spiral arms allow school children to weigh black holes
Spiral arms allow school children to weigh black holes
New research shows that a black hole’s mass can be accurately estimated.
Astronomers from Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, and the University of Minnesota Duluth, USA, have provided a way for armchair astronomers, and even primary school children, to merely look at a spiral galaxy and estimate the mass of its hidden, central black hole. Given that black holes emit no discernible light, they have traditionally been studied via highly technical observations of the stars and gas orbiting around them, which in turn provide a measurement of how massive they must be. Now, new research based on these pre-existing measurements has shown that a black hole’s mass can be accurately estimated by simply looking at the spiral arms of its host galaxy. Nearly a century ago, Sir James Jeans and Edwin Hubble noted how spiral galaxies with large central bulges possess tightly wound spiral arms, while spiral galaxies with small bulges display wide open spiral arms. Since then, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of spiral galaxies have been classified as type Sa, Sb, Sc, Sd, depending on their spiral arms. Professsor Marc Seigar, Associate Dean of the Swenson College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota Duluth, and co-author of the study, discovered a relationship between central black hole mass and the tightness of a galaxy’s spiral arms nearly a decade ago. Dr Benjamin Davis and Professor Alister Graham, from Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, led the new research revising this connection between black hole mass and spiral arm geometry. After carefully analysing a larger sample of galaxies, imaged by an array of space telescopes, the researchers observed an unexpectedly strong relationship, and one which predicts lower mass black holes in galaxies with open spiral arms (types Sc and Sd). Spiral galaxy arms with varying degrees of tightness, and the corresponding galaxy type and central black hole mass in units of our Sun’s mass. This template can be used to estimate the black hole masses in spiral galaxies. Credit: Benjamin Davis. “The strength of the correlation is competitive with, if not better than, all our other methods used to predict black hole masses,” says Dr Davis. “Anyone can now look at an image of a spiral galaxy and immediately gauge how massive its black hole should be.” Given that it is the discs of galaxies that host the spiral pattern, the study highlights the poorly-known connection between galaxy discs and black holes. Moreover, the procedure allows for the prediction of black hole masses in pure disc galaxies with no stellar bulge. “This implies that black holes and the discs of their host galaxies must co-evolve,” says Dr Davis. "It's now as easy as 'a,b,c' to unlock this mystery of our Universe and reveal the black hole masses in spiral galaxies,” says Professor Graham. “Importantly, the relation will also help searches for the suspected, but currently missing, population of intermediate-mass black holes with masses between 100 and 100,000 times the mass of our Sun. Difficult to pin down, they have masses greater than that of any single star, but are smaller than the supermassive black holes which grow to billions of times the mass of our Sun in giant galaxies,” Professor Graham says. The 'Sab' type galaxy Messier 81, located in the northern constellation of Ursa Major, has a black hole mass of 68 million Suns. Credit: Spitzer Space Telescope and Benjamin Davis. Working within the Australian Research Council’s OzGrav Centre for Excellence, the astronomers intend to hunt down these elusive black holes, and investigate implications for the production of gravitational waves: those ripples in the fabric of Einstein’s space-time that were first announced by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations in 2016. This research was supported by the Australian Research Council and has been published by the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. The research can be downloaded here.
20 July 2017 08:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/07/spiral-arms-allow-school-children-to-weigh-black-holes/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/07/spiral-arms-allow-school-children-to-weigh-black-holes/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research
Science
false
-
The great galactic recession
The great galactic recession
New modelling shows that the first galaxies weren’t forming as quickly as they could have.
A simulated universe created by Swinburne University of Technology and The University of Melbourne has revealed that galaxies emerging in the first billion years after the Big Bang were experiencing a recession. It has long been imagined that the first galaxies formed after the Big Bang were rapidly growing, turning huge clouds of pristine gas into stars at rates thousands of times greater than what we see in the Milky Way today. However, new modelling inspired by economics theory has instead revealed the galaxies weren’t forming as fast as they could have. Swinburne astronomer Associate Professor Alan Duffy created supercomputer simulations of the early Universe treating the complex forming galaxies as a simple economic model with raw materials arriving (under gravity) and being processed (into stars). What surprised Associate Professor Duffy and colleagues was that not all the gas that could form stars was being turned into stars. “In the Universe around us today, we think of galaxies in balance, raising their internal rate at which they form stars until it reaches the rate at which gas arrives,” says co-author Professor Stuart Wyithe, from The University of Melbourne. “If the internal consumption rate is too high then the gas is used up and the galaxy starves until enough new material arrives to replenish their supply. We thought that would occur in the early Universe too, but the picture was totally wrong. Associate Professor Duffy explains that first galaxies have such a torrent of cold gas flowing into them that they simply can’t keep up. “The internal gas consumption can’t rise fast enough with supply outstripping demand or in economics terms the galaxy is in recession. It’s only when the Universe expands over billions of years do the rates of material falling into these growing galaxies slow enough to allow the galaxy to find that balance we see today,” Associate Professor Duffy says. Collectively known as Smaug the gas simulations featured in this work are part of the larger series DRAGONS (Dark-ages, Reionization And Galaxy-formation Observables Numerical Simulation) led by University of Melbourne’s Professor Stuart Wyithe and funded by Professor Wyithe’s Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship. View a video of one of the First Galaxies in Smaug. The research has been published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
17 July 2017 15:05
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/07/the-great-galactic-recession/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/07/the-great-galactic-recession/
Astronomy
Science
false
-
Step by step, we're tackling gender equity in Australian astronomy
Step by step, we're tackling gender equity in Australian astronomy
Efforts praised to get more women in Australian astronomy, but more needs to be done.
The number of women at the most senior levels in the Australian astronomical community remains low despite many positive steps in supporting gender equity. Women make up only 17 per cent of positions at full or associate professor level. Astronomy is not alone in having a gender gap in its workforce. Despite decades of positive initiatives, the number of women working day-to-day in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) fields overall in Australia is low. About 43 per cent of the total STEMM workforce are women compared to men at 57 per cent, based on 2014 figures. This gap widens at the most senior levels, with women making up only 21 per cent of the senior professor positions. Programs to improve the gender gap in astronomy have been recognised this week by the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA). At its annual science meeting, this year in Canberra, it announced 12 recipients of its Pleiades awards. The awards are aimed at encouraging astronomy departments to make a commitment to improving gender equity. We can see the rewarded programs are already having an impact. Focus on recruitment, flexibility and mentors Now in their third year, the first gold Pleiades award went to the ARC Centre for All-Sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), a collaboration of several university astronomy teams. Four silver and seven bronze awards were given to other astronomy groups. CAASTRO’s award recognises the group’s longstanding commitment, with initiatives such as changes to recruitment practices, increased workplace flexibility (such as advertising the opportunity for part-time work), mentoring and improved conference participation by female astronomers. These policies have resulted in an increase in the number of female researchers from roughly 15 per cent at the centre’s inception in 2011, to more than 40 per cent this year. Conference participation is almost at parity in terms of the number of participants, speakers and session chairs. CAASTRO has also created a gender action toolkit, a resource that any department or institute can use. The gender gap Other efforts are also being made to address the gender gap in STEMM with Australian institutions gearing up for their first submissions to the Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) pilot, due at the end of March, 2018. The scheme is based on the UK’s Athena SWAN program on improving gender equity, established in 2005. Over the past 12 years the Athena SWAN program has led to positive transformations in workplace culture and women being more visible in key positions and senior roles in STEMM fields in the UK. But unlike SAGE’s institution-wide approach, the Pleiades awards take a department-by-department approach. As a direct result of the Pleiades awards program, every Australian astronomy department now has an equity and diversity committee to consider and monitor these matters and many have undertaken workplace culture surveys. The next steps Despite this and other efforts to bridge the gender gap, there are still hurdles to be overcome such as hiring practices, unconscious bias and the amount of housework that women undertake in Australia (an issue raised by Annabel Crabb in her book The Wife Drought). One pragmatic action is to advertise female-only positions which the University of Melbourne has now done for a senior position in astronomy. The new ARC Centre of Excellence for All-Sky Astronomy in 3 Dimensions has gone one step further, and requires gender balance at all levels of the Centre, from students to the executive. The gender balance issue is worse for women who are also in other minority groups due to race, sexuality, disability, religion and more. While we have made some progress in gender equity in astronomy, we have now started to broaden the conversation beyond gender alone, to recognise intersectionality which describes how gender equity is impacted by also being members of other minority groups. The ultimate aim is an equitable workplace that allows all women to achieve their full potential. Year by year we are learning more about how best to support women. With each round of the Pleiades awards we further develop the selection criteria to ensure departments keep improving their workplaces. We also expect our astronomy departments to take on new initiatives to retain or progress in the Pleiades awards scheme. The awards have shown the positive effect such a scheme can have in driving cultural change. As the SAGE pilot develops, we expect similar positive change in culture across the whole sector, beyond astronomy alone. Written byVirginia Kilborn, Professor of Astrophysics, Swinburne University of Technology and Sarah Brough, Associate Professor, UNSW. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
14 July 2017 08:03
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/07/step-by-step-were-tackling-gender-equity-in-australian-astronomy/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/07/step-by-step-were-tackling-gender-equity-in-australian-astronomy/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Swinburne to lead pulsar timing instrument design
Swinburne to lead pulsar timing instrument design
Swinburne researchers awarded $444,263 to design the Square Kilometre Array pulsar timing signal processor.
Researchers at Swinburne have been awarded $444,263 by the Australian Government to complete the design of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) pulsar timing signal processor. The highly specialised hardware and software designed by the team will enable some of the highest impact science with the SKA, including observations of radio pulsars to test Einstein’s general theory of relativity. Radio pulsars are one of nature's finest clocks and can be used to test the predictions of the theory of relativity with exquisite accuracy. By timing an array of pulsars distributed across the Galaxy, the SKA will search for the low-frequency gravitational waves created by super-massive black holes that orbit each other after galaxies merge Pursuing this cornerstone science of the SKA requires a high-performance pulsar timing machine capable of the high-speed signal processing necessary to measure the arrival time of pulses with nanosecond precision. The SKA pulsar timing processor will use the latest computing hardware to achieve these goals for up to 16 pulsars simultaneously. Once completed, the SKA will be the world's premier instrument for pulsar timing. It will enable a wide variety of experiments designed to challenge our understanding of space and time. “Ventures like this highlight the depth of expertise at Swinburne in science, technology and innovation – and in particular our leading role in astrophysics,” says Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research and Development, Professor Aleksandar Subic. “The project is led by our new ARC Future Fellow Dr Adam Deller and Professor Matthew Bailes. Their work represents an important component of the SKA Preconstruction Grants Program.” The SKA project is an international effort to build the world's largest and most sensitive radiotelescope, eventually comprising over a square kilometre (one million square metres) of collecting area. Swinburne is leading the pulsar timing instrument design in partnership with international collaborators at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy (MPIfR). Construction of the SKA is expected to commence by 2019.
08 June 2017 14:48
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/06/swinburne-to-lead-pulsar-timing-instrument-design/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/06/swinburne-to-lead-pulsar-timing-instrument-design/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Computing and Engineering Software Systems (SUCCESS)
Science,Technology
false
-
Swinburne wins two Future Fellowships
Swinburne wins two Future Fellowships
Two mid-career astronomy researchers have been awarded Australian Research Council fellowships.
Two astronomy researchers at Swinburne have been awarded Australian Research Council Future Fellowships worth a total of $1,359,334. Dr Deanne Fisher has been awarded $680,000 to measure gas mass, star formation and stellar mass of turbulent disk galaxies. Roughly 80 per cent of stars in the Universe form in turbulent, clumpy disk galaxies. Using new data from the ALMA telescope in Chile, Dr Fisher will conduct a systematic study of gas and star formation in these clumpy, turbulent disks. The project will also use W M Keck Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope data to measure the stellar mass of clumps. Dr Michelle Cluver will be joining Swinburne from the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. She has been awarded $679,334 for a fundamental astrophysics project that will explore the role of neutral gas in the evolution of group galaxies. Dr Cluver will study the fuelling and cessation of star formation in the group environment. Her project will combine expertise in mining data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer space telescope with observations from a range of optical, radio and space telescopes. “We are proud to see these mid-career researchers recognised for their expertise in one of Swinburne’s areas of focus,” says Swinburne Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Development), Professor Aleksandar Subic. “Our astrophysics research has contributed to Swinburne being ranked among the world’s top 100 universities in the field of physics by the prestigious Academic Ranking of World Universities.” The Future Fellowships scheme supports research in areas of critical national importance by giving outstanding researchers incentives to conduct their research in Australia.
08 June 2017 13:59
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/06/swinburne-wins-two-future-fellowships/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/06/swinburne-wins-two-future-fellowships/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research
Science
false
-
A new discovery of gravitational waves has black holes in a spin
A new discovery of gravitational waves has black holes in a spin
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory has made a new gravitational wave discovery.
Within just a couple of months of turning back on for its second major science run, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) made a third detection of gravitational waves, ripples in space and time, demonstrating that a new window in astronomy has been firmly opened. As was the case with the first two detections, the waves were generated when two massive black holes merged to form a larger one. In the latest merger, detailed today in the journal Physical Review Letters, the resulting black hole was about 50 times the mass of our Sun. The detection is called GW170104 - so named because it was made on January 4 this year. The merging black holes are probably the most distant yet seen, about three billion light-years from Earth. OzGrav infographic showing the approximate masses and distances to the first three gravitational wave sources discovered by LIGO. ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) The three known LIGO events are remarkable for the amount of energy liberated in the final few seconds before the merger. In that time their energy loss rate (luminosity) is greater than all the stars in the observable universe put together. When you think that there are more than 100 billion stars in our galaxy, and a similar number of galaxies in the universe, you realise the stupendous amount of energy that is released during these mergers. Despite the energetics of these events, the ripples cause the LIGO mirrors to be displaced by a rather paltry 0.000000000000000001 of a metre. That’s about one-thousandth the size of the nucleus of an atom! Remarkably, LIGO is capable of measuring such tiny displacements. This technology has been developed over decades. An OzGrav animation depicting the binary black hole merger event GW170104, detected by LIGO. The animation simulates the final moments of the merger and is placed near the Earth as an indication of scale. All in the spin The gravitational waves are detected by fitting one of a large number of theoretical “templates” to the data. These templates model how the detectors will react to the passing waves from different mass black holes. There are two leading models for how these massive black holes are brought together. In the simplest model, they are born as a stellar pair. Like planets, black holes spin about their axis. Black holes born in a stellar pair are thought to spin in the same direction. In the other model, massive black holes court each other in huge swarms of stars known as globular clusters. They exchange partners until they dance too close and spiral together in a burst of gravitational waves. In this model, the two black holes are unlikely to spin in the same direction. There is some evidence that this latest black hole collision comes from the second class. Prof Bangalore Sathyaprakash, of Penn State University, is one of authors of the journal paper. He says: This is the first time that we have evidence that the black holes may not be aligned, giving us just a tiny hint that pairs of black holes may form in dense stellar clusters. LIGO will continue to be upgraded over the coming years, and the rate of detections is expected to increase as LIGO is further refined with new technologies. With more detections LIGO will be able to further test the stellar cluster hypothesis. Australia’s gravitational wave experts Members of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) anxiously await these new data. We asked some of OzGrav’s postdocs, students and chief investigators what they were most excited about in this nascent field of astrophysics. Susan Scott, Professor of Physics at Australian National University and a chief investigator at OzGrav In the coming years I am eagerly anticipating the detection of continuous gravitational waves radiated by rotating neutron stars with small deformities or minute “mountains”. With a combination of relativistic velocities, huge magnetic fields and densities beyond that of an atomic nucleus, neutron stars are expected to emit gravitational waves of sufficient amplitude to be detectable by Advanced LIGO. Their detection is a very exciting prospect as it would reveal much about the physics of matter at extreme densities. Letizia Sammut, Postdoctoral Researcher at Monash University One of the most exciting possibilities of gravitational wave astronomy is the detection of gravitational waves from the very early universe almost immediately after the Big Bang! Observation of such a signal would have far-reaching applications across many fields of physics and over a wide range of (energy and length) scales. Lilli Sun, PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne Neutron stars tell their stories continuously by emitting gravitational waves. Once we hear them humming, we will learn how physics works under extreme conditions which can never be reproduced on Earth, like how matter behaves in the densest stars, how a fluid composed almost entirely of neutrons moves, how incredibly strong magnetic fields twist and tangle and annihilate, and so on. We cannot “see” these things with our own eyes, but now we may have the chance to “hear” them! David Ottaway, Associate Professor at the University of Adelaide The most exciting thing about the future of gravitational waves is using detectors limited only by quantum mechanics to measure the composition of neutron stars, which are an exotic form of matter that cannot be studied any other way. Bram Slagmolen, ARC Future Fellow at the Australian National University The future of gravitational waves using next-generation detectors will be super exciting. We will not only be able to observe deeper into the universe, at the same time, we will also be able to study fundamental physics in extreme environments more precisely. Qi Chu, Phd student at the University of Western Australia I am part of a team led by Professor Linqing Wen at UWA that is racing to create faster ways to crunch the LIGO data to minimise the time between the gravitational waves hitting earth and an alert being sent for follow-up observations with other telescopes. That will help us localise the event to a host galaxy to learn even more about these extreme events in the universe. Lead image credit: Image: Numerical-relativistic Simulation: S Ossokine, A Buonanno (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics) and the Simulating eXtreme Spacetime project Scientific Visualization: T Dietrich (Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics), R Haas (NCSA) Written by Matthew Bailes, ARC Laureate Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology., Swinburne University of Technology; Eric Thrane, Lecturer in Physics & Astronomy and ARC Future Fellow, Monash University, and Paul Lasky, Lecturer and ARC Future Fellow, Monash University. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
02 June 2017 11:25
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/06/a-new-discovery-of-gravitational-waves-has-black-holes-in-a-spin/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/06/a-new-discovery-of-gravitational-waves-has-black-holes-in-a-spin/
Astronomy
Science
false
-
New ripples in cosmic pond put black holes and scientists in a spin
New ripples in cosmic pond put black holes and scientists in a spin
LIGO has made a third detection of gravitational waves, ripples in space and time, demonstrating that a new window in astronomy has been firmly opened.
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) has made a third detection of gravitational waves, ripples in space and time, demonstrating that a new window in astronomy has been firmly opened. As was the case with the first two detections, the waves were generated when two black holes merged to form a larger black hole. In the latest merger, the final black hole was some 50 times the mass of our Sun. The recent detection, called GW170104, is the farthest yet, with the black holes located about three billion light-years away. “The event released more energy in its last few orbits than that of rest of the entire universe, yet when the ripples passed the LIGO detector they made it vibrate by just one attometer, or 0.000000000000000001 metres”, says Professor Matthew Bailes, Director of the new Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav). Despite this tiny displacement, the scientists from the LIGO and Virgo scientific collaborations were able to demonstrate the black holes exhibited a property known as “spin”. "This is the first time that we have evidence that the black holes may not be aligned, giving us just a tiny hint that pairs of black holes may form in dense stellar clusters," says Bangalore Sathyaprakash of Penn State University, one of two lead editors for the publication. “The LIGO detector lets us feel the gravitational wave, and we are on a mission to see the source of the event by looking through powerful telescopes.” says Postdoctoral Fellow Qi Chu from the University of Western Australia and member of the LIGO scientific collaboration and OzGrav. She is part of a team led by OzGrav Chief Investigator Professor Linqing Wen that is racing to create faster ways to crunch the LIGO data to minimise the time between the gravitational waves hitting earth and an alert being sent out for follow-up observations. For OzGrav’s Deputy Director, Professor David McClelland, this latest discovery makes the impetus to continue work on upgrading the LIGO detector even more compelling. “Our quest to extend LIGO to detect other types of violent events, such as those from neutron stars, drives us to develop new technologies such as quantum squeezing optical devices to reach further into Einstein’s Universe. The research is published in Physical Review Letters. LIGO is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), and operated by MIT and Caltech, which conceived and built the project. Financial support for the Advanced LIGO project was led by NSF with Germany (Max Planck Society), the U.K. (Science and Technology Facilities Council) and Australia (Australian Research Council) making significant commitments and contributions to the project. More than 1,000 scientists from around the world participate in the effort through the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, which includes the GEO Collaboration. LIGO partners with the Virgo Collaboration, a consortium including 280 additional scientists throughout Europe supported by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), and Nikhef, as well as Virgo’s host institution, the European Gravitational Observatory. Additional partners are listed at: http://ligo.org/partners.php. The ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) is funded by the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council Centres of Excellence funding scheme. OzGrav is a partnership between Swinburne University of Technology (host of OzGrav headquarters), the Australian National University, Monash University, University of Adelaide, University of Melbourne, and University of Western Australia, along with other collaborating organisations in Australia and overseas.
01 June 2017 13:58
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/06/new-ripples-in-cosmic-pond-put-black-holes-and-scientists-in-a-spin/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/06/new-ripples-in-cosmic-pond-put-black-holes-and-scientists-in-a-spin/
Astronomy
Science,University
false
-
Live fast, die young: a massive ‘dead red’ galaxy seen for first time
Live fast, die young: a massive ‘dead red’ galaxy seen for first time
A galaxy has stopped making stars only 1.65 billion years after the Big Bang.
The discovery of massive galaxy that stopped making any new stars by the time the Universe was only 1.65 billion years old means we may have to rethink our theories on how galaxies formed. The galaxy, known as ZF-COSMOS-20115, formed all of its stars (more than three times as many as our Milky Way has today) through an extreme starburst event. But it stopped forming stars to become a “red and dead” galaxy not much more than a billion years after the Big Bang. Such galaxies are common in our Universe today but not expected to have existed at this ancient epoch. Galaxies turn red when they stop forming stars due to the resulting absence of hot, blue stars that have very short lifetimes. This discovery by our team sets a new record for the earliest massive red galaxy, with details published in Nature this month. It is an incredibly rare find that poses a new challenge to galaxy evolution models to accommodate the existence of such galaxies much earlier in the Universe. An earlier discovery To put this discovery in context, I’d like to give a short, personal history of research on early massive galaxies. In 2004 I wrote an uncannily similar Nature paper about the existence of massive, old galaxies in the early Universe that were discovered in deep near-infrared surveys. At that time we were peering back across space to 3 billion years after the Big Bang. These were a challenge for the models of galaxy formation that scientists were working with at the time, the start of a period where our pictures of how galaxies formed were rapidly being rewritten. At the time, a picture of galaxies forming by lots of mergers in hierarchical assembly was in vogue. The problem was that this meant that today’s massive galaxies were in little bits billions of years ago. But significant changes were made – driven in part by observations of the abundance of early massive galaxies, the observations of large gas-rich disk galaxies at these epochs and the discovery of “red nuggets” – extremely compact massive elliptical galaxies which stopped forming stars early on. We moved to a picture where most galaxy growth and formation was driven by the formation of stars within the galaxy itself, from cosmic gas coming in to the galaxy. This gas is fed into galaxies along the cosmic web by cold streams that are effective early on and allow us to grow massive galaxies more quickly in the computer modelling. Many, many astronomers contributed to these developments and it was fun to play a minor role. The new discovery So what about this new discovery? This stems from the ZFOURGE survey, a deep near-infrared imaging survey we have been conducting on the Magellan telescopes in Chile, since 2010. Back in 2013, one of our students, Caroline Straatman of Leiden University, discovered a population of pale red dots in the ZFOURGE survey. These dots were bright in the near-infrared but very faint in the 35 other wavelength bands we observed. This peak suggested the presence of roughly 500 million year old stars but at a huge cosmic redshift. In the local Universe this peak appears in blue light, so the redshift points to a time around 1.5 billion years after the Big Bang. The light suggested that no young stars were present, and the near-infrared brightness suggested these were massive objects (1011 solar masses). To put this in context, our Milky Way has been growing continuously for 12 billion years but is 3-5 times less massive. Even more remarkably, the galaxies looked like ellipticals and were almost point sources, even with high-resolution Hubble Space Telescope observations. They were less than 5,000 light years across. Extremely dense red nuggets at an earlier time than anyone had suspected. Lines in the spectrum In 2012 a powerful new near-infrared spectrograph was commissioned on the W M Keck telescopes in Hawaii. Last year we used it to get a two-night exposure on some of these objects. We were amazed when we got a spectrum of the brightest (and most massive). They showed the distinct signature of Balmer absorption lines of stars around 500 million years old. Importantly there was no sign of current star-formation. This galaxy was already massive and between 500 million and 1 billion years old. It must have formed extremely fast, and then its star formation died quickly. This extreme behaviour could require significant rewriting of our pictures of galaxy formation in the first billion years of cosmic history. Why? Well, we think galaxies form in the centres of halos of cold dark matter. Dark matter particles is not made of ordinary atoms, and particle physicists are still trying to detect these in the laboratory. These halos can form very early and act as seeds for galaxy formation giving it a kick start. Without dark matter it would be difficult to form any galaxy. The problem is at this early time there are barely enough massive dark matter halos to accommodate such massive galaxies. As a consequence in simulated Universes we don’t find this population of non-star forming galaxies so early, nor do we find the massive ancestors with extreme star-formation rates a billion years earlier. So, do we need two recipes for galaxy formation where some form extremely quickly and the rest take 12 billion years? Time will tell. The history of this field has shown that the theoretical community has a very strong record of postdiction (as opposed to prediction), and I expect a slew of papers will turn up in the next few weeks to explain this object! Teasing of theorists aside, galaxy formation is a very difficult field to work in; the astrophysics are complex and it is very much driven by new observations which is why it is so much fun to work in. Meanwhile our groups are pursuing the quest for massive galaxies to even earlier times. We have designed new filters to identify these and hope to start a new survey using the Gemini telescopes this year. Theorists, get your predictions in now. Written by Karl Glazebrook, Director & Distinguished Professor, Centre for Astrophysics & Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
12 April 2017 15:24
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/04/live-fast-die-young-a-massive-dead-red-galaxy-seen-for-first-time/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/04/live-fast-die-young-a-massive-dead-red-galaxy-seen-for-first-time/
Astronomy
Science
false
-
The monster galaxy that grew up too fast
The monster galaxy that grew up too fast
An ancient dead galaxy may change the way we think about the evolution of galaxies.
An international team of astronomers has, for the first time, spotted a massive, inactive galaxy from a time when the Universe was only 1.65 billion years old. Astronomers expect most galaxies from this epoch to be low-mass minnows, busily forming stars. However, this galaxy is ‘a monster’ and inactive, according to Professor Karl Glazebrook, Director of Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, who led the team.
06 April 2017 02:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/04/the-monster-galaxy-that-grew-up-too-fast/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/04/the-monster-galaxy-that-grew-up-too-fast/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Outreach—why reach out?
Outreach—why reach out?
Taking science out of the lab and into the mainstream is something worth tuning in for.
As I write this on-site at the Australian Astronomical Observatory, home for the next three nights to the BBC/ABC Stargazing Live show, I’m struck by the number of scientists working hard to explain their science to the nation. They’re taking significant time away from their research, sitting in freezing conditions and working incredibly hard to make the science understandable. Why? Because it matters. Science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) are undoubtedly key skill sets for jobs of the future, although the oft-quoted statistic that 75% of the fastest growing occupations rely on these skills needs further research to verify (the citation trail ultimately links to a 2007 US Dept of Education study that doesn’t even mention this). Yet what is undeniable is that STEM enrolment rates in Australian schools continue to decline, with 50% of NSW high school certificate graduating with no science from school at all. In terms of achievement on international metrics, Australia has stagnated over the past two decades. Regardless of the job numbers, we need STEM-aware citizens to be able to make informed decisions in a world where science and technology present great challenges and opportunities. Trying to arrest decline in STEM literacy will take efforts in the education sector, both at school and university, but also as a society. Changing millions of minds requires traditional outreach as well as social media efforts on an epic scale. That’s why shows like Stargazing Live, Todd Sampson’s Life on the Line, and – for those podcasters out there – Cosmic Vertigo, are so important. They make STEM cool. Science explained differently. Shows like Todd Sampson’s ‘Life on the Line’ help make STEM cool by exploring science and the fundamental laws of physics in an experiential manner. Making science accessible, and approachable, is also fundamental to the success of that science. Publicly funded research has to let the boss – that is, the taxpayer – see what’s being done with those funds. Furthermore, the public should know what the latest research has to say on mass coral bleaching, the threats to public health from avoiding vaccination and of course the dangers but also benefits of genetically modifying crops. Research that isn’t immediately applicable to our lives can, through the shear beauty and inspiration of say exploring the cosmos, certainly enrich it. Minds aren’t changed overnight, even over three nights with Stargazing, but taking science out of the lab and into the mainstream is something worth tuning in for. Written by Alan Duffy, Associate Professor and Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
05 April 2017 13:34
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/04/outreachwhy-reach-out/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/04/outreachwhy-reach-out/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Mysterious bursts of energy do come from outer space
Mysterious bursts of energy do come from outer space
Research using data from the Molonglo Telescope has confirmed that fast radio bursts come from outer space.
Fast Radio Bursts present one of modern astronomy’s greatest mysteries: what or who in the Universe is transmitting short bursts of radio energy across the cosmos? Manisha Caleb, a PhD candidate at Australian National University, Swinburne University of Technology and the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), has confirmed that the mystery bursts of radio waves that astronomers have hunted for ten years really do come from outer space. Ms Caleb worked with Swinburne and University of Sydney colleagues to detect three of these Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) with the Molonglo radio telescope 40 km from Canberra. Discovered almost 10 years ago at CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope, Fast Radio Bursts are millisecond-duration intense pulses of radio light that appear to be coming from vast distances. They are about a billion times more luminous than anything we have ever seen in our own Milky Way galaxy. One potential explanation of the mystery is that they weren’t really coming from outer space, but were some form of local interference tricking astronomers into searching for new theories of their ‘impossible’ radio energy. “Perhaps the most bizarre explanation for the FRBs is that they were alien transmissions,” says ARC Laureate Fellow Professor Matthew Bailes from Swinburne. “Conventional single dish radio telescopes have difficulty establishing that transmissions originate beyond the Earth’s atmosphere,” says Swinburne’s Dr Chris Flynn. Molonglo opens new window on the Universe In 2013 CAASTRO scientists and engineers realised that the Molonglo telescope’s unique architecture could place a minimum distance to the FRBs due to its enormous focal length. A massive re-engineering effort began, which is now opening a new window on the Universe. The Molonglo telescope has a huge collecting area (18,000 square metres) and a large field of view (eight square degrees on the sky), which makes it excellent for hunting for fast radio bursts. Ms Caleb’s project was to develop software to sift through the 1000 TB of data produced each day. Her work paid off with the three new FRB discoveries. “It is very exciting to see the University of Sydney’s Molonglo telescope making such important scientific discoveries by partnering with Swinburne’s expertise in supercomputing”, says Professor Anne Green of the University of Sydney. Thanks to further funding from the Australian Research Council the telescope will be improved even more to gain the ability to localise bursts to an individual galaxy. “Figuring out where the bursts come from is the key to understanding what makes them. Only one burst has been linked to a specific galaxy,” Ms Caleb says. “We expect Molonglo will do this for many more bursts.” A paper on the discovery ‘The first interferometric detections of Fast Radio Bursts’ has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. It is available online at https://arxiv.org/abs/1703.10173
03 April 2017 09:44
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/04/mysterious-bursts-of-energy-do-come-from-outer-space/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/04/mysterious-bursts-of-energy-do-come-from-outer-space/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Swinburne to play starring role in live ABC/BBC astronomical event
Swinburne to play starring role in live ABC/BBC astronomical event
Swinburne joins leading astronomy organisations to celebrate Stargazing Live with Brian Cox
Swinburne is gearing up to play a starring role in the final night ABC/BBC co-production of Stargazing Live with Brian Cox. Stargazing Live takes place from 4 – 6 April across the ABC network. Renowned physicist Professor Brian Cox and presenter Julia Zemiro are joined by a cast of Australia’s leading astronomers, including Swinburne’s Associate Professor Alan Duffy, to inspire the nation to ‘look up’ and appreciate the unique wonders of space and our cosmos. Associate Professor Duffy will be based at the Siding Springs Observatory, home of Australia’s largest optical telescope – the Anglo-Australian Telescope. Here he’ll participate in the nightly Back to Earth show, to follow Professor Cox’s Stargazing Live episodes, as part of a panel answering questions from viewers around Australia based on what they’ve seen. “Australia has one of the best night sky views in the world with the Milky Way stretching overhead and huge areas of pristine dark skies unspoilt by light pollution,” Associate Professor Duffy says. “I’m delighted to be part of a national event to get people to look up and enjoy our beautiful night skies and honoured to join some of the best minds in science to answer the public’s questions on astronomy” To celebrate the final night of the production, Stargazing Live culminates in a uniquely Melbourne experience on Thursday 6 April at Federation Square, hosted by Dr Karl and Grace Koh. Swinburne and OzGrav, the Swinburne led and hosted new ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, will exhibit alongside Victoria’s leading astronomy and science organisations including Scienceworks and Museums Victoria at this free community event from 7pm. Swinburne will be bringing physics and astronomy demonstrations to the event, exploring science in interactive ways with professional astrophysicists and scientists using telescopes and an interactive laser maze. OzGrav will showcase the world’s experts in gravitational wave astronomy to explain this new frontier to the public, using Virtual Reality to allow you to fly alongside distant astronomical objects that will be discussed in the show. The ABC and Federation Square encourage visitors to come dressed as an alien, with prizes on offer for the most creative costume. The competition will be judged from 8pm. At 8.30pm a special viewing of the final episode will be shown on the big screen.
28 March 2017 14:56
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/03/swinburne-to-play-starring-role-in-live-abcbbc-astronomical-event/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/03/swinburne-to-play-starring-role-in-live-abcbbc-astronomical-event/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
false
-
December Media and Swinburne release The Search for Life in Space
December Media and Swinburne release The Search for Life in Space
December Media has produced a new giant screen film in collaboration with Swinburne.
Taking viewers from the surface of Mars and the icy moons of Jupiter and Saturn to the extreme lava fields and toxic thermal vents under the ocean, the new IMAX® film The Search for Life in Space is not to be missed. The film is the second in a trilogy developed by December Media in collaboration with Swinburne. The first film, Hidden Universe, shows us how technology allows us to look further into space. The Search for Life in Space uses the technology explored in the first film to search for life on worlds that exhibit similar evolutionary processes to Earth. The live action sequences were shot in Hawaii, due to the wide range of climate types there. The film has a strong focus on astrobiology, a relatively new field that looks at the origin, survival, and possible distribution of life around the Universe. Astrobiologists analyse Earth’s own evolution to consider how life has formed and sustained itself. This information is then used to search for moons and planets that are most likely to be able to host life. "In showing to us the beauty of space The Search For Life In Space reminds us of why we explore but it's in the breathtaking journey on Earth that we understand the value of that life," says Swinburne Associate Professor Alan Duffy. "I have never been more in awe of our Solar System than when I got to soar alongside spacecraft over planets like Saturn and Jupiter. Knowing it's scientifically accurate just makes the experience all the more astounding." Viewers will be able to immerse themselves in outer space, as the film features images taken by the world’s most powerful telescopes. Making space images for the giant screen The film's visual effects team used supercomputers at Swinburne's Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing to render the images. Rendering the images required a tremendous amount of computing power as well as more than 500 terabytes of disk space. “A frame takes more than 16 times longer to render than a typical TV frame, plus a lot of extra development time to achieve enough detail in the scene to make it worthy of 8k,” animation producer and Swinburne multimedia alumnus Russell Scott says. “We ran a broad range of software, including 3ds Max, V-Ray, DaVinci Resolve and Blackmagic Design: Fusion as well as custom tools and various plugins.” The Swinburne team worked with advising physicists and astronomers over 12 months to render the space images. “There are few people in Australia, let alone the world, who could have achieved this film and we were very fortunate to have such excellent support from the IT team at Swinburne,” Mr Scott says. The next film in the series, Earth Story, will take us into the visual journey of our planet’s birth, infancy and adolescence. Check session times for The Search for Life in Space at IMAX® Melbourne. IMAX® is a trademark of IMAX Corporation.
15 March 2017 13:44
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/03/december-media-and-swinburne-release-the-search-for-life-in-space/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/03/december-media-and-swinburne-release-the-search-for-life-in-space/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),International,Industry and Community Partnerships
Science,Technology,Film and television,Design
false
-
Spontaneous ‘dust traps’ – the missing link in how planets form
Spontaneous ‘dust traps’ – the missing link in how planets form
An international team of astronomers may have discovered how initial dust develops into planetary systems.
A French-UK-Australian team of astronomers may have discovered the missing link in planet formation that explains how initial dust develops into planetary systems. Using numerical simulations and analytical calculations, researchers from Swinburne University of Technology, Lyon University and St Andrews University have developed a theory that explains the growth of solid particles from pebbles to planetesimals (asteroid-like bodies). Their simulations show the formation of ‘dust traps’ where pebble-sized fragments collect and stick together, to grow into the building blocks of planets. Planetary systems, such as our Solar system, began life as a disk of gas and dust grains around a young star. The processes that convert these tiny grains into larger aggregates a few centimetres in size, and the mechanism that converts kilometre-sized planetesimals into planetary cores are both reasonably well understood. But the crucial intermediate stage, taking pebbles and joining them together into objects the size of asteroids, is less clear. “There are two main barriers to pebbles becoming planetesimals,” says Swinburne Dean of Science, Professor Sarah Maddison. “Firstly the drag of gas on dust grains in a disk makes them drift rapidly towards the central star, where they are destroyed, leaving no material to form planets. “The second challenge is that growing grains can be broken up in high-speed collisions into a large number of smaller pieces, thus reversing the aggregation process.” Dust traps allow grains of dust to slow and accumulate The only locations in planet forming disks where these problems can be overcome are in so-called ‘dust traps’. In these high-pressure regions, the drift motion slows, allowing dust grains to accumulate. With their reduced speed, the grains can also avoid fragmentation when they collide. Until now, astronomers thought that dust traps could only exist in very specific environments, but the computer simulations run by the team indicate that they are very common. The stages of the formation of dust traps. The central (yellow) star, surrounded by the protoplanetary (blue) disk. The dust grains make up the band running through the disk. Credit: © Volker Schubert. “What we have been able to identify is the key role of the drag of dust on the gas,” Professor Maddison says. “Often in astronomy, the gas tells the dust how to move, but when there is a lot of dust, the dust tells the gas how to move. This effect, known as aerodynamic drag back-reaction, is usually negligible. However, the effect becomes important in dust rich environments, like those found in the planet formation process.” The effect of the back-reaction is to slow the inward drift of the grains, which gives them time to grow in size. Once large enough, the grains are their own masters, and the gas can no longer govern their motion. Under the influence of this back-reaction, the gas is pushed outwards to form a high-pressure region: the dust trap. These spontaneous traps then concentrate the grains coming from the outer disk regions, creating a very dense ring of solids, and giving a helping hand to the formation of planets. The results have been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
28 February 2017 11:17
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/02/spontaneous-dust-traps--the-missing-link-in-how-planets-form/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/02/spontaneous-dust-traps--the-missing-link-in-how-planets-form/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),International
false
-
Baby galaxies light up the Universe
Baby galaxies light up the Universe
Baby galaxies provide a cosmic magnifying glass, lighting up the Universe with their combined light.
Looking up at a dark night sky it might not seem it but our Universe is full of light. In fact, we probably take for granted that we can see across space to those distant stars and even more distant galaxies. There was however a time when we wouldn’t have seen those stars, there was a time when a fog lay across it. That time was the Cosmic Dark Ages. Now we may know how it ended thanks to new observations using the Hubble Space Telescope. The Cosmic Dark Ages began 330,000 years after the Big Bang when the Universe cooled enough to allow atoms to form, revealing the Cosmic Microwave Background. The atoms of hydrogen stretched across the near featureless early Universe for millions of years. These atoms acted like a fog, blocking the light from the newly formed baby galaxies and stars. A billion years later, the Universe had dramatically changed with the fog now vanished in a process known as the Epoch of Reionisation, definitively ending the Dark Ages. Peering deep into the Universe we see objects as there were when the light first left them. Images such as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field show that huge numbers of galaxies of all sizes had grown surprisingly quickly in the early Universe. Yet even the Hubble Space Telescope can only see the brighter of these galaxies at such enormous distances. Adding together everything we can see simply doesn’t provide enough light, similar to the type of ultraviolet light that burns your skin on the beach, to ionise away the fog. Instead astronomers have tried to locate other sources of ultraviolet light. The Hubble Telescope finds 10,000 galaxies stretching away into the distant Universe, showing them as they were when the light them. The smaller, redder objects are from a time when the Universe was just 1 billion years old. NASA, ESA, and S. Beckwith (STScI) and the HUDF Team Feeding blackholes are an obvious choice, creating huge amounts of ionising radiation from material swirling around the gravitational ‘plughole’ at nearly the speed of light. Alternatively, the first stars (known as Pop III stars) could be giants exploding in spectacular fashion, hundreds of times more energetically than anything we see today. However, there may well not be enough of either to provide the huge amount of ionising ultraviolet to light up the early universe. Instead we can turn to a less exotic source of light. Vast numbers of baby galaxies, beyond the limits of even Hubble’s ability to see. In model universes, created as part of the DRAGONS simulation series led by Prof Stuart Wyithe, we showed that ever greater numbers of ever smaller baby galaxies could light up an entire Universe with their combined light. A ‘baby’ galaxy formed within the first billion years of a simulated universe. Redder colours indicate denser regions of gas that can form new stars. Enough of these tiny galaxies can light up the universe. The issue with testing this idea was not even the Hubble Space Telescope can see these baby galaxies as far away as in the distant Epoch of Reionisation. Instead, Dr Rachel Livermore and colleagues used the gravity of giant clusters of galaxies to magnify background objects. This effectively meant that Hubble became ten times more powerful, but first they had to remove the blinding effects of the bright nearby galaxies in the cluster itself. After applying this technique, the astronomers uncovered 167 magnified baby galaxies. Finding so many baby galaxies tentatively suggests there may well be enough even smaller objects to light up the universe as simulations had predicated. However confirming how the Cosmic Dark Ages ended will take even bigger telescopes than Hubble, including its successor mission the James Webb Space Telescope or on Earth the Giant Magellan Telescope and event the continent-spanning Square Kilometre Array. For now at least, ingenious use of a naturally occurring cosmic magnifying glass suggests baby galaxies are a leading culprit for bringing light to our Universe’s darkest moment. Written by Alan Duffy, Associate Professor and Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
13 February 2017 12:24
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/02/baby-galaxies-light-up-the-universe/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/02/baby-galaxies-light-up-the-universe/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Black holes are even stranger than you can imagine
Black holes are even stranger than you can imagine
Professor Alister Graham discusses the mysteriousness of black holes.
Our love of black holes continues to grow as our knowledge of these celestial bodies expands. The latest news is the discovery of a rare "middleweight" black hole, a relative newcomer to the black hole family. We already knew that some black holes are just a few times the mass of our Sun, while others are more than a billion times as massive. But others with intermediate masses, such as the one 2,200 times the mass of our Sun recently discovered in the star cluster 47 Tucanae, are surprisingly elusive. So what is it about black holes, these gravitational prisons that trap anything that gets too close to them, that captures the imagination of people of all ages and professions? ‘Dark stars’ As far back as 1783, within the framework of Newtonian dynamics, the concept of “dark stars” with sufficiently high density that not even light can escape their gravitational pull had been advanced by the English philosopher and mathematician John Michell. Almost immediately after Albert Einstein presented his theory of general relativity in 1915, which supplanted Newton’s description of our Universe and revealed how space and time are intimately linked, fellow German Karl Schwarzschild and Dutchman Johannes Droste independently derived the new equations for a spherical or point mass. Although at the time the issue was still something of a mathematical curiosity, over the ensuing quarter of a century nuclear physicists realised that sufficiently massive stars would collapse under their own weight to become these previously theorised black holes. Their existence was eventually confirmed by astronomers using powerful telescopes, and more recently colliding black holes were the source of the gravitational waves detected with the LIGO instrumentation in the United States. A dense object The densities of such objects is mind-boggling. If our Sun were to become a black hole, it would need to collapse from its current size of 1.4 million km across to a radius of less than 3km (6km across). Its average density within this “Schwarzschild radius” would be nearly 20 billion tonnes per cubic centimetre. The increasing strength and pull of gravity as you get closer to a black hole can be dramatic. On Earth, the strength of the gravitational pull holding you to its surface is roughly the same at your feet as it is at your head, which is a little bit farther away from the planet. But near some black holes, the difference in gravitational pull from head to toe is so great that you would be pulled apart and stretched out on an atomic level, in a process referred to as spaghettification. In 1958, the American physicist David Finkelstein was the first to realise the true nature of what has come to be called the “event horizon” of a black hole. He described this boundary around a black hole as the perfect unidirectional membrane. It’s an intangible surface encapsulating a sphere of no return. Once inside this sphere, the gravitational pull of the black hole is too great to escape – even for light. In 1963, the New Zealand mathematician Roy Kerr solved the equations for the more realistic rotating black holes. These yielded closed time-like curves that permitted movement backwards through time. While such strange solutions to the equations of general relativity first appeared in the 1949 work of Austrian-American logician Kurt Gödel, it is commonly thought that they must be a mathematical artefact yet to be explained away. A video simulation of two black holes merging. Black and white holes In 1964, two Americans, the writer Ann Ewing and the theoretical physicist John Wheeler, introduced the term “black hole”. Subsequently, in 1965, the Russian theoretical astrophysicist Igor Novikov introduced the term “white hole” to describe the hypothetical opposite of a black hole. The argument was that if matter falls into a black hole, then perhaps it is spewed out into our universe from a white hole. This idea is partly rooted in the mathematical concept known as an Einstein-Rosen bridge. Discovered (mathematically) in 1916 by the Austrian physicist Ludwig Flamm, and re-introduced in 1935 by Einstein and the American-Israeli physicist Nathan Rosen, it was later termed a “wormhole” by Wheeler. In 1962, Wheeler and the American physicist Robert Fuller explained why such wormholes would be unstable for transporting even a single photon across the same universe. Fact and fiction Not surprisingly, the idea of entering a (black hole) portal and re-emerging somewhere else in the universe – in space and/or time – has spawned countless science fiction stories, including Doctor Who, Stargate, Fringe, Farscape and Disney’s Black Hole. Ongoing productions can simply claim that their characters are travelling to a different or a parallel universe to our own. While it appears to be mathematically feasible, there is of course no physical evidence to support the existences of such universes. But this is not to say that time travel, at least in a limited sense, is not real. When travelling at great speed, or perhaps falling into a black hole, the passage of time does slow down relative to that experienced by stationary observers. Clocks flown quickly around the world have demonstrated this, displaying time lags in accordance with Einstein’s theory of special relativity. The 2014 movie Interstellar played on this effect around a black hole, thereby creating a sense of travelling forward in time for astronaut Cooper (played by Matthew McConaughey). Despite the strangely endearing name, the phrase “black hole” is perhaps somewhat misleading. It implies a hole in space-time through which matter will fall, as opposed to matter falling onto an incredibly dense object. What actually exists within a black hole’s event horizon is hotly debated. Attempts to understand this include the “fuzzball” picture from string theory, or descriptions of black holes in quantum gravity theories known as “spin foam networks” or “loop quantum gravity”. One thing that does seem certain is that black holes will continue to intrigue and fascinate us for some time yet. Written by Alister Graham, Professor of Astronomy, Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
10 February 2017 15:23
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/02/black-holes-are-even-stranger-than-you-can-imagine/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/02/black-holes-are-even-stranger-than-you-can-imagine/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Deeper, Wider, Faster program seeks to make new discoveries in astronomy
Deeper, Wider, Faster program seeks to make new discoveries in astronomy
A collaboration of telescopes from around the world and in space has been searching for the fastest explosions in the Universe.
A massive collaboration of about 20 telescopes from around the world and in space has been searching for the fastest explosions in the Universe from a control room at Swinburne’s Hawthorn campus. Astronomers, current and prospective students at Swinburne and those participating remotely around the world are aiming to solve the mystery of one class of fast explosions – the Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), a type of mysterious explosion discovered in 2015 by Swinburne astronomers. These explosions occur faster than the blink of an eye, but are so bright they can be seen halfway across the Universe. Over the course of six days of observing, the astronomers discovered more than a dozen supernovae very early in their explosion, one in a very peculiar host galaxy, several mysterious exploding events, thousands of rapid pulsating events, asteroids, and flaring stars. But sadly, no FRBs. “We didn't detect an elusive FRB, but the odds are low because they are so rare, hence we need a number of these observing runs to detect one,” says program leader Dr Jeff Cooke, pictured above. "However, because of the design of this program, we only need one to solve their mystery. “We did, however, detect many interesting objects that were also top priorities for the program and thousands of events that are somewhat more common, but which have not been detected in this number nor with the very fast cadence or type of multiple wavelength observations.” "We process and search the data in real time using the Swinburne supercomputers and are essentially making very sensitive and detailed movies of the active Universe. Observations to continue The simultaneous observations around the world and in space that were coordinated from Swinburne’s Advanced Technologies Centre have been completed, but they are just the first part of the program. “We were happy with the outcome,” Dr Cooke says. “We have ongoing follow-up observations that are equally important with an array of telescopes all over the world, including gravitational wave detectors, and both the data and discoveries are still forthcoming." The telescopes involved in this experiment included: • The Parkes radio telescope, Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope, Australian Telescope Compact Array and the Murchison Widefield Array in Australia, • the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory Blanco telescope with the Dark Energy Camera and the European Southern Observatory REM infrared telescope, both in Chile, • the SkyMapper telescsope, ANU 2.3m telescope and Zadko telescope in Australia, • the Southern African Large Telescope in South Africa • NASA Swift space telescope in Earth orbit • The IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole • The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatories in the USA
09 February 2017 14:51
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/02/deeper-wider-faster-program-seeks-to-make-new-discoveries-in-astronomy/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/02/deeper-wider-faster-program-seeks-to-make-new-discoveries-in-astronomy/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),International,Research
Science,Technology
false
-
Galaxy murder mystery
Galaxy murder mystery
A team of astronomers have uncovered why galaxies are dying early.
It’s the big astrophysical whodunnit. Across the Universe, galaxies are being killed and the question scientists want answered is, what’s killing them? New research published today by a global team of researchers, based at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), seeks to answer that question. The study reveals that a phenomenon called ram-pressure stripping is more prevalent than previously thought, driving gas from galaxies and sending them to an early death by depriving them of the material to make new stars. The study of 11,000 galaxies shows their gas—the lifeblood for star formation—is being violently stripped away on a widespread scale throughout the local Universe. Toby Brown, leader of the study and PhD candidate at ICRAR and Swinburne University of Technology, says the image we paint as astronomers is that galaxies are embedded in clouds of dark matter that we call dark matter halos. Dark matter is the mysterious material, that despite being invisible accounts for roughly 27 per cent of our Universe, while ordinary matter makes up just 5 per cent. The remaining 68 per cent is dark energy. “During their lifetimes, galaxies can inhabit halos of different sizes, ranging from masses typical of our own Milky Way to halos thousands of times more massive,” Mr Brown says. “As galaxies fall through these larger halos, the superheated intergalactic plasma between them removes their gas in a fast-acting process called ram-pressure stripping. “You can think of it like a giant cosmic broom that comes through and physically sweeps the gas from the galaxies.” Mr Brown says removing the gas from galaxies leaves them unable to form new stars. Image credit: ICRAR “It dictates the life of the galaxy because the existing stars will cool off and grow old,” he says. “If you remove the fuel for star formation then you effectively kill the galaxy and turn it into a dead object.” ICRAR researcher Dr Barbara Catinella, co-author of the study, says astronomers already knew ram-pressure stripping affected galaxies in clusters, which are the most massive halos found in the Universe. “This paper demonstrates that the same process is operating in much smaller groups of just a few galaxies together with much less dark matter,” Mr Brown says. “Most galaxies in the Universe live in these groups of between two and a hundred galaxies.” “We’ve found this removal of gas by stripping is potentially the dominant way galaxies are quenched by their surrounds, meaning their gas is removed and star formation shuts down.” The study was published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. It used an innovative technique combining the largest optical galaxy survey ever completed—the Sloan Digital Sky Survey—with the largest set of radio observations for atomic gas in galaxies —the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA survey. Mr Brown says the other main process by which galaxies run out of gas and die is known as strangulation. “Strangulation occurs when the gas is consumed to make stars faster than it’s being replenished, so the galaxy starves to death,” he said. “It’s a slow-acting process. On the contrary, what ram-pressure stripping does is bop the galaxy on the head and remove its gas very quickly—of the order of tens of millions of years—and astronomically speaking that’s very fast.” ‘Cold gas stripping in satellite galaxies: from pairs to clusters’ was published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on 17 January 2017.
17 January 2017 14:25
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/01/galaxy-murder-mystery/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/01/galaxy-murder-mystery/
Astronomy
Science
false
-
8 reasons to look into outer space in 2017
8 reasons to look into outer space in 2017
From meteor showers to space missions, Dr Alan Duffy explains what outer space will bring us in 2017.
It’s been a rough 2016 on Earth so I wanted to share (just some of) my reasons why I think we should celebrate New Years as 2017 is looking incredibly exciting. Everything from meteor showers and eclipses to epic space missions and more, 2017 will be worth looking up for and forward too. 1. Quadrantids Meteor Shower Kick off the New Year with a meteor shower on the night of 3rd / 4th January thanks to the debris tail from asteroid 2003 EH1. the Earth will plunge through dust and tiny pieces of rubble that then burn up in our atmosphere as shooting stars. These will appear to originate from the North, in the constellation of the Big Dipper / Plough meaning this is best enjoyed by Northern Hemisphere observers. The Moon is only partially illuminated meaning it won’t outshine many of the expected 100 or more shooting stars every hour. 2. Juno explores Jupiter Exploring one of the Solar System’s most dangerous places is ambitious enough but to do so 37 times seems insane, yet that’s exactly what NASA’s Juno mission is undertaking this year. It entered orbit around Jupiter on the 4th July 2016 and at the close of the year had already started to reveal what lies beneath the clouds that make up the Gas Giant. As it threads underneath the dangerous radiation belts around Jupiter, skimming just 5000 km from the cloud tops, we will have unrivalled closeups of the chemical composition and structure of the planet. Thanks to Junocam those closeups will be as beautiful to view as they are valuable for science. The Juno mission deserves all the Hollywood theatrics of this NASA trailer as it enters a perilous space that even James Bond would b. 3. SpaceX test launch In 2016 SpaceX made history by landing their Falcon 9 first stage rocket after it had launched satellites into space. This came to an end when a rocket exploded on the launchpad, a worrying failure for a system that was nearing human crewed flight tests to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. Along with other proponents of human exploration and settlement of space I will be nervously watching the resumption of launches in early 2017 to see if the ‘anomaly’ has been fixed. If SpaceX can reuse its rockets rather than discard them in the same was as aircraft are refuel upon reaching a destination airports it could usher in a new era of cheaper space travel. The good times in 2016 when SpaceX landed on a barge in the ocean seemingly effortlessly. The resumption of test launches in 2017 will be eagerly awaited with crossed-fingers the world over. 4. Great American Eclipse This Solar Eclipse will be on August 21st and totality (the complete eclipsing of the Sun by the Moon) will be visible in a narrow band stretching across the continental United States of America. In anticipation of the event, NASA has created a super accurate Moon model for the eclipse path. The craggy, cratered surface of the Moon results in stray sun-rays reaching Earth so that the the shadow region (as seen from space) is not the normally modelled oval. Check NASA for the best observing times in your location. The new and improved Moon model gives an eclipse path that has a more jagged shadow than previous, smoother looking outlines. 5. TESS to launch Thanks to the Kepler Spacecraft we know of thousands of alien worlds, and in 2017 NASA will launch the successor mission TESS (Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite). Targeting 200,000 bright stars across the sky TESS hopes to find 500 Earth-sized worlds that briefly pass between us and dim the starlight. Crucially these alien worlds will be much closer to us than the planets spotted by Kepler meaning Earth-based telescopes can potentially measure the contents of their atmosphere and see if the conditions are right for life as we know it. NASA will launch TESS in 2017, the successor mission to the incredibly successful planet hunter Kepler with the aim to find more Earth-like worlds closer to us than ever before. 6. China’s Mission to the Moon China will continue to advance its rapidly developing space capability with a sample return mission from the Moon. The uncrewed Chang'e 5 will launch in 2017 with the goal of landing and returning 2kg of lunar regolith to Earth. If successful this effort will mark the first time that material has been returned from our neighbour since Gene Cernan and Apollo 17 left the Moon for the last time 45 years ago. 7. Grand Finale around Saturn On the 15th September, the Cassini spacecraft around Saturn will end its almost two decade long mission by burning up into the atmosphere of the gas giant. It will mark the end of an astoundingly valuable scientific mission and one that reached new highs at the end of 2016 when it embarked on a Grand Finale tour of the innermost Rings of Saturn. A region never before explored, and with over 20 dives between ring and planetary cloud-tops, we will learn about how these rings formed as well as uncover some of the hidden planet’s contents. The fiery end will ensure that hardy microbes on the spacecraft can’t contaminate the potentially habitable moons of Enceladus and Titan, Cassini’s final and ultimate contribution to space science. In 2017 we won’t have to rely on computer generated animations of the swansong dive around Saturn by Cassini but will have the real thing as part of its Grand Finale. 8. Geminids Meteor Shower End the year as it began with a meteor shower from asteroid 3200 Phaethon, which reaches its peak on the early hours of 14th December (visible anytime after midnight of the 13th December). This can be viewed by most of the world in the constellation of the Gemini (Twins). Even better with a New Moon just days away it will be dark enough to ensure almost all of the 120 shooting stars each hour will be visible. There’s many more missions and space events, but if you get to experience even some of these events then maybe 2017 really will have been worth celebrating. Written by Alan Duffy, Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
03 January 2017 12:26
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/01/8-reasons-to-look-into-outer-space-in-2017/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2017/01/8-reasons-to-look-into-outer-space-in-2017/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
2016: the year in space and astronomy
2016: the year in space and astronomy
Swinburne astronomers discuss the top astrophysics achievements in 2016.
The achievements of astrophysicists this year were as groundbreaking as they were varied. From reuniting a lander with a mothership on a comet, to seeing the most extreme cosmic events with gravitational waves, 2016 was truly out of this world for science. Here are some of the highlights of the year that was. 1. Gravitational Waves The spectacular announcement that ripples in the very fabric of spacetime itself had been found (and from surprisingly massive black holes colliding) sent similarly massive ripples through the scientific community. The discovery was made using the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) and represents a fundamentally new sense with which to see the universe. Animation showing how colliding black holes cause a ripple in spacetime that moves outwards into the universe as a gravitational wave. The gravitational waves cause one arm of the LIGO detector to stretch relative to the other by less than a thousandth of the width of a proton in the centre of the atom. Relatively speaking, that’s like measuring a hair’s-width change in the distance to the nearest star. This discovery was the end of a century-long quest to prove Einstein’s final prediction that these gravitational waves are real. It also allows us to directly “see” that famously and fundamentally invisible entity: the black hole (as well as definitively proving its existence). The fact that the two black holes collided 1.3 billion years ago and the waves swept through Earth just days after turning the detector on only add to the incredible story of this discovery. The ‘sound’ of the black holes colliding where the measured signal from LIGO is converted to audio, the rising chirp sound towards the end is the two black holes spiralling together ever more quickly. A surprisingly wimpy sound for the most extreme collision ever detected. 2. SpaceX lands (and crashes) a rocket The year started so well for SpaceX with the incredible achievement of sending a satellite into orbit, which is no mean feat itself at such low cost, before then landing that launch rocket on a barge in the ocean. A seemingly unstoppable sequence of launches and landings made it appear that a new era of vastly cheaper access to space through rockets that could be refuelled and reused was at hand. A Falcon 9 first-stage automatically returns to the barge/droneship ‘Of Course I Still Love You’ in the middle of the Atlantic ocean. Unfortunately, with the explosion of a Falcon 9 on the launchpad, the company was grounded, but apparently hopes for a resumed launch in early January. SpaceX outlines a vision for travel to Mars with planned Interplanetary Transport System. Add to that the visionary plans to settle Mars outlined by Elon Musk, albeit not without some audacious challenges, and it’s been a year of highs and lows for SpaceX. 3. Closest star may harbour Earth-like world Proxima Centauri is our Sun’s nearest neighbour at just over four light years away, and it appears that its solar system may contain an Earth-like world. Until this year, astronomers weren’t even sure that any planets orbited the star, let alone ones that might harbour the best extrasolar candidate for life that spacecraft could visit within our lifetime. What a trip to the Sun’s closet neighbour would look like. The planet, creatively named “Proxima b”, was discovered by a team of astronomers at Queen Mary University in London. Using the light of Proxima Centuari, the astronomers were able to detect subtle shifts in the star’s orbit (seen as a “wobble”), which is the telltale sign that another massive object is nearby. An artist’s impression of Proxima b’s landscape. ESO/M. Kornmesser While Proxima Centuari is barely 10% the size of our Sun, Proxima b’s orbit is only 11 days long, meaning it is very close to the star and lies just within the so-called habitable zone. However, follow-up with either Hubble or the upcoming James Webb Space telescope is necessary to determine if the exoplanet is as well suited for life as Earth. 4. Breakthrough Listen listening and Starshot star-ted With a potential Earth twin identified in Proxima b, now the challenge is to reach it within a human lifetime. With the breakthrough initiative starshot, which has been funded by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner and endorsed by none other than Stephen Hawking, lightweight nanosails can be propelled by light beams to reach speeds up to millions of kilometres an hour. Such speeds would allow a spacecraft to arrive at Proxima b in about 20 years, thus enabling humans to send information to another known planet for the first time. However, there are many challenges ahead, such as the fact that the technology doesn’t exist yet, and that high-speed collisions with gas and dust between stars may destroy it before it can reach its target. But humans have proven to be resourceful, and key technology is advancing at an exponential rate. Incredibly the idea of sailing to another world is no longer science fiction, but rather an outrageously ambitious science project. One of the founders of the Breakthrough initiatives, Yuri Milner, discusses the technology needed for breakthrough starshot. Perhaps, aliens are already sending out their own information in the form of radio transmissions. In another breakthrough initiative called Listen, also championed by Hawking, astronomers will be searching the habitable zones around the million closest stars to try to detect incoming radio transmissions. Involving Australia’s very own Parkes telescope (as well as the Green Bank Telescope and Lick Observatory at visible wavelengths of light), observations have been running through 2016 and the search for alien signals will continue for the next decade. 5. Philae reunited with Rosetta In 2014 the Philae lander became the first space probe to land on a comet, and even though its crash landing dictated that its science transmission would be a one-off, its recent rediscovery by Rosetta has allowed it to continue to contribute to analysis of comet 67P. Philae’s crash location, as well as the orientation of the doomed probe, has allowed astronomers to accurately interpret data taken by Rosetta regarding the composition of the comet. Where’s Philae? ESA While Philae has literally been living under (crashed on) a rock for the past two years, Rosetta has been the busy bee, taking numerous images, spectroscopy and other data of the comet. In fact, data taken from Rosetta’s spectrometer has been analysed and revealed that the amino acid, glycine, is present in the comet’s outgassing, which breaks away from the surface of the comet as it becomes unstable from solar heating. Glycine is one of the fundamental building blocks of life; necessary for proteins and DNA, and its confirmed extraterrestrial confirms that the ingredients for life are unique to Earth, and that we may have comets to thank for providing our microbial ancestors with those crucial ingredients. Dust and gas emitted from comet 67P reveal an amino acid. ESA Outlook for Down Under The future for astrophysics in Australia in 2017 looks particularly bright, with two ARC Centres of Excellence: CAASTRO-3D studying the build of atoms over cosmic time; and OzGRav exploring the universe with gravitational waves; as well as SABRE, the world’s first dark matter detector in the Southern Hemisphere, installed by end of the year. If you thought 2016 was a great year in space, then you’re in for a treat in 2017. Written by Alan Duffy, Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology and Rebecca Allen, PhD candidate researching galaxy formation and evolution, Swinburne University of Technology.This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
28 December 2016 11:50
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/12/2016-the-year-in-space-and-astronomy/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/12/2016-the-year-in-space-and-astronomy/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET)
Science
false
-
Thanksgiving space dinners, threading Saturn’s rings and impossible warp drives
Thanksgiving space dinners, threading Saturn’s rings and impossible warp drives
Dr Alan Duffy on rockets, space-treats and threading an interplanetary needle.
It’s been a busy time in space with a Thanksgiving meal that was out of this world, as well as the beginning of the end for the Cassini mission (but not without a spectacular final view) and a new fuel-less rocket that set the internet alight might be a misfire after all. Thanksgiving on the space station It was a tasty Thanksgiving in space as astronauts about the International Space Station chowed down on a full traditional dinner of turkey, candied yams (seriously ewwww) and even cranberry sauce. Their meal has come a long way from the early days of NASA’s space exploration with the Gemini and Apollo missions serving up good in a straw. However, the food still can’t be flaky as crumbs would float in the air that astronauts might then breathe in or get into delicate electronics. So no ‘astronaut-icecream’ I’m afraid, although created as part of the early space race it didn’t make it into orbit! The issue of eating in space is tricky, you need the astronauts to have a balanced diet for their health and also a varied one for their mental wellbeing. However, it’s incredibly expensive to launch resupply missions on rockets (anywhere from $2000 to $20,000 per kilo depending on your supplier) so you want to keep the weight down. One easy solution is to remove water (dehydration or desiccation) while another involves removing as much unnecessary packaging as possible. This can make it difficult to offer a range of tasty and fresh foods, although currently NASA has trialled growing lettuce in space. Restrictions for weight are particularly onerous on the long and expensive mission to Mars in the Orion spacecraft. For that NASA has created a range of super-healthy breakfast bars, from orange cranberry to barbecue nut. Definitely not quite as varied as the 200 different offerings that ISS crew have gotten used too. Fuel-less rocket The internet has gone into overdrive about the peer-reviewed publication of a test into a new type of rocket known as a RF resonant cavity thruster. Also termed the EM drive this device has been discussed for several years but this is a significant advance in terms of scientific respectability. Imagine a home microwave oven, bash one side down creating a cone, now turn it on. You wouldn’t imagine it could fly and neither do most scientists and yet controversially this is precisely what the EM drive claims. In effect it appears to be able to generate a forward thrust without apparently pushing anything backwards. All rockets, indeed all objects, can only move forward by pushing something else back, this is their fuel expelling out the back as a flame. It is the core of Newton’s 3rd Law, and something that breaks this also breaks physics. The EM drive, or resonant cavity, tested at NASA’s Eagleworks Labs apparently offering a fuel-less new type of rocket, more likely it’s heating up and expanding. Ultimately further testing will decide which in a great example of the scientific method. White et al (2016) The results of the latest test in a vacuum chamber at NASA’s Eagleworks Lab show that there is a small but measurable displacement of a spring in a force gauge when the microwaves are turned on in the EM drive. The cone appears to somehow be compressing that spring without requiring a fuel. The jury is still out but one convincing explanation I’ve seen is that this is simply thermal expansion as the microwaves heat up the device. Science is all about testing theories and experimenting, the case of the EM drive is no different and further investigation into such a fascinating topic will ultimately explain if it’s new physics or subtle experimental issues. Cassini’s grand finale In November 30th, after a dozen years of groundbreaking science around Saturn, NASA’s incredible Cassini spacecraft will begin its final mission. As befits such a spectacular spacecraft it will have a spectacular swansong, plunging between the gas giant and the innermost ring. As part of this Grand Finale the spacecraft will undertake 22 orbits threading the 2400 km gap, exploring both planet and the innermost ring in unrivalled detail. A stunning vision of Saturn captured by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft over the course of 4 days, notice the hexagonal storm raging on the pole and banded structures in the rings indicating the presence of Shepherd Moons. The famous rings of Saturn, first noticed by Galileo as ‘ears’ around the planet, are not solid objects but rather countless pieces of rock and ice all spinning around the planet in many separate bands. Some bands are separated by significantly larger gaps than others, indicating the presence of ‘Shepherd Moons’ whose gravity constantly clears out the region. The outermost ring (known as the F-ring, with rings named in the order they are discovered) stretches full 140000km across. Yet the overall structure is barely 20m thick meaning if the ring was as thick as a CD, the CD would stretch for 3km! The outermost ring of Saturn is revealed by Cassini to be warped by the gravity of the barely visible outer moon Prometheus. Small as it appears this moon is able to sculpt or `shepherd’ the rings into such clean bands. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute The close up view of planet and rings will hopefully reveal just how old the rings actually are, as well as finally answer the surprisingly tricky question – how long is a day on Saturn? As the Cassini spacecraft runs ever lower on fuel it will be instructed to crash into the Gas Giant rather than risk colliding, and potentially contaminating, moons such as Enceladus which offer the prospect of life. A fittingly noble and spectacular sacrifice for such an incredible mission, although if there was a fuel-less rocket that worked then perhaps an unnecessary one. Written by Alan Duffy, Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
29 November 2016 14:06
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/11/thanksgiving-space-dinners-threading-saturns-rings-and-impossible-warp-drives/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/11/thanksgiving-space-dinners-threading-saturns-rings-and-impossible-warp-drives/
Astronomy
false
-
Flash of invisible light helps astronomers map the cosmic web
Flash of invisible light helps astronomers map the cosmic web
Flash of invisible light helps astronomers map the cosmic web
A brief but brilliant burst of radiation that travelled at least a billion light years through Space to reach an Australian radio telescope last year has given scientists new insight into the fabric of the Universe. The flash, known as a Fast Radio Burst (FRB), was one of the brightest seen since FRBs were first detected in 2001. It was captured by CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope and analysed by a system developed by the supercomputing group led by Swinburne’s Professor Matthew Bailes. This FRB, the 18th detected so far, contained information about the cosmic web – the swirling gases and magnetic fields between galaxies. "FRBs are extremely short but intense pulses of radio waves, each only lasting about a millisecond. Some are discovered by accident and no two bursts look the same," Dr Ryan Shannon from the Curtin node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research and CSIRO, says. "This particular FRB is the first detected to date to contain detailed information about the cosmic web – regarded as the fabric of the Universe – but it is also unique because its travel path can be reconstructed to a precise line of sight and back to an area of space about a billion light years away that contains only a small number of possible home galaxies. The Parkes telescope has been a prolific discoverer of FRBs, having detected the vast majority of the known population including the very first, the Lorimer burst, in 2001. The flash is thought to have originated outside the Milky Way. It reached CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope mid-last year and was subsequently analysed by a mostly Australian team. "Ultimately, FRBs that can be traced to their cosmic host galaxies offer a unique way to probe intergalactic space that allow us to count the bulk of the electrons that inhabit our Universe," Professor Bailes says. "To decode and further understand the information contained in this FRB is an exceptional opportunity to explore the physical forces and the extreme environment out in Space." A paper describing the FRB and the team's findings has been published in the journal Science. Read more about this discovery at http://caastro.org/news/2016-frb
18 November 2016 13:13
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/11/flash-of-invisible-light-helps-astronomers-map-the-cosmic-web/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/11/flash-of-invisible-light-helps-astronomers-map-the-cosmic-web/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),International,Research
Science,Technology
false
-
Cosmic ‘barcode’ from distant galaxy confirms Nature’s constancy
Cosmic ‘barcode’ from distant galaxy confirms Nature’s constancy
Astronomers have confirmed that electromagnetism in a distant galaxy has the same strength as here on Earth
Astronomers have precisely measured the strength of a fundamental force of Nature in a galaxy seen eight billion years in the past. Researchers from Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Cambridge have confirmed that electromagnetism in a distant galaxy has the same strength as here on Earth. They observed a quasar – a supermassive black hole with enormously bright surroundings – located behind the galaxy. On its journey toward Earth, some of the quasar’s light was absorbed by gas in the galaxy eight billion years ago, casting shadows at very specific colours. The laws of Nature were measured in distant galaxies, by observing light from a background quasar which passed through the galaxies on its way to Earth. Credit: James Josephides and Professor Michael Murphy. Swinburne University of Technology.
16 November 2016 07:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/11/cosmic-barcode-from-distant-galaxy-confirms-natures-constancy/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/11/cosmic-barcode-from-distant-galaxy-confirms-natures-constancy/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Who stole all the stars?
Who stole all the stars?
Swinburne astronomers may have solved a cosmic whodunit
Investigating the millions of missing stars from the centres – or cores – of two big galaxies, astronomers at Swinburne University of Technology say they may have solved this cosmic whodunit, and the main culprits are not the usual suspects. While the scientists confirm that one of the depleted cores is the largest ever detected, they report that it may not have formed in the manner previously thought. In normal sized galaxies, the density of stars increases smoothly as you move towards their centre. However, for decades astronomers have observed a star shortage in the centres of many big galaxies. “The smaller of the two galaxies that we examined – the one with the smaller depleted core – likely formed from the collision of two similar galaxies, each seeded with a massive black hole several billion times the mass of our Sun,” says lead-author Dr Paolo Bonfini, now at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. “In this well-studied process, the black holes migrate towards the centre of the newly-forged galaxy by ousting the stars already there, hurling them outward in a gravitational slingshot manoeuvre. Pairs of massive black holes effectively work together and gang up on individual stars in a galaxy’s core.” A pair of massive black holes spiral together and merge. Credit: James Josephides, Swinburne University of Technology.
11 October 2016 09:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/10/who-stole-all-the-stars/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/10/who-stole-all-the-stars/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research
Science
false
-
Shrinking Mercury is all it’s cracked up to be
Shrinking Mercury is all it’s cracked up to be
Mercury joins Earth as the only other tectonically active rocky planet.
Amid all the crashing onto comets and planning trips to Mars, you may be forgiven for missing a wonderful scientific result from NASA: the discovery that tiny Mercury joins Earth as the only other tectonically active rocky planet. Mercury’s small size means that the core has cooled to such a degree that the surface should be in a dull, geologically dead state, like that of Mars. Yet close-up views of the surface from NASA’s MESSENGER (MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging) spacecraft have challenged that picture. Small troughs (or graben) have been found alongside previously seen step-like cracks (or fault scarps) in the surface caused by the shrinking of the planet. These troughs, however, haven’t suffered weathering by the frequent meteor bombardments. This suggests that tectonic activity has occurred relativity recently, in the last few million years, rather than billions. Activity in a world only fives time more massive than our Moon. As a raisin wrinkles as it gets smaller, the shrinking inner core of Mercury as it cools causes cracks to form in the single tectonic plate that makes up the surface. This surface plate is more like a single eggshell than the Earth’s multiple plates. These cracks, or scarps, can be step-like cliffs over a kilometre high and run for hundreds of kilometres along the surface – a consequence of the entire planet shrinking by 7km over billions of years. Just as the Rosetta mission recently plunged to its destruction in Comet 67P to get a final closeup view the MESSENGER spacecraft plunged into Mercury last year, ending its mission spectacularly to provide us with views of the smaller troughs alongside the scarps. Alongside the fault scarps (bottom left arrows) there exist linear troughs or graben which can be seen in the close up inset. These troughs are narrow, just a few tens of metres wide, and remarkably undisturbed by the frequent meteor bombardment suggesting they formed recently. NASA/JHUAPL/Carnegie Institution of Washington/Smithsonian Institution The presence of these troughs mean that there may be another familiar feature to us on Earth of a tectonically active surface: earthquakes (or, perhaps more accurately, Mercury-quakes). If seismometers could be placed on the surface to measure these quakes, we could build up a picture of the planet’s interior – just as the refracting (bending) and timing of seismic waves through our planet reveal Earth’s structure. This latest result joins a growing list of surprises on Mercury that have come courtesy of MESSENGER’s exploration. There was the spectacular discovery of water ice on a planet whose surface reaches 430℃ during the day. The dark surface colouring was revealed to be caused by layers of graphite – the “lead” in pencils. This was so unexpected that MESSENGER lacked the capability to search for it, and it had to be deduced indirectly using a combination of several instrument readings. The latest close-up view of the tiny world merely heightens the anticipation for the next mission to Mercury, BepiColombo. This joint mission by the European Space Agency and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency will reach Mercury by 2024. As with Rosetta, these planetary space missions show that there is no substitute for directly exploring distant targets. Up close, foreign worlds are always full of surprises. By Alan Duffy, Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
03 October 2016 16:41
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/10/shrinking-mercury-is-all-its-cracked-up-to-be/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/10/shrinking-mercury-is-all-its-cracked-up-to-be/
Astronomy
false
-
Swinburne leads ARC Centre of Excellence Gravitation Wave Discovery
Swinburne leads ARC Centre of Excellence Gravitation Wave Discovery
Swinburne leads collaboration of six universities to find out more about gravitational waves
In January 2017, the Australian Research Council’s (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery – or OzGrav, if you’re in a hurry – will begin operation. The Centre is not a place, but a collaboration of teams from six universities operating under the leadership of Professor Matthew Bailes at Swinburne. OzGrav will capitalise on more than 30 years of Australian expertise in gravitational wave and pulsar science to explore the extreme physics of black holes and warped spacetime. The other universities involved are: Australian National University, the University of Western Australia, University of Adelaide, Monash University and the University of Melbourne. OzGrav was one of only nine Centres of Excellence to win $31.3 million funding from ARC. Its 566-page application, co-ordinated by Professor Bailes, was given a timely boost late in the submission phase by the breakthrough detection of gravitational waves in September 2015 by the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (aLIGO) in the US. Until that announcement, the existence of gravitational waves was purely theoretical. “We were very fortunate that the detection of gravitational waves was published just prior to the final interviews,” Professor Bailes says. “That was vital timing for us. Several Australian scientists were involved in building the aLIGO detector and its elements. With expertise in the instrumentation side, Professor Bailes went on to build a team to analyse the masses of data gleaned from the operations (collated with the use of supercomputers) and to comprehend its astrophysical implications. “Part of my role as director is to ensure we focus on large, significant projects and that we use our critical mass to solve problems while they’re topical,” he says. Professor Bailes’ other aim is to ensure the teams collaborate effectively. “I want to create a champion team as opposed to a team of champions.” 21st century science Dr Yuri Levin from Monash University is one of the members of the team. “Ultimately, my interest is the life story of these black holes,” Dr Levin says. “How did they come to be where they are? Are they hairy or not hairy?” “Hairiness” refers to the no-hair theorem, the conjecture that black holes have only three externally observable characteristics – mass, electric charge and angular momentum. They are otherwise “bald”, with all other information trapped behind a black hole’s event horizon. Dr Levin has no doubts about the importance of OzGRav’s work. “The detection of gravitational waves will probably be the defining moment for 21st-century science,” he says. “It opens up a whole new world of science, which means new technologies, new skills and new applications – good for the understanding of the universe, and good for the broader world of industry and technology in which we live. “This is an incredible training ground for the engineers, physicists, chemists and data analysts of the future.” Deeper discovery Associate Professor Jeff Cooke, a Swinburne astrophysicist whose expertise lies more with galaxies and supernovae than black holes, is working with OzGRav from another angle. He’s part of a major project called Deeper, Wider, Faster that is working to find counterparts to fast radio bursts and other extremely fast and transient astronomical bursts of energy. Gravitational waves do not emit light, but some transient phenomena – including supernovae and their smaller cousins, kilonovae – can emit both light and gravitational waves.“ Certain supernova explosions are also expected to cause a gravitational wave when the core collapses,” Dr Cooke says. “The Deeper, Wider, Faster program searches for the fastest explosions in the universe. We focus all kinds of telescopes – gamma ray, X-ray, ultraviolet, optical, infrared, radio, both ground- and space-based telescopes, everything – on a section of the sky and look for these explosions, which can be over in milliseconds.” While all of these telescopes are focused in one direction, they pick up a range of signals, he says. “We get all this data from looking at massive volumes of sky and we find things like supernova shock breakouts, kilonovae, flare stars and other exotic events.” This is where it all comes together with OzGRav. When the gravitational wave teams detect an event, they can get Dr Cooke’s team to accurately locate it, learn its distance, and to see what other signals surround it. It’s possible that so many other telescopes trained on the site will find other tell-tale astrophysical features that accompany, or are caused by, the waves. “But that’s a reactive stance,” Dr Cooke says. Observations can go the other way, too. If his team detects fast transient events such as kilonovae – which can also produce gravitational waves – they can alert the gravitational wave team to recheck its data for information that might have initially been dismissed as insignificant. New ideas OzGRav is an opportunity to be involved in exploring new ideas in extreme physics and new ways of thinking about the universe. It’s a chance to work with the best people from around the world in a field Dr Cooke refers to as “essentially astronomy reborn”. The study of gravitational waves is the exploration of whether Einstein’s theories hold, and what that means for understanding the universe. For Professor Bailes, involvement in OzGRav is the culmination of a career that began with studying Einstein’s general theory of relativity. “In 1984, there was very little hope in the near future of ever detecting gravitational waves. Thirty-two years later, it’s a wonderful thing to lead a massive national centre to undertake the first detections of gravitational waves and understand what they mean for the universe.”
01 October 2016 13:36
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/10/swinburne-leads-arc-centre-of-excellence-gravitation-wave-discovery/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/10/swinburne-leads-arc-centre-of-excellence-gravitation-wave-discovery/
Astronomy
Venture Magazine
Science
false
-
Australia to embrace the new era of gravitational wave astronomy
Australia to embrace the new era of gravitational wave astronomy
Professor Matthew Bailes outlines the successful bid for the OzGRav ARC Centre of Excellence.
Four hundred years ago Galileo pointed a telescope at Jupiter and saw electromagnetic waves (light) being reflected off its moons. This profound observation displaced Earth from its position at the centre of the universe to just one planet among many. It also sparked a new golden era of optical astronomy, which continues to this day. In September 2015 the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (aLIGO) detected the gravitational waves emitted by two coalescing black holes. This remarkable discovery opened up a new window on the universe, using gravitational waves rather than electromagnetic waves to peer into the far reaches of the cosmos. A little before aLIGO’s successful detection, I was invited to put together a team to bid for an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery, to be known as 'OzGRav'. Centres of Excellence are a scientist’s idea of funding nirvana because they provide guaranteed funding for seven years. So instead of writing annual grant applications with a slim chance of success of getting a fraction of what you asked for, you can plan and execute a serious scientific agenda with critical mass. But the competition is fierce, and the chances of success are small, and funding rounds are only held every three years or so. To be successful, Centres need bold visions and ambitious objectives. Our main problem when we submitted our pitch was that no-one had detected gravitational waves yet, and we were relying on the promise of new instruments like aLIGO to deliver in an area that was still void of positive results. But unbeknown to any of us, the enormous burst of gravitational waves from GW150914 was en route to Earth and due to strike it just two months after our initial application was submitted. The gravitational waves were generated more than a billion years ago when two enormous black holes merged after a death spiral. And shortly after the aLIGO gravitational wave detector was turned on it saw the characteristic 'chirp' as space-time shook during its passage. Many of my OzGRav team had aided in the construction of aLIGO, and its precision is mind-blowing. When the first source of gravitational waves ever detected (GW150914) were impacting the four kilometre long arms of the detector, they shook by the equivalent of less than the width of a human hair at the distance of the nearest star! So when our grant was being assessed, gravitational waves were still just a twinkle in the scientific community’s eye. One of our assessors even made it very clear that physicists were always promising to detect gravitational waves but none had been found. With some luck we were selected to submit a full proposal; one of only 20 teams to do so. By this time, many of my collaborators were fully aware that the first gravitational waves had been discovered. But they were bound by the strict rules of the LIGO Scientific Consortium that prohibited them from telling me (the proposed Director of the Centre) or putting this news in our proposal, or the rejoinder. It must have been killing them. All we could say was the data were looking really exciting! Fortunately for us, the discovery of gravitational waves was announced just prior to the interviews of the final 20 Centre of Excellence teams, and many of my team were invited to parliament house to describe their role in the discovery. Last week we heard that we were one of the nine Centres fortunate enough to gain funding. I’m certain this is at least partly attributable to the fact that a billion years ago in a galaxy far, far away, two black holes, some 30 times the mass of our sun tore each other apart, releasing gravitational waves in the process. The impact of this discovery has been remarkable. In only six months the discovery paper has already gathered 641 citations. Another black hole merger event was published by the LIGO consortium in June and the (now) 'telescope' is gearing up for its second major run after some tweaks to its hardware that seems certain to discover more events. Our role OzGRav has three major themes that will be driving its research programmes: instrumentation, data and astrophysics. The instrumentation behind these gravitational wave detectors is truly remarkable. OzGRav scientists will aid in the enhancement of aLIGO so that it is even more sensitive, using amazing tricks such as quantum squeezing. We will also help design and ultimately construct the next-generation detectors that aim to detect thousands of events per year. To minimise the possible locations of these events, it would also make a lot of sense to build one of these new detectors in Australia. But aLIGO isn’t the only detector capable of discovering gravitational waves. Radio astronomers can use neutron stars (pulsars) that rotate many hundreds of times per second to sense 'disturbances in the space-time continuum' induced by the gravitational waves coming from super-massive black holes. OzGRav engineers are currently designing the supercomputers that will monitor dozens of these stars using the Square Kilometre Array. The CSIRO’s Parkes telescope is also having a powerful new receiver fitted to continue its leading role in this area of science. Swinburne University of Technology will host the Centre headquarters and design a supercomputer custom-built to process the data coming from the gravitational wave detectors. These data will be processed to look for not just merging black holes, but also neutron stars. And the closest neutron stars will be monitored to see if tiny 'magnetic mountains' on their surfaces cause them to generate detectable gravitational wave emission. OzGRav’s astronomers will also use a network of telescopes at traditional frequencies (optical and radio) to search for evidence of gravitational wave events at other wavelengths to help identify the host galaxies (or lack thereof?) to help understand where the sources of gravitational waves come from. Finally, our astrophysicists will attempt to explain what our detectors see and whether Einstein’s theory of general relativity is correct or needs some tweaks. Fortunately, Australian scientists can fully engage with this new window on the universe and participate in the first decade of this exciting new era of gravitational wave astrophysics thanks to the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence programme. Written by Matthew Bailes, ARC Laureate Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology, Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
13 September 2016 09:49
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/09/australia-to-embrace-the-new-era-of-gravitational-wave-astronomy/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/09/australia-to-embrace-the-new-era-of-gravitational-wave-astronomy/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research
Science
false
-
New ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery announced
New ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery announced
The Australian Research Council has announced a new $31.3 million ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery.
The Australian Research Council (ARC) today announced a new $31.3 million ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery to be led by Swinburne University of Technology. The Centre, to be called OzGRav, will capitalise on the first detections of gravitational waves to understand the extreme physics of black holes and warped space-time.
08 September 2016 07:32
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/09/new-arc-centre-of-excellence-for-gravitational-wave-discovery-announced/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/09/new-arc-centre-of-excellence-for-gravitational-wave-discovery-announced/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),International,Research
Science
true
-
Astronomers find diversity in Ancient Universe
Astronomers find diversity in Ancient Universe
Astronomers have charted the rise and fall of galaxies over 90 per cent of cosmic history.
An international team of astronomers has built an accurate multi-coloured 3D map of galaxies showing them growing from faint beginnings to mature and majestic giants. The FourSTar Galaxy Evolution Survey (ZFOURGE) has captured the light of over 70,000 galaxies and measured how far they are from our own Milky Way galaxy to create a snapshot of galaxies spanning more than 12 billion years. “ZFOURGE provides crucial details of galaxies, such as their mass and distance. With this information we can more accurately trace the growth of galaxies over cosmic time and possibly uncover different growth pathways,” says Swinburne University of Technology PhD student and co-author Rebecca Allen. The ZFOURGE team assembled a colourful photo-album using a new set of filters that are sensitive to infrared light. They took images during 45 nights at the 6.5 meter Magellan Telescope in Chile. "Perhaps the most surprising result is that galaxies in the young Universe appear as diverse as they are today,” says Dr Caroline Straatman, recent graduate of Leiden University and lead author of a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal. “The variety of galaxies in this survey helps us study whether nature or nurture is primarily responsible for the evolution of galaxies in the early Universe into massive galaxies with little to no star-formation that we find around our Milky-Way,” says fellow Swinburne PhD student and co-author Themiya Nanayakkara. ZFOURGE is full of surprises In the first images taken in the study, the team found one of the earliest examples of a galaxy cluster, a 'galaxy city' made up of a dense concentration of galaxies, which developed when the Universe was only three billion years old. “This finding is much like discovering an ancient city that existed earlier than any other known city,” says co-author Dr Lee Spitler from Macquarie University in Sydney. The deep 3D map also revealed young galaxies that existed 12.5 billion years ago where current technologies have only found a handful of such galaxies. “The ZFOURGE team has already produced 15 published discoveries leading to an increased understanding of how galaxies evolve. These data will have a long lasting legacy value. We are excited to now release it to the community so that others can address outstanding problems in galaxy evolution,” says Swinburne co-author Dr Glenn Kacprzak.
01 September 2016 12:05
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/09/astronomers-find-diversity-in-ancient-universe/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/09/astronomers-find-diversity-in-ancient-universe/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research,International
Science
false
-
Space oddity in the nearby Universe: the case of a galaxy with too much gas
Space oddity in the nearby Universe: the case of a galaxy with too much gas
Swinburne astronomers have found a galaxy with a gas reservoir 8 billion times the mass of the Sun.
Astronomers at Swinburne University of Technology have discovered a rare galaxy with an atomic hydrogen gas reservoir almost eight billion times the mass of our Sun, but intriguingly, the galaxy is forming very few stars. In most of the galaxies in the nearby Universe, the rate at which stars are born is strongly dependent on the availability of gas: the higher the gas content, the more stars are formed. Using large galaxy surveys carried out in recent years by the Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and the GALEX space telescope, researchers were able to study the relationship between gas content and star formation in a sample of 800 galaxies. They discovered galaxy GASS 3505 had a huge gas reservoir, yet it had a very low level of star formation. This makes GASS 3505 an extremely rare galaxy. The rate of star formation is so low that it would take more than the current lifetime of the Universe for the entire gas reservoir to be converted into stars. “In order to understand why this galaxy is an oddball, we needed an instrument with high resolution to image the distribution and motion of the gas – like zooming in with a camera,” says lead researcher Dr Katinka Gereb from Swinburne’s Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing. Observations with the Very Large Array show that the gas in GASS 3505 is distributed in a giant ring 300,000 lights year in diameter, rotating around the galaxy. The researchers also carried out observations of the galaxy’s stars at high sensitivity, which revealed the presence of a faint, young population of stars spiralling around the galaxy, embedded in the gas. “We know that in other galaxies like our Milky Way, regions of dense gas are the birthplaces of stars. Even though GASS 3505 has a lot of gas, we find that its gas density is too low to maintain a ‘healthy’ level of star formation,“ says study co-author Dr Barbara Catinella from the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) at the University of Western Australia. Where did the gas come from? Astronomers believe that galaxy-to-galaxy interaction is one of the main ways galaxies build up gas in the nearby Universe. The observations of the stars in GASS 3505 reveal a long stellar stream, extending far beyond the central body of the galaxy. This stream is clear evidence that GASS 3505 swallowed a smaller galaxy in the past. The researchers were interested to know whether the large gas reservoir of GASS 3505 could have once belonged to the smaller galaxy that was absorbed. They carried out computer simulations of galaxy-galaxy mergers based on the laws of gravity and hydrodynamics to examine this possibility. “Our results suggest that such a merger is a possible way to create a GASS 3505-type system,” Dr Gereb says. “However, small discrepancies in the observed and modelled properties could suggest that some extra source of gas is needed for GASS 3505 to become so gas-rich.” Importance of radio astronomy Thanks to large collaborative efforts, many radio telescopes are currently being built and put into operation. This new generation of telescopes will survey the atomic hydrogen content of hundreds of thousands of galaxies at high resolution, and will provide unparalleled samples to study the accretion history of galaxies from the nearby to the distant Universe. The results of this work have been published by the Oxford University Press in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
08 August 2016 20:54
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/08/space-oddity-in-the-nearby-universe-the-case-of-a-galaxy-with-too-much-gas/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/08/space-oddity-in-the-nearby-universe-the-case-of-a-galaxy-with-too-much-gas/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Dr Alan Duffy named a Eureka Prize finalist
Dr Alan Duffy named a Eureka Prize finalist
Swinburne astronomer Dr Alan Duffy is a finalist in the 2016 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes.
Swinburne University of Technology Research Fellow, Dr Alan Duffy, has been named a finalist in the 2016 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes for promoting understanding of Australian science research. Presented annually, the Eureka Prizes reward excellence in: research and innovation leadership science communication school science Dr Duffy has been recognised for his efforts to convey the latest scientific discoveries to Australians through the media. In more than 100 appearances on popular television shows, Dr Duffy has explained everything from gravitational waves and ice ages to the distant Universe. He appears regularly on ABC Breakfast News, Channel Ten’s The Project and Channel 7’s Weekend Sunrise, and has also featured on premier science shows such as Catalyst. His radio appearances across the ABC and commercial stations have seen him become a ‘go-to’ whenever there’s a breaking news story involving science or the night sky. Dr Duffy says that anyone can understand incredible scientific discoveries; it’s simply a matter of finding the way to bring distant events closer to home. Explaining science “Australians are naturally curious. I never worry about whether a discovery or event in the night sky will interest them. My efforts are in finding that everyday experience familiar to us all that best encapsulates the science. “Creating the analogy shortcuts the lifetime of learning in a narrow field to something instantly recognisable and helps the audience to intuitively get it,” Dr Duffy says. “Modern research can sometimes appear incredibly remote from our experiences but it’s often intimately connected with our everyday lives. This is the key for explaining science, finding the way to remind the audience that there’s an incredible world out there and that they are part of this exploration. “I believe that familiarity with science is critical for our society to respond to the challenges facing it. Often the problems seem insurmountable or too large to deal with and it is only through more science not less that we will overcome them. “Australia has a bright future ahead if we can encourage the next generation to keep their inherent curiosity, not letting it become dulled trying to fit into prescribed careers but rather going out and inventing their own,” Dr Duffy says. The Eureka Prizes will be presented in Sydney on Wednesday 31 August 2016. View all the 2016 Eureka Prize finalists. Dr Duffy will be presenting The Science of Science Fiction at Swinburne’s Open Day Sunday 31 July 2016. Plan your day and discover why we’re the must visit Open Day.
29 July 2016 12:24
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/07/dr-alan-duffy-named-a-eureka-prize-finalist/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/07/dr-alan-duffy-named-a-eureka-prize-finalist/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Award Winners,Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
University
false
-
Hubble explores the Final Frontier
Hubble explores the Final Frontier
Dr Alan Duffy explores the Hubble Telescope’s new image that peers through galaxies to the very edge of the observable Universe.
In honour of the 50th anniversary of Star Trek, the Hubble Space Telescope has released an image boldly going where no one has gone before. Peering through a cluster of galaxies to the very edge of the observable Universe to see the First Galaxies themselves. The Frontier Field (in honour of Star Trek’s mission to explore the Final Frontier) is a region of the sky no bigger than a dollar coin seen from 100m away. Yet in that region 4 billion light years distant Hubble sees hundreds of galaxies that form Abell S1063, a galaxy cluster, one of the largest objects in our Universe. While finding a galaxy cluster would usually be the scientific highlight of the story it’s what this cluster allows us to see that’s even more exciting. The streaks or arcs of light you see in the image are optical illusions of even more distant galaxies warped by gravitational lensing. The image of these background galaxies are brought into ‘focus’ by the mass of the galaxy cluster. This makes the already incredible Hubble Space Telescope effectively 20 times mores powerful seeing further into the distant universe. Since it takes light time to reach us from these distant objects we then see them as they were, just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. These galaxies are newborns, when the entire universe was barely a teenager relative to its current age. A newly formed galaxy just a billion years after the Big Bang from my Smaug simulated universe as part of the international DRAGONS series led by Prof Stu Wyithe. The early galaxies were complex and messy objects but thanks to Hubble and gravitational lensing we can zoom in and finally see them allowing us to verify predictions like ours. Gravitational lensing is an effect of General Relativity predicted by Einstein in which that massive objects like stars or galaxies would bend light around them focusing it like a lens. You can test the physics of gravitational lensing at home with a wine glass. Simply take a sheet of paper and draw a coin-sized dot on it and fill it in, then place a wine glass over it. By looking directly down the stem of the glass the dot will turn into a ring, and looking to the side will see it distorted into streaks and arcs much like the cluster image. Gravitational lensing allows us to not only see further behind the objects it also allows us to weigh the ‘lensing’ galaxies themselves as the bending of the light depends on the mass of the object (much as a thicker wine stem of lenses in your glasses will bend the light more). This reveals that most of the material of the galaxy is in fact invisible, composed of a new form of mass called Dark Matter. While lensing allows us to map the Dark Matter to confirm its nature will require finding it in the lab. Australia has a key role to play in this search with SABRE, the world’s first dark matter detector in the Southern Hemisphere. As we look deeper into the Universe we are seeing it as it was when the light first left. These distant galaxies revealed by the natural lens of the cluster date back to the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang. In astronomy exploring how the very first galaxies formed is the Final Frontier… Written by Alan Duffy, Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
25 July 2016 12:04
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/07/hubble-explores-the-final-frontier/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/07/hubble-explores-the-final-frontier/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Five visible planets align
Five visible planets align
Dr Alan Duffy offers tips for seeing five planets in the night sky with the naked eye in August 2016.
This August, stargazers will have a rare opportunity to see five visible planets in the night sky at the same time with the naked eye. From Earth we will be able to see Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn trace a line on the sky away from the setting Sun. Earlier this year we could catch this arrangement in the pre-dawn morning. This time it is in the evening, and it will be the last chance to see this phenomenon until October 2018. For those near the equator, the planets trace a line directly vertical from the horizon overhead. As you move towards the poles – towards North America or Australia – the line the planets trace tilts lower towards the horizon. Swinburne University of Technology astronomer Dr Alan Duffy says that anyone in the world will be able to see this event without requiring a telescope or binoculars. “The fainter planets that lie closer to the Sun, such as Mercury and Venus, will be difficult to see so it is best to wait until after sunset for the twilight to fully fade, but before the planets set,” Dr Duffy says. “The planets stretch across the sky, anchored to the horizon following the setting Sun. This is because the entire Solar System is flat like an old vinyl record with the planets moving along these grooves of the record. Looking out from the Earth we will see this as a straight line, known as the ecliptic plane, tracing across the sky. “The further north or south you are from the equator, the closer to the horizon this line will be giving you less time after sunset to clearly spot Mercury in particular. Some planets don’t orbit perfectly on the vinyl record, meaning they appear a little off the ecliptic plane so tend to form triangle shapes with each other as they pass by from our point of view such as Mercury, Venus and Jupiter later in August. “The challenge with this event is to get the timing right to ensure the sunset has faded as much as possible but not wait so long that Venus or Mercury have raced below the horizon. “For Australia it’s best to look west by 7pm towards the end of August. “If you’re in Europe or North America you need to wait later for the Sun to set around 9pm. Even then, the further you are from the equator the less time you’ll have before the planets appear to vanish beneath the horizon. “The best time to look is either side of the Full Moon on 18 August as the light from the Moon washes out the fainter planets. The most difficult planets to spot will be those fainter ones close to the horizon, so make sure to find somewhere dark with as clear a view as possible to the west where the Sun has set, meaning no low lying buildings or trees,” Dr Duffy says. “The event this year is your last chance to see all the visible planets together in the same night sky until 2018. It’s a reminder of the size of the Solar System that these giant planets stretching over enormous distances appear to us no more than delicate lights strung across the sky.” Tips Find a flat plane and a dark, unobstructed view of the sky. Hold your arm outstretched towards the western horizon. (That’s roughly 10 degrees, where Venus will sit for much of Australia.) The closer to the equator you are, the closer the planets will rise directly vertical from the horizon.
21 July 2016 08:12
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/07/five-visible-planets-align/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/07/five-visible-planets-align/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
AstroTours to educate and entertain visitors at Open Day
AstroTours to educate and entertain visitors at Open Day
The ever popular AstroTours will again be featured at Swinburne's Open Day on 31 July 2016.
Swinburne’s ever popular AstroTours will once again be featured at this year’s Open Day on 31 July 2016. The movies, animations and simulations used to explore the Universe have all been produced by Swinburne’s in-house team of astronomers, researchers, animators, artists and programmers. “We’ll be running Bigger Than Big and Telescope on Open Day, but will also be digging back into our archive for a few old favourites,” co-ordinator of the AstroTour program, Associate Professor Chris Fluke, says. During Open Day the tours will be guided by current PhD astronomy candidates at Swinburne, such as Sabine Bellstedt. "As an astronomer, there is no better way of being reminded of the Universe's beauty and awe than to see it reflected in the eyes of the public," Ms Bellstedt says. Since 2000, the Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing at Swinburne has presented more than 900 AstroTours in its 3D Theatre. The tours are designed to educate and entertain audiences about astronomy and recently ticked over their 28,000th visitor. AstroTours are recommended for audiences aged seven years or over. They are held in Swinburne’s Virtual Reality Theatre, ground floor of the AR building (AR104). Swinburne Open Day is Sunday 31 July 2016. Plan your day and discover why we’re the must visit Open Day.
18 July 2016 10:33
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/07/astrotours-to-educate-and-entertain-visitors-at-open-day/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/07/astrotours-to-educate-and-entertain-visitors-at-open-day/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Beating heart of Crab Nebula
Beating heart of Crab Nebula
Dr Alan Duffy discusses the Hubble Space Telescope’s latest images showing the core of Crab Nebula
In 1054 a new star appeared in the night sky and was noted by Chinese astronomers before fading away again after several years. These meticulous astronomers would have been astounded by their modern day counterparts who used an orbiting space telescope (NASA’s Hubble) to peer into the heart of this object a thousand years later. A zoom into the heart of the Crab Nebula 6000 light years away. This is a supernovae remnant, with the initial explosion recorded by Chinese astronomers in 1054. Created by ESA/Hubble, Digitized Sky Survey, Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org) with music by Johan Monell The latest release from Hubble has snapshots every decade superimposed in a different colour revealing a central rainbow as rapidly moving material streams from the very heart of the nebula. The initial expulsion of material (seen as reddish wisps) was from the exploding star itself. The massive star was around ten times the mass of our Sun and when it exhausted its fuel supplies imploded under the immense gravity. As the material fell onto the dense core of the star it both crushed the centre to densities only seen in atomic nuclei (forming a neutron star) and rebounded the infalling material in a titanic explosion visible thousands of lights away on Earth. Physics girl, aka Dianna Cowern, demonstrates the conservation of momentum that gives rise to surprisingly big impacts to bouncing balls and exploding stars. At the heart of the nebula is the astoundingly dense `dead core' of the massive progenitor star known as a pulsar. Imagine crushing the mass of a Sun into something the size of a city. Now picture it with beams of radiation / jets blasting outwards from the magnetic poles. Then set the entire object spinning 30 times a second like a kitchen blender so that these beams sweep across the Earth like a lighthouse. Many of these pulsars were discovered by Australia’s radio telescopes at the ATNF which keeps records of their regular clockwork ticking (although some like the Crab Pulsar are incredibly annoying like a mosquitto). A pulsar is an extreme object and a fantastic way to test the boundaries of physics, everything from trying to measure gravitational waves, the nature of matter itself at its limits and even detecting diamond planets in orbit around them. No wonder astronomers get so excited about these close up views of such a fascinating object. Written by Alan Duffy, Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
11 July 2016 15:06
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/07/beating-heart-of-crab-nebula/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/07/beating-heart-of-crab-nebula/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Dr Alan Duffy named a finalist for Club Melbourne Fellowship
Dr Alan Duffy named a finalist for Club Melbourne Fellowship
Dr Alan Duffy is one of eight finalists for the inaugural Club Melbourne Fellowship.
Swinburne’s Dr Alan Duffy has been named one of eight finalists in the inaugural Club Melbourne Fellowship for leading mid-career researchers. The Fellowship recognises excellence in research, innovation and leadership. It is designed to support high quality research projects and the next generation of Melbourne’s research leaders. It includes research funding of $10,000 to support attendance at international conferences to enable new research opportunities for their project. The winner is also set to receive access to the Club Melbourne Ambassador Program network. The eight finalists are: Dr Peter Macreadie – Deakin University Associate Professor Fred Cahir – Federation University Dr Shanshan Kou – La Trobe University Associate Professor Alex Fornito – Monash University Associate Professor Sarah Spencer – RMIT University Dr Alan Duffy – Swinburne University of Technology Dr Jennifer Day – University of Melbourne Dr Fabio Serpiello – Victoria University “It is an honour to be selected alongside such incredible researchers,” Dr Duffy says. “Astronomy is actually a small field, even though we deal in some pretty big concepts, and it's an amazing feeling to be standing alongside some of the biggest research efforts going!” Dr Duffy says the fellowship would allow him to promote his research to an international audience and form collaborations with the best in the world. The winner will be announced on Monday 15 August 2016. For more information, including Fellowship finalist summaries, visit clubmelbourne.com.au/fellowship
07 July 2016 12:39
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/07/dr-alan-duffy-named-a-finalist-for-club-melbourne-fellowship/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/07/dr-alan-duffy-named-a-finalist-for-club-melbourne-fellowship/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Swinburne’s Dr Alan Duffy concludes Alumni Astro Tour
Swinburne’s Dr Alan Duffy concludes Alumni Astro Tour
Dr Alan Duffy presented Swinburne’s astronomical discoveries at his recent alumni east coast tour.
Dr Alan Duffy has wrapped up his astronomical east coast tour of Australia, hosting a series of lectures in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne. The three day series titled, ‘Life, the Universe and Everything (We Can’t See)’, hosted an array of Swinburne alumni and friends with a cocktail and networking session and was followed by a presentation from Dr Duffy. The presentation provided insights into recent research from Swinburne’s astrophysics team, including the hunt for alien life, the rapid growth of the universe and the World’s first dark matter detector in the Southern Hemisphere. Dr Alan Duffy presenting to the crowd at the Melbourne leg of his tour Dr Duffy says he was delighted with the outcome of the series and is grateful to those who took the time to explore the latest in cutting-edge research and meet and greet fellow alumni. “The events were fantastic. I especially enjoyed the fascinating questions and discussions with the hundreds of alumni across three cities.” Don’t miss Dr Duffy presenting on ‘The Science of Science Fiction’ at Swinburne’s Open Day, Sunday 31 July at the Hawthorn campus. Room TD121, 12:00pm – 12:30pm and 2:00pm – 2:30pm.
27 June 2016 14:31
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/06/swinburnes-dr-alan-duffy-concludes-alumni-astro-tour/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/06/swinburnes-dr-alan-duffy-concludes-alumni-astro-tour/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Perfect landing, inflatable space stations and space sweeteners
Perfect landing, inflatable space stations and space sweeteners
From inflatable space stations to space sweeteners, this week’s space news from Dr Alan Duffy
From inflatable space stations to space sweeteners, it’s been an amazing week in space but none so visually astounding as the video from SpaceX of their 3rd successful landing at sea. The astounding landing at sea by SpaceX of the first stage Falcon 9 rocket, which manages to land automatically from a height of over 100 km, slowing from 10 times the speed of sound, to a floating barge about 4 tennis courts in size. Note that this process takes several minutes and has been sped up. Three perfect landings This landing demonstrates that SpaceX’s previous successes were no flukes. While there may well be failures ahead the first stage of reusing a rocket (safely landing it) is in hand. Now they have to refurbish and relaunch one of the three rockets in the SpaceX hanger. This last step is however likely the biggest challenge as even NASA failed to make this cost effective with the Space Shuttle due to the demands of space flight on the spacecraft and boosters. Often the example given is that aircraft aren’t scrapped when they land at the airport but instead refuelled and reused, if SpaceX can do this then it will usher in an incredible new era of cheaper access to space. Inflatable space hotel? As well as getting excited about SpaceX, I was also fortunate to feature another private space company success on ABC Breakfast News with the awesome Bigelow Expandable Activity Module or BEAM. This is an inflatable space room attached to the International Space Station which was successfully inflated by astronaut Jeff Williams over the course of 7 hours, carefully letting air from the space station into the habitat. Apparently BEAM made popping-sounds each time air was let in from the station which personally I would have found alarming but was entirely expected by NASA. Unfortunately an earlier inflation attempt on Thursday failed so NASA will delay installing sensors into BEAM for a week to assess it for leaks. For the next two years BEAM will be assessed for both radiation protection as well as resisting damage from micro-meteoroid / space junk. Assuming it goes well then we can hope for even large inflatables to be launched into orbit, as they will be smaller and lighter to launch than traditional metal enclosures. These will pave the way for potential commercial space laboratories and even space hotels. Space sweeteners There was also the long awaited confirmation from the European Space Agency’s Rosetta spacecraft that the Comet 67P contains not just organic molecules but an entire amino acid, which are the building blocks of proteins for life on earth. The amino acid in question, glycine, is also used as an artificial sweetener on Earth and was found in the debris around the comet when Rosetta undertook close flyby’s from 2014 - 2015. In addition it also found as well as the all important element Phosphorous which, as gardeners know, is key to making life in the garden flourish. This result confirms the theory that comets can potentially bring the ingredients for life to Earth. As comets are frozen fossils from the earliest moments of our Solar System they also allow us to see that these ingredients for life, including the all important water they contain, are present from the start. It also means these materials are likely found throughout the clouds of gas that one day become star systems, once again supporting the idea that the conditions for life are far more common than (I at least) could have hoped. Mars at closest approach for a decade On May 30th, Mars will reach its closest point to Earth in over a decade, a mere 75 million km away. Since it’s closer it will appear brighter and (with a telescope) bigger on the sky. As it has also only just passed Opposition it will still appear opposite the Sun in the sky, so as the Sun sets in the West you will see the red planet rise in the East. Followed by the golden colour of Saturn below for the keen-eyed amongst you. So a good way to relax after such an exciting week in space is to take a few minutes to look for Mars rising in the East. Written by Alan Duffy, Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
30 May 2016 13:01
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/05/perfect-landing-inflatable-space-stations-and-space-sweeteners/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/05/perfect-landing-inflatable-space-stations-and-space-sweeteners/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Huge solar storms may be key to life on Earth
Huge solar storms may be key to life on Earth
Solar storms may have warmed the young Earth enough to house life, says Dr Alan Duffy.
The latest results from NASA’s Kepler satellite may have finally solved the mystery of how the conditions for life were created on our younger Earth - and surprisingly it seems titanic eruptions from the Sun were the cause. Far from damaging us, solar storms may have warmed the young Earth enough to house life as well as provided the chemical building blocks to create it. A faint young Sun and how violent storms may have actually helped us, as explained by NASA Goddard Known as the faint young Sun paradox, the problem for astronomers was this: stars like our Sun brighten as they age, meaning when life started on Earth 3.5 billion years ago we would have only have received three quarters of the heat we get today. Far from being a place where life could arise, our young Earth would have been frozen solid. One solution to this paradox was that the Earth had a thicker atmosphere to trap more heat through a greenhouse effect. However recent results based on ancient rocks in Australia show that the air was actually only half as thick as today, making the problem even greater. Young star temper tantrum By surveying hundreds of thousands of stars, Kepler has been able to create a snapshot of Sun-like stars at different ages. The team found that while younger stars are indeed dimmer they are also prone to erupting in violent explosions more often. These super solar flares can send billions of tonnes of energetic particles into space as a coronal mass ejection. If Earth is in the way they slam into our protective magnetic field, often visible to us as the aurora. Every century or so a particularly huge event will be unleashed that can cause serious damage to our electricity grid. A younger Sun could have been unleashing ten of these a day. These more violent storms would have collided with a weaker magnetic field on the younger Earth meaning the Northern Lights would have been seen down to Southern states of the USA as well as all of Europe and China, while the Southern Lights would have reached South Africa and the bottom of Australia. More importantly for life on Earth, the energy of the solar storms would have reached the atmosphere and powered chemical reactions turning otherwise inert nitrogen molecules into nitrous oxide and hydrogen cyanide. Nitrous oxide, otherwise known as laughing gas, is an incredibly powerful greenhouse gas. Today we hear of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide in our air, but if the young Earth had only a hundredth of the nitrous oxide that we have today of CO2 then enough heat would be trapped to keep water from freezing. The fact that the same reactions can also create hydrogen cyanide, a key chemical building block for life as we know it, is especially exciting. While life on Earth seems to have these powerful solar storms to thank for making conditions just right, the same can’t be said for our neighbour Mars. The magnetic field on the red planet wasn’t strong enough to prevent the atmosphere from being stripped away leaving it a frozen arid desert we know today. This all means we can be even more picky when we start to search for life on recently discovered planets around other stars as they have to have the right combination of magnetic field strength and age of star to recreate the conditions on our younger Earth. Surprisingly thanks to this result, we know that a violent star might be a good thing for kickstarting life. Written by Alan Duffy, Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
25 May 2016 14:57
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/05/huge-solar-storms-may-be-key-to-life-on-earth/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/05/huge-solar-storms-may-be-key-to-life-on-earth/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Swinburne researchers join the underground hunt for the universe’s dark side
Swinburne researchers join the underground hunt for the universe’s dark side
Swinburne’s Alan Duffy and Jeremy Mould head underground to uncover the nature of dark matter
In an Australian gold mine, a kilometre underground, an international team are searching for the Universe’s dark side. There are invisible particles that, combined, outweigh all the atoms in all the planets, stars and galaxies that we can see, by five times. These particles are called dark matter, and their lack of interaction with light confers them with phantom-like properties, so that they can fly through atoms of solid matter as if they were empty space. Understanding the nature of these particles would give scientists insights into one of astronomy’s biggest mysteries. One way researchers could learn more about dark matter is from the headwind of dark matter the Earth ploughs through at approximately 220 kilometres per second. As this dark matter wind ‘blows’ through the Earth, it will occasionally collide with the nucleus of an atom causing the atom to recoil. Spotting these chance collisions is the pursuit of the Southern Hemisphere’s first dark matter detector, SABRE (Sodium-iodide with Active Background REjection), an experiment locally co-led by Swinburne University of Technology’s Professor Jeremy Mould and the University of Melbourne’s Elisabetta Barberio. “SABRE exploits an unusual property of sodium iodide crystals doped with thallium. Recoiling atoms emit a faint flash of light on colliding with dark matter,” says Swinburne’s Dr Alan Duffy, an astrophysicist involved with the project. The challenge is that many extraneous flashes will be emitted due to collisions with cosmic rays and muons from space or background radiation. SABRE itself would also emit radiation, but to negate this, the Melbourne researchers have drawn on the expertise of Princeton University’s Frank Calaprice and his team. They have grown one of the purest crystals ever attempted to limit the radiation from SABRE. To escape the constant bombardment from space the SABRE team, in collaboration with Newmarket Gold and Northern Grampians Shire, created the Stawell Underground Physics Laboratory (SUPL) a kilometre underground in a gold mine in Victoria. Team members from the national nuclear agencies of Australia (ANSTO) and Italy (INFN) and CoEPP, Australia’s ARC particle physics centre of excellence, will ensure that SUPL will be one of the lowest-radiation locations on Earth. With $3.5 million funding from the Victorian government and Australia’s national government, and in-kind support from partner institutes, SABRE will be operative in a year. “Swinburne, along with the rest of Australia, will then be at the forefront of the world’s efforts to uncover the nature of dark matter,” says Duffy. The wider industrial and scientific communities are also showing interest in the unique SUPL facility. The low background radiation environment is ideal for testing novel neutron detectors, which can be used to help spot smuggled nuclear material. The facility’s detector technology can also perform tomographic scans of the surrounding mine to locate heavy metals. This is because metals such as bodies of gold ore block muon particles, much like bones block X-rays in medical scans.
20 May 2016 15:21
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/05/swinburne-researchers-join-the-underground-hunt-for-the-universes-dark-side/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/05/swinburne-researchers-join-the-underground-hunt-for-the-universes-dark-side/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Earth’s magnetic heartbeat, a thinner past and new alien worlds
Earth’s magnetic heartbeat, a thinner past and new alien worlds
It may come as a shock, but the Earth’s magnetic poles are on the move says Dr Alan Duffy.
Space research never stops and it seems neither do the surprises. On ABC Breakfast News I covered some huge results from the last few weeks. Be still my beating (magnetic) heart Earth’s magnetic field isn’t just useful for helping us to not get lost when hiking. It’s a key part of what protect us (and our vulnerable electronics) from radiation from space and solar outbursts. So it was far from simple curiosity that lead the European Space Agency to launch the Swarm trio of satellites to monitor our planet’s magnetic field. After two years of data collection Swarm has uncovered significant and rapid changes in the direction and strength of the magnetic field. Over the course of weeks you can see changes in the field, with a pulsation in our magnetic field that is directly tied to the heart of the planet. That’s because the magnetic field is generated by the motion of the molten iron core of Earth, and this “heartbeat” seen by Swarm is directly related to changes in that flow 3,000km below your feet. It may come as a shock to many of us, but the Earth’s magnetic poles are on the move and have been for the century or so of detailed measurements. In the case of the North Magnetic Pole, it is moving towards Asia, and the South Magnetic Pole is leaving Antarctica and heading towards Australia. This is all part of a large scale swap of North and South called a field reversal, which happens every few hundred thousand years. Earth’s magnetic field is constantly changing, but a large-scale ‘field reversal’ appears to be underway as the Magnetic North and South Poles begin a long journey swapping positions. The Swarm constellation confirms that the motion of the poles is speeding up, meaning that compasses in a few centuries times might have North rewritten as South. Also don’t worry about your great great great grand kids on that hike, as even this potentially weakened magnetic field (as well as Earth’s atmosphere) will continue to protect them from radiation from space. Earth’s thinner past A key model of Earth’s history is that billions of years ago we must have had a thicker atmosphere than now. This thick atmosphere was assumed because the younger Sun was dimmer than it is now, meaning Earth would have frozen without the added greenhouse effect of extra air. Not the conditions one needs for life to arise, nor indeed were hints of any glaciers in ancient rocks of the time. The latest research in Nature of Australian rocks from Beasley’s River have suggested that far from being thicker the young Earth in fact was paradoxically thinner than it is now. The white dots in this ancient rock from Australia’s Beasley River are calcified bubbles that formed from gases released as lava poured onto a younger Earth 2.7 billion years ago. The bigger the bubbles, the lower the pressure of the surrounding air, with the size indicating the Earth had atmosphere only half it’s current pressure, while a thick atmosphere had been expected. Sanjoy Som/University of Washington Picture the scene, 2.7 billion years ago, of a younger Earth. Lava pours across the land and reaches a sea. The rapid cooling of the hot lava by the water causes a glass-like surface to form. While the release of the pressure from the depths of the mantle to the atmosphere allows dissolved gasses to bubble out like opening a bottle of fizzy soft drink. Just like when you’ve only partly opened the bottle and the pressure is still above the atmosphere around the bubbles that form are smaller than if you just open it fully. Those surprisingly large bubbles (which are seen in white, having since filled in with calcite) indicate that the background air pressure was at most half of the current air pressure we experience today. This is similar to what you would experience on a mountain 5km high, yet thanks to the glass-like “lava toes” this lava undoubtedly flowed at sea-level. Thanks to other Australian rocks of a similar age bearing fossilised single cell life (known as stromatolites) we now life had arisen and was flourishing in this thinner Earth. As the Sun was definitely dimmer and hence cooler how did Earth not freeze without a thicker blanketing layer of atmosphere? One suggestion is that water can more easily boil in low pressure (on top of that mountain your kettle wouldn’t boil at 100 degrees centigrade but instead closer to 60). Increased levels of water vapour or other greenhouse gasses, such as methane, may hold the answer. However, for now it’s clear that life can form and thrive across a wider range of pressures than we may have hoped, and certainly increase the narrows bounds we consider for potentially life-sustaining alien worlds. Count again A more generous consideration of what planets may harbour life is particularly timely as NASA’s Kepler satellite revealed 1,284 planets, doubling the number known. Amongst this treasure trove of confirmed alien worlds are 550 worlds small enough to potentially be rocky life Earth, and nine are in the habitable zone of their star. This is a band around a star that is far enough away that the water isn’t boiled off, but not so far that it freezes into ice, and instead might exist as a liquid, hence the alternative name of the “Goldilocks Zone”. The 21 known alien worlds that lie within the habitable zone of their star, with the latest nine discoveries in orange. If you’re looking for life as we know it then these are the top candidates to search, but technically Venus would be a target too and yet thanks to a runaway greenhouse effect its a hellish world. Location is important, but atmospheres are key. The next step in determining a world’s suitability for life is to examine the atmosphere. This is a challenging observation but next generation telescopes such as NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will be able to discern the content and temperature of the air of these worlds. Thanks to learning about our own planet’s history we might not be quite so picky about these other alien worlds when considering their potential for harbouring life. Alan Duffy, Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
16 May 2016 14:45
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/05/earths-magnetic-heartbeat-a-thinner-past-and-new-alien-worlds/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/05/earths-magnetic-heartbeat-a-thinner-past-and-new-alien-worlds/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Double 'peanut shell-shaped' feature of a galaxy discovered
Double 'peanut shell-shaped' feature of a galaxy discovered
Swinburne astronomers have discovered an unusually shaped structure in two nearby disc galaxies.
Swinburne astronomers have discovered an unusually shaped structure in two nearby disc galaxies. The distribution of stars bulging from the centre of these galaxies’ flattened discs resembles two peanut shells, with one neatly nested within the other. “This is the first time such a phenomenon has been observed," says Bogdan Ciambur, the PhD student who led the investigation. “We expect the galaxies’ surprising anatomy will provide us with a unique view into their pasts. Deciphering their history can tell us about transformations that galaxies like our own Milky Way might experience.” New imaging software aids discovery The Swinburne team recently developed new imaging software, making it possible to find the delicate features that led to this discovery. Using data from the Hubble Space Telescope and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the researchers realised that two of the galaxies they were studying – NGC 128 and NGC 2549 – were quite exceptional. They displayed a peanut shell configuration at two separate layers within the galaxies’ three-dimensional distribution of stars. “Ironically, these peanut-shaped structures are far from peanut-sized,” says Swinburne Professor Alister Graham, co-author of the research. “They consist of billions of stars typically spanning 5-25 per cent of the length of the galaxies.” Although the ‘bulges’ of both galaxies were already known to display a single peanut shell pattern, astronomers had never before observed the fainter second structure in any galaxy. The large peanut shell-shaped bulge at the centre of the disc galaxy NGC 128. How does this bulge occur? Astronomers believe peanut shaped bulges are linked to a bar-shaped distribution of stars observed across the centre of many rotating galaxy discs. Each of the two galaxies observed contain two such bars. One way the peanut shaped structures may arise is when these bars of stars bend above and below the galaxy’s central disc of stars. “The instability mechanism may be similar to water running through a garden hose,” says Mr Ciambur. “When the water pressure is low, the hose remains still – the stars stay on their usual orbits. But when the pressure is high the hose starts to bend – stellar orbits bend outside of the disc." By directly comparing real galaxies with state-of-the-art simulations, the researchers hope to better understand how galaxies evolve. “The discovery is exciting because it will enable us to more fully test the growth of bars over time, including their lengths, rotation speeds, and periods of instability,” Mr Ciambur says. The study may also shed new light on the peanut-shaped bulge of our Milky Way Galaxy, which some astronomers suspect contains two stellar bars. “Thankfully we can observe it from afar as we are too distant to get caught up in the dizzying orbits that lead to these interesting peanut shell patterns,” says Professor Graham. This research has been published by the Oxford University Press in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Left: The galaxy NGC 128 is viewed with its disc in an edge-on orientation in this SDSS false-colour image. A peanut shell-shaped bulge can be seen around the thin disc. Its inner peanut shell is five times smaller. Image credit: SDSS, B.Ciambur. Right: A zoom-in with the Hubble Space Telescope into the core of NGC 2549 reveals the inner peanut shell shaped structure in this galaxy. Its outer peanut shell is three times bigger. Image credit: NASA, ESA, B.Ciambur.
06 May 2016 06:00
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/05/double-peanut-shell-shaped-feature-of-a-galaxy-discovered/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/05/double-peanut-shell-shaped-feature-of-a-galaxy-discovered/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Thanks Super New Moon for a great meteor shower
Thanks Super New Moon for a great meteor shower
The Eta Aquarids meteor shower through the debris tail of the Halley Comet.
For those of you needing to escape the (Australian) budget this week, the cosmos has produced a perfect distraction with the regular and reliable meteor shower, the Eta Aquarids, to give you a reason to look up from the paperwork. The Eta Aquarids meteor shower is caused by Earth ploughing through the debris tail of the Halley Comet. These tiny grains of material burn up in the atmosphere as they strike the air at speeds of tens of thousands of kilometres. We feel a similar force when holding our hands out of a moving car, now imagine doing it a hundred times faster, and you get some idea of why the friction with the air can destroy the grains. The intense heat produced causes the air itself to glow white hot, which we see as the streak of light in the sky. Composite image of the Eta Aquarids meteor shower from NASA All Sky Fireball monitoring station on 6th May 2013. They will originate from a region or ‘radiant’ in the East. Credit: NASA/MSFC/MEO (flickr) With no moonlight to outshine these shooting stars, Australians in dark sites may see as many as 60 trails per hour in the early pre-dawn Thursday and Friday morning. This is one for the early birds / night owls most meteorites visible from 1am to 6am (just before dawn), but in these dark skies you can see the odd random shooting star anytime after sunset (it just won’t be part of the more numerous Eta Aquarids meteor shower). To maximise your chance of seeing the ‘radiant’ or region from which the meteor showers appear to originate from look East / North-East. However, if there are bright lights in the way, it’s best to just look away into a dark region as the shooting star trails will still be visible across the sky. No Moon is a Good Moon Unlike last year’s meteor shower when a Full Moon blinded us to all but the brightest shooting stars, this year sees a Super New Moon. This is where the Moon lies between us and the Sun, and as a result the illuminated face can’t be seen, making it effectively invisible. However, the Moon is also 20,000 km closer to the Earth than average, and would appear bigger on the sky if it was visible, so this would really have ruined the great meteor shower for us. As it lies closer to the Earth the tides raised by the Moon will be larger, so this Super New Moon may not be visible to us but the effects are as a Perigean ‘Spring’ or ‘Fall’ tide. The difference between the unusually large Spring / Fall tides caused by a Perigean (i.e. closest approach) moon that coincides with a New or Full Moon. NOAA So take a break from the budget this week and enjoy the spectacular sight of a meteor shower, without the unwelcome glare of ordinarily lovely lunar light. Written by Alan Duffy, Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
04 May 2016 14:16
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/05/thanks-super-new-moon-for-a-great-meteor-shower/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/05/thanks-super-new-moon-for-a-great-meteor-shower/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Interstellar travel, galactic cannibalism and Martian beer
Interstellar travel, galactic cannibalism and Martian beer
Dr Alan Duffy looks at recent astronomical discoveries
Every other Monday morning I get to chat on ABC Breakfast News TV and try to remember that not everyone at 7.30am is as excited about exploding stars or colliding galaxies as I am. This week though I had no doubts that I wouldn’t be the only one excited as I discussed the incredibly ambitious Breakthrough Starshot mission to reach another star. Baby-boomers often remember where they were when they saw the incredible sight of humans walking on the Moon. But in my lifetime it may be possible to see something just as amazing: that of humanity exploring an alien solar system. Destination: Alpha Centauri. In fact there are three stars in this system, the closest of which is approximately 4.37 light years from us. ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2, acknowledgement: Davide De Martin The mission is simple in concept yet enormously challenging in execution. To get to one of our closest stars, Alpha Centauri, in 20 years requires travelling at a fifth of the speed of light, 60 million metres per second. To do this in a normal rocket, you would carry fuel to propel yourself through space. And to go quicker, you burn more fuel, but that extra fuel adds weight to the spaceship, meaning now you need extra fuel to propel that. This quickly snowballs until the required fuel is enormous and high speed exploration of the solar system is challenging, the reaching nearest star is impossible. The wonderful flyby of Pluto by New Horizons took nearly a decade. That same craft would take tens of thousands of years to reach the nearest star. The beautifully poetic idea of riding to the heavens on a beam of light is also a technically solid one, although possible is not the same as easy. A new approach is required to reach the stars. Instead of taking the fuel with you, keep it behind on Earth as a beam of laser light that propels you onward as a light sail is pushed on the pressure or “wind” of this light. It may sound poetic, but this is a solid technical idea and is in fact one signature of aliens that Breakthrough Listen from last year is trying to find. This time we are the ones producing laser beams that distance aliens may potentially see twinkling in their telescopes. However even 100 gigawatts of lasers (as much power as Australia consumes at any one time) shining on one light sail for up to 10 minutes is only going to accelerate to a fifth the speed of light if the craft is lightweight. To this end each star ship is tiny, a single gram in mass. Yet fitted out with camera, communications, electronics and even mini photon thrusters. Thanks to rapid miniaturisation these are all possible to imagine fitting on a single Starchip in a decade or more. Whether the lasers can be built, the beam focused on a tiny spot (no bigger than a DVD on the Moon) and the light sail pushed accurately enough to reach the target star, much less survive the journey through interstellar space remains to be seen. Luckily, Breakthrough is backed by billionaires Yuri Milner and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, as reaching the stars will take far more than the initial US$100m investment. Zoom into a cluster We may think our Milky Way galaxy is pretty big (it does stretch across the sky after all), yet on cosmic scales the largest structures have galaxies like ours as building blocks. These are clusters of galaxies, or galaxy clusters, and can stretch across millions of light years. Entire galaxies whirl around the enormous gravitational potential of huge accumulations of X-ray hot gas and invisible dark matter. The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has just released a beautiful view of one of the closest galaxy clusters to us, the Fornax cluster, taken with the VLT Survey Telescope. The Fornax (or furnace) cluster in the Fornax constellation as seen by ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope Most noticeable is a (barred) spiral galaxy (NGC 1365) with elegant features that lies just off the centre of this cluster. Closer to the centre of this monstrous structure are train-wreck galaxies (NGC 1399 in particular) that have grown through intergalactic cannibalism. In the violence of consuming smaller galaxies they have lost all the fine structure of the spiral galaxy. Don’t be mistaken though, the elegant spiral is just as extreme an object as the rest, containing an enormous supermassive blackhole that is rapidly spinning and ejecting huge amounts of radiation. Mars beer NASA has a long and proud tradition of developing spin-off tech that benefits and enriches our lives. Yet surely the news that technology designed to capture carbon dioxide from Martian air has found a place in improving craft breweries is one of the great adaptations. Until now, craft breweries had struggled to capture the small amounts of carbon dioxide released in the fermentation process and instead had to import it in later at great expense to purge tanks and add the “fizz” in beer. Thanks to the CO2 Recovery System, these microbreweries can use NASA technology designed to efficiently capture carbon dioxide from the thin Martian air and automatically store it for later use. This saves them money (payback time is two years for a brewery producing 60,000 barrels per annum) and prevents unnecessary carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, from being released into the air. So more than one reason this week to raise a glass in toast. Written by Alan Duffy, Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
20 April 2016 11:09
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/04/interstellar-travel-galactic-cannibalism-and-martian-beer/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/04/interstellar-travel-galactic-cannibalism-and-martian-beer/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Hidden stars, baby planets and blowup spaceships
Hidden stars, baby planets and blowup spaceships
Dr Alan Duffy looks at recent astronomical discoveries.
Each fortnight I get the amazing opportunity to speak about my top stories in space on ABC Breakfast News TV but for those of you who hate early mornings I wanted to make sure you got to hear of these awesome events too. Peering into the heart of our galaxy The ageing and yet still awesome NASA Hubble Space Telescope has peered into the centre of our Milky Way galaxy and revealed half a million never before seen stars. In this NASA video we peer into the heart of our galaxy, revealing half a million never before seen stars (in a reddish colour) visible to the Hubble Space Telescope’s infrared camera. How did we miss this many stars in our own backyard? Well for starters, the centre of our galaxy is a busy place, with a million stars crowded into the region between our Sun and our nearest neighbour Alpha Centauri. It’s hard to conceive of just how bright the “night sky” would be for any aliens in the galactic core. To make things even more confusing there exists a supermassive blackhole that can blind telescopes, although this is currently dormant it may yet fire into life by accreting nearby gas and stars. The main reason is that there are giant clouds of gas and dust around the stars that can block their light. It’s similar to how your visibility decreases when driving a car in fog. Yet in that same car you can still listen to the radio, which is a different wavelength of light and able to easily pass through the fog. Rather than using optical wavelength the Hubble Space Telescope used another type of light with its infrared camera to peer through this gas and dust and see the hidden stars behind. Even Hubble has limits though and there are likely another 10 million stars yet to be discovered. ALMA spots baby planets growing Telltale rings in a disc of gas and dust discovered by the ALMA telescope indicate a growing family of young worlds. ALMA image of the gas and dust around a young star, dark rings indicate growing gas giants in the outer regions. The inset is a zoom in showing a gap as material has been gravitationally attracted into a growing planet at the same distance as the Earth is from the Sun. S. Andrews (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA), ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO) The gaps in this disc around a young star just 10 millions years old are caused by planets growing through gravitationally “hoovering up” the material along their orbit then shepherding the edges clean. Even at a distance of 175 lightyears the incredible resolution of ALMA means we can actually see a gap around the star TW Hydrae at a similar distance that Earth is from our Sun. This makes for the exciting possibility that this baby planet will one day grow into an Earth (or perhaps continue to increase in size to a super-Earth). This is like being shown an ultra-sound of our own Solar System’s earliest days and will likely be the best resolved image we have for years to come. Forget the beach-house, get a blowup space habitat A unique experiment in space exploration takes place this weekend as SpaceX launches the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) to the International Space Station (ISS). In this artists image we see the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) attached to the International Space Station having been fully inflated, increasing its volume five times over. Bigelow Aerospace This is an inflatable habitat that will be connected to the space station and then carefully expanded, increasing in volume from 3 to 16 cubic metres. This will be the first inflatable structure ever tested on the ISS and will be a carefully managed experiment. Only when all safety checks are completed will astronauts from the station travel into the BEAM to install sensors before resealing it. After that, all this extra room on a craft where space is a prized asset, will be left unused except for periodic checks over the next two years. Big challenges are ahead though as it has to survive getting punctures from fast moving space debris as well as showing it can provide protection from the dangerous radiation of space too. As Bigelow is a private company and created BEAM with properietary materials we don’t know exactly how it will hold up. However, it appears to be built with a material similar to the Vectran used in astronaut’s spacesuits so there’s no reason to think it won’t last. If all goes well with BEAM, then the future is truly incredible. Everything from using inflatable spacecraft to reach Mars to “space hotels” or commercial space stations. This is a huge week in space and well worth an early Monday morning start. Alan Duffy, Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
05 April 2016 08:44
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/04/hidden-stars-baby-planets-and-blowup-spaceships/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/04/hidden-stars-baby-planets-and-blowup-spaceships/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Something new under a (dead) sun
Something new under a (dead) sun
Dr Alan Duffy looks at the discovery of a white dwarf star made almost entirely of oxygen.
For all their enormous size and furious energies, stars are remarkably simple. Knowing just their mass and the smattering of elements heavier than hydrogen we can predict their lives from cradles to grave. But every now and then, nature throws us something truly bizarre as as reminder that we ain’t seen everything yet. As reported in Science, just such an oddity has been found in a search of over 30,000 white dwarfs, the end state of stars similar to our sun. This white dwarf appears to be made almost entirely of oxygen. And how it formed is truly a puzzle. Life cycle A star is a fusion bomb, burning light elements like hydrogen and helium through nuclear fusion to form heavier elements like carbon and oxygen. The bigger the star, the brighter it burns and the faster it uses up this fuel. Stars no more than ten times the mass of our Sun will tend to throw out their nuclear “ash” of heavy elements into space, forming planetary nebulaes, which will eventually condense to form new stars, rocky planets and ultimately maybe even give rise to life like us that breathes the oxygen and eats this carbon. As Carl Sagan noted, we’re made of star-stuff. 3D visualisation of the Ring Nebula, with material flung out from the dying star in the centre. This gas may eventually form new stars, planets and ultimately even life. Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA, M. Kornmesser What’s left behind in a dying star is a glowing cinder with the mass of our sun crushed to the size of the Earth. This incredible density means that a teaspoon worth of this object would be about the mass of a truck. We call this a white dwarf and it is the fate of our own sun in 5 billion years time. End of the road, not the story This newly discovered white dwarf has half of our sun’s mass in a size no bigger than Earth, meaning the surface gravity is 100,000 times that of Earth. For you to walk on this would be like trying to walk with 40 blue whales on your back. That’s assuming you haven’t burnt to a crisp on it’s glowing white hot surface, with temperatures over 20,000K (red hot would be just 1,000K). Like the ash of campfire, you can tell what’s been burnt by examining what’s left over. In your camp you might wood ash or melted plastic perhaps but with the tremendous nuclear fires in stars we are left with individual elements. The bigger the initial star, the hotter it burns, and the heavier the elements left over. In the case of this white dwarf we only see oxygen, meaning all the carbon has been fused into this heavier element. The puzzle is, our models tell us that it can’t have produced the conditions to fuse carbon, meaning there’s something we’re missing in our models of how stars can die. One idea is that towards the end of the progenitor star’s life it began to “pulse” as it’s outer layers were raised up by the intense pressure of the radiation only for this material to crash back to the surface and temporarily create intense conditions to fuse all the carbon into oxygen. Then any remaining lighter elements like hydrogen and helium might also have been gravitationally stolen by a nearby companion (that has yet to be found) finally leaving a white dwarf containing only oxygen. In having oxygen 25 times more common than any other element, this object is unique amongst the tens of thousands white dwarfs that have been surveyed. Yet the fact it exists at all has implications for the way that amazingly destructive events in our universe, called supernovae. In some supernovae, white dwarfs detonate like ticking time bombs, all with the same brightness. This means we can use them as “standard candles” to measure distances based on how faint they appear. Measuring the expansion of the universe with these standard candles earned ANU Vice Chancellor Professor Brian Schmidt a share of the Nobel Prize in Physics 2011. While a white dwarf is the end of the road for a star, this latest discovery shows there’s still much to be learnt about these extreme objects. Alan Duffy, Research Fellow, Swinburne University of Technology. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
01 April 2016 15:05
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/04/something-new-under-a-dead-sun/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/04/something-new-under-a-dead-sun/
Astronomy
Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false
-
Locating mysterious bursts places Universe on the scales
Locating mysterious bursts places Universe on the scales
The discovery of a fast radio burst has enabled scientists to conduct a unique census of the Universe’s electron count.
An international team of scientists has identified the precise location of a very rare explosive event, called a fast radio burst (FRB) in a distant galaxy, for the first time. Using a combination of radio and optical telescopes, they were able to conduct a unique census of the Universe’s electron count. This simple, yet powerful result confirms that just four per cent of its mass is everyday matter with the rest hidden in dark matter and energy. Their discovery of this new FRB, was published today in the journal Nature. “It's the first time a fast radio burst has been used to conduct a cosmological measurement," says lead author Dr Evan Keane, who conceived the study while working for the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics at Swinburne University of Technology. Dr Keane is now based at the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) organisation in the UK. The burst – FRB150418 – was detected on 18 April last year by CSIRO’s 64-metre Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales where the vast majority of FRBs have been found. The origin of the earlier FRBs is still a mystery, with a long list of potential scenarios that could cause them. Pinpointing the location of ‘FRB150418’ now narrows down this list. Within hours of the FRB hitting the Parkes dish, Swinburne PhD student Shivani Bhandari had pointed the Australia Telescope Compact Array's six 22-metre dishes in the direction of the burst. Over the next few weeks she worked with CSIRO’s Dr Simon Johnston to monitor the region. Key to locating the FRB’s home galaxy was the detection of a radio afterglow that lasted for around six days before fading away. “We had a new clue to the puzzle,” Ms Bhandari says. The final piece to the puzzle was found with an optical telescope in Hawaii which identified an elliptical galaxy some six billion light years away as the location of the burst. "It's the first time we've been able to identify the host galaxy of an FRB,” Dr Keane says. The optical observation also gave the researchers the redshift measurement (the speed at which the galaxy is moving away from us due to the accelerated expansion of the Universe) the first time a distance has been determined for an FRB. But the best part was yet to come. “The FRB signal encodes how many electrons it has passed through,” says Dr Johnston. “Essentially this lets us weigh the Universe.” For Swinburne’s Dr Ewan Barr, the result is particularly pleasing. The survey used real-time processing on supercomputers as an exemplar of the technologies soon to be employed on the Square Kilometre Array. Over 500,000 billion bytes of information had streamed to Swinburne’s gSTAR supercomputer to find this needle in the cosmic haystack. “The two years we had to wait for this event was nothing compared to the FRB’s six billion year journey. Incredibly, encoded in less than a second of our data is the first cosmic census of electrons in the Universe,” he says. Fast Radio Bursts are a source of intensive research at Swinburne. Swinburne is currently working with the University of Sydney to transform their giant 18,000 square metre Molonglo telescope into a dedicated Fast Radio Burst finder as part of Professor Matthew Bailes’ ARC Laureate Fellowship.
25 February 2016 05:05
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/02/locating-mysterious-bursts-places-universe-on-the-scales/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/02/locating-mysterious-bursts-places-universe-on-the-scales/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS),Research
Science
true
-
Jupiter to outshine all other objects in the night sky
Jupiter to outshine all other objects in the night sky
On 8 March Jupiter will be at its closest point to Earth, and fully illuminated by the Sun – making this the best time to view the ‘gas giant’.
On Tuesday, 8 March, Jupiter will be at its closest point to Earth, and fully illuminated by the Sun – making this the best time to view the largest planet in the solar system. This yearly occurrence is known as Opposition – when the Earth lies directly between Jupiter and the Sun. This means that Jupiter appears directly opposite the Sun on the sky – rising in the East as the Sun sets in the West. For those in the Southern Hemisphere, the planet will trace across the sky towards the North and eventually set in the West. While for those in the Northern Hemisphere, the planet will trace across towards the South and eventually set in the West. Swinburne University of Technology astronomer, Dr Alan Duffy, says this will be the best time of the year to see Jupiter. The gas giant will be easily visible after sunset to anyone in the world, without requiring a telescope or binoculars. He recommends waiting at least one and a half hours after sunset to look for Jupiter so the sunset has fully faded. “Jupiter is particularly beautiful on 8 March as the gas giant is both at its closest point to Earth as well as fully illuminated by the Sun from our point of view,” Dr Duffy says. “These effects together mean Jupiter will be easily the brightest object in the night sky after Venus sets along with the Sun, so the ‘King of the Planets’ should be easy to see rising on the opposite side of the sky from the setting Sun. “If you have access to good binoculars you can even see the four Galilean moons, visible as a string of bright pearls from Jupiter, and they will also be even easier to see than usual. “If you can, get out to your local astronomical society and with even a modest telescope you can see the Great Red Spot of Jupiter as well as the bands of clouds in this gas giant.” Dr Duffy says the best time to view is at midnight when the planet is as high in the night sky as it will reach meaning we are looking at it through the least amount of atmosphere. “As anyone who has seen the air shimmering above asphalt on a hot day, moving air can smear out your view and this is the reason that the stars twinkle. So the less air you have to look through to see the object the better the image, which is why midnight is better than right after sunset when Jupiter is only just peering over the horizon,” Dr Duffy says. “While Opposition is an annual occurrence, 2016 will be better than last year’s event. Jupiter won’t be competing with the Moon in March as it’s a New Moon which will give off little extra light in the night sky.”
22 February 2016 09:01
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/02/jupiter-to-outshine-all-other-objects-in-the-night-sky/
https://www.swinburne.edu.au/news/2016/02/jupiter-to-outshine-all-other-objects-in-the-night-sky/
Astronomy
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (FSET),Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing (CAS)
Science
false