Explosive evidence: connecting stellar abundances to supernova progenitors. This project aims to determine the evolutionary scenarios of thermonuclear supernovae through numerical simulations. Supernova explosions create heavy elements, such as iron, that enable life on Earth, and are instrumental in proving that the Universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. For all their importance, the nature of their progenitors is still a mystery, which has implications for many fields of astrophysics. ....Explosive evidence: connecting stellar abundances to supernova progenitors. This project aims to determine the evolutionary scenarios of thermonuclear supernovae through numerical simulations. Supernova explosions create heavy elements, such as iron, that enable life on Earth, and are instrumental in proving that the Universe is expanding at an accelerating rate. For all their importance, the nature of their progenitors is still a mystery, which has implications for many fields of astrophysics. Through building inter-institutional and international collaborations, the project is expected to determine where, when, and how often these explosions occur. Benefits will include development of new technological methods and exploitation of Australian-led survey data from national facilities.Read moreRead less
The evolution of mass and energy over the past 13 billion years. The universe has slowly transformed atomic material into a range of structures from planets, stars, galaxies, clusters and filaments. In the process the universe has generated energy at almost all wavelengths. This project will build a model to explain the evolution of mass, energy and structure in the universe and will test the model using the latest data.
Australia Surveys the Galaxies: The Central Role of Environment. The success of Australia's premier astronomical facilities is critical to the development of Australian astronomy in the 21st century. Understanding how galaxies grow and evolve (including our Milky Way) is one of the principal goals of these facilities. This program aims to understand galaxy evolution, by exploring the connection between galaxies and their environments. The Super Science Fellows will gain new insights into the lon ....Australia Surveys the Galaxies: The Central Role of Environment. The success of Australia's premier astronomical facilities is critical to the development of Australian astronomy in the 21st century. Understanding how galaxies grow and evolve (including our Milky Way) is one of the principal goals of these facilities. This program aims to understand galaxy evolution, by exploring the connection between galaxies and their environments. The Super Science Fellows will gain new insights into the longstanding problem of galaxy evolution, and build upon Australia's investment in 21st century astrophysics.Read moreRead less
The Taipan Survey - Cosmology in the Nearby Universe. This project aims to support the Taipan (Transforming Astronomical Imaging-surveys through Polychromatic Analysis of Nebulae) survey, which is designed to measure redshifts for 500 000 galaxies and peculiar velocities for 50 000 galaxies in the nearby universe. The survey aims to yield the most precise direct measurement of the present-day expansion rate of the universe, the largest maps of the density and velocity fields of local structures, ....The Taipan Survey - Cosmology in the Nearby Universe. This project aims to support the Taipan (Transforming Astronomical Imaging-surveys through Polychromatic Analysis of Nebulae) survey, which is designed to measure redshifts for 500 000 galaxies and peculiar velocities for 50 000 galaxies in the nearby universe. The survey aims to yield the most precise direct measurement of the present-day expansion rate of the universe, the largest maps of the density and velocity fields of local structures, and new and stringent tests of large-scale gravitational physics using galaxy motions, probing Einstein’s theory of gravity and alternatives. It is expected that the Taipan database will add substantial value to research with the SkyMapper telescope and the Australian SKA Pathfinder. The project also aims to demonstrate an innovative Australian robotic technology ('starbugs') that will be used in the next-generation Giant Magellan Telescope.Read moreRead less
Mapping the dark matter with early type galaxies. Unidentified dark matter outweighs luminous matter (stars, gas, and galaxies) by several times and is detected by its gravitational effects in the Universe. The Six Degree Field Galaxy Survey is now complete and this project will prepare a larger survey, which will put the team clearly in the lead in understanding the distribution of dark matter.
Weighing Black Holes with The Australian Dark Energy Survey. This project plans to measure how supermassive black holes have evolved over the last 12 billion years. Direct measurements of central black hole masses only exist for about 40 relatively nearby galaxies. The unique time-lapse observations and five-year baseline of the Australian Dark Energy Survey will enable us to measure masses for about 400 black holes, an order of magnitude more than previously possible. In addition to weighing bl ....Weighing Black Holes with The Australian Dark Energy Survey. This project plans to measure how supermassive black holes have evolved over the last 12 billion years. Direct measurements of central black hole masses only exist for about 40 relatively nearby galaxies. The unique time-lapse observations and five-year baseline of the Australian Dark Energy Survey will enable us to measure masses for about 400 black holes, an order of magnitude more than previously possible. In addition to weighing black holes, recent results show that with precision measurement these systems may provide a standard candle, a new fundamental yardstick for cosmology. Unlike supernova observations that discovered dark energy, our measurements are practical to distances stretching back across 90 per cent of the observable universe.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE140100052
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$350,000.00
Summary
TAIPAN - a spectrograph to survey the southern sky. TAIPAN - a spectrograph to survey the southern sky: The TAIPAN spectroscopic survey of the southern sky aims to quadruple the number of nearby galaxies with measured redshifts, distances and velocities. Science goals include measuring the expansion rate of the universe to 1 per cent precision, and combining optical spectroscopy and radio data for each galaxy to measure the rate at which gas is being converted into stars in the local universe. T ....TAIPAN - a spectrograph to survey the southern sky. TAIPAN - a spectrograph to survey the southern sky: The TAIPAN spectroscopic survey of the southern sky aims to quadruple the number of nearby galaxies with measured redshifts, distances and velocities. Science goals include measuring the expansion rate of the universe to 1 per cent precision, and combining optical spectroscopy and radio data for each galaxy to measure the rate at which gas is being converted into stars in the local universe. This project supports construction of the TAIPAN high-performance spectrograph that will be used to carry out the survey on the UK Schmidt Telescope (UKST). The results of the survey will be made freely available to all Australian astronomers.Read moreRead less