The role of radiation and cosmic rays in galaxy formation. This project aims to solve the enduring question about galaxy formation of why galaxies are so inefficient at turning gas into stars. This project will investigate two possible agents for this inefficiency, the pressures exerted by starlight photons and the relativistic cosmic rays produced by supernovae, using a combination of numerical simulations, basic physical analysis, and comparison to observations. The expected outcome will be a ....The role of radiation and cosmic rays in galaxy formation. This project aims to solve the enduring question about galaxy formation of why galaxies are so inefficient at turning gas into stars. This project will investigate two possible agents for this inefficiency, the pressures exerted by starlight photons and the relativistic cosmic rays produced by supernovae, using a combination of numerical simulations, basic physical analysis, and comparison to observations. The expected outcome will be a greatly improved understanding of the physics of the interaction of radiation and cosmic rays with star-forming interstellar gas. This will help complete the picture of how galaxies like our own came to be, and will provide tools for both future simulations and the interpretation of observations.Read moreRead less
The galactic centre: a laboratory for starburst galaxies. The Milky Way's centre is one of its most captivating regions; here star-formation, and potentially, the region's supermassive black hole, inject enormous amounts of energy and drive a powerful wind of plasma and cosmic rays above the galactic plane. This project will elucidate these processes and help us understand other galactic nuclei.
The Carina Nebula: a massive star factory and the anchor for calibrating extragalactic star formation. Massive stars are vital to the life cycle of a galaxy, providing material and controlling the environment where new stars are made. This project will use the Australia Telescope to map the spectacular Carina Nebula, a hotbed of massive stars, to provide a picture of its stars and gas and a template for understanding star formation in distant galaxies.
Adolescent stars and planets in our neighbourhood from Gaia and FunnelWeb. This project aims to understand how infant stars in their stellar nurseries reach adulthood in the Galactic disk, and link stellar birth to the presence and evolution of adolescent planetary systems. The billion dollar Gaia satellite will change the study of stellar adolescence, with data beginning to flow with an initial public release this year. FunnelWeb – the largest star survey of its kind, covering the entire Southe ....Adolescent stars and planets in our neighbourhood from Gaia and FunnelWeb. This project aims to understand how infant stars in their stellar nurseries reach adulthood in the Galactic disk, and link stellar birth to the presence and evolution of adolescent planetary systems. The billion dollar Gaia satellite will change the study of stellar adolescence, with data beginning to flow with an initial public release this year. FunnelWeb – the largest star survey of its kind, covering the entire Southern sky – will augment this data. This project will combine these datasets, identifying the birthplace of the majority of nearby adolescent stars in the Southern sky and helping to discover and characterise their planetary systems. The results relating to the origin and Galactic context of our solar system are of broad public interest.Read moreRead less
Revealing the history of the Milky Way Galaxy through precision stellar spectroscopy. How did the Milky Way Galaxy form? The answer to this fundamental question lies in the chemical compositions of stars. Enormous investments by the Australian and international community into state-of-the-art facilities and surveys will yield a 1 million star sample for chemical analysis. To fully harvest the information from those surveys requires stellar chemical composition measurements of the highest possibl ....Revealing the history of the Milky Way Galaxy through precision stellar spectroscopy. How did the Milky Way Galaxy form? The answer to this fundamental question lies in the chemical compositions of stars. Enormous investments by the Australian and international community into state-of-the-art facilities and surveys will yield a 1 million star sample for chemical analysis. To fully harvest the information from those surveys requires stellar chemical composition measurements of the highest possible precision. This project aims to use recently pioneered analysis techniques that have led the field of chemical abundance measurements in stars to the unprecedented precision level of 2 per cent (a five-fold improvement) to chart the evolution of our Galaxy over cosmic time.Read moreRead less
Dynamic stars: atmospheres, evolution and asteroseismology. By developing state-of-the-art stellar atmosphere and evolution models, the project will endeavour to answer some of the key outstanding questions in stellar astrophysics including how magnetic fields are manifested in stars, how stars are affected by convection, how oscillations are excited in stars and how old the most ancient stars in the Milky Way are. The project will endeavour to make obsolete the free parameters that have hampere ....Dynamic stars: atmospheres, evolution and asteroseismology. By developing state-of-the-art stellar atmosphere and evolution models, the project will endeavour to answer some of the key outstanding questions in stellar astrophysics including how magnetic fields are manifested in stars, how stars are affected by convection, how oscillations are excited in stars and how old the most ancient stars in the Milky Way are. The project will endeavour to make obsolete the free parameters that have hampered stellar modelling for the past half-century. Using unique stellar models the project aims to provide rich legacy resources for countless studies in modern astronomy and provide the necessary theoretical underpinning for ambitious Australian-led Milky Way surveys, such as GALAH and SkyMapper, and international satellite missions such as Kepler, TESS and PLATO.Read moreRead less
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL110100012
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,594,354.00
Summary
Unravelling the history of the Milky Way Galaxy and searching for exoplanets through the chemical compositions of stars. Understanding the past and future of the Milky Way Galaxy and how planets form around stars are two of the main challenges facing astronomy today. This project will make crucial inroads to both of these topics through a combination of sophisticated supercomputer simulations and unprecedented observations with world-leading Australian facilities.
Galactic Archaeology: a new probe of the cold dark matter paradigm. The project capitalises on Australia's technological leadership in carrying out wide-field surveys, and on Australia's intellectual leadership in stellar astronomy and galactic archaeology. HERMES is the new Anglo-Australian Telescope instrument that will keep Australians competitive in a field that is set to explode in the coming decade.
The origin and evolution of heavy elements in the early universe. Everything in our Solar System, including all life on Earth, was created long ago out of material forged inside fiery stellar furnaces. The latest theoretical simulations of element production in red giant stars reveals the processes that gave us our existence, as well as help us to understand the origin of the galaxy that we inhabit.