Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE170100217
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$850,000.00
Summary
Australian Partnership in Advanced LIGO+. This project aims to improve the sensitivity of the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (aLIGO). aLIGO’s detection of gravitational waves proved general relativity in the strong field limit and the existence of black hole binary systems. The increased sensitivity will enable daily detections and new classes of events, opening the field of gravitational wave astronomy. Since telescopes can detect only 5% of the stuff in the univer ....Australian Partnership in Advanced LIGO+. This project aims to improve the sensitivity of the Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational wave Observatory (aLIGO). aLIGO’s detection of gravitational waves proved general relativity in the strong field limit and the existence of black hole binary systems. The increased sensitivity will enable daily detections and new classes of events, opening the field of gravitational wave astronomy. Since telescopes can detect only 5% of the stuff in the universe, this is expected to greatly improve understanding of the universe. This Australian partnership will put its physicists and astronomers at the vanguard of this field and inspire the next generation to study the physical sciences.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE150100070
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$270,000.00
Summary
The Cherenkov Telescope Array. The Cherenkov Telescope Array: The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a major advance in very high energy gamma-ray astronomy. It will be ten times more sensitive than current instruments and will transform many topics in high energy astrophysics concerning extreme particle acceleration, and in astro-particle physics such as dark matter. Over 1000 scientists from over 25 countries are involved and prototype telescopes are under construction. This project will enabl ....The Cherenkov Telescope Array. The Cherenkov Telescope Array: The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is a major advance in very high energy gamma-ray astronomy. It will be ten times more sensitive than current instruments and will transform many topics in high energy astrophysics concerning extreme particle acceleration, and in astro-particle physics such as dark matter. Over 1000 scientists from over 25 countries are involved and prototype telescopes are under construction. This project will enable a hardware contribution to the pre-production array of telescopes, bringing with it full membership, plus access to all data and core science programmes of CTA. Australian astronomers can then influence astrophysics goals of CTA, and add new scientific value to Australia's radio astronomical facilities.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE130100198
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$315,000.00
Summary
The SAMI facility: a revolutionary multi-object hexabundle spectrograph. SAMI is a new Australian instrument concept that uses fibre bundles to obtain detailed spectroscopic data at many positions across the face of numerous galaxies at a time. Now that the technology has been shown to work, with spectacular results, the project aims to turn this concept into a general-user facility at the Anglo-Australian Telescope.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE180100009
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$340,160.00
Summary
Doubling the power of a unique astronomical survey facility. This project aims to double the number of fibres in the spectrograph on the UK Schmidt Telescope and so double the number of stars and galaxies that it can observe simultaneously. This would allow rapid and timely completion of two major projects: the Taipan galaxy survey would be first to test a potential discrepancy in the expansion rate of the universe that may signal new physics, while the FunnelWeb stellar survey would (in tandem ....Doubling the power of a unique astronomical survey facility. This project aims to double the number of fibres in the spectrograph on the UK Schmidt Telescope and so double the number of stars and galaxies that it can observe simultaneously. This would allow rapid and timely completion of two major projects: the Taipan galaxy survey would be first to test a potential discrepancy in the expansion rate of the universe that may signal new physics, while the FunnelWeb stellar survey would (in tandem with two space missions) identify potential nearby exoplanets and trace the history of the Milky Way. The benefits include high scientific impact for the two surveys, international showcasing of the Australian Starbug technology, and a national astronomical survey facility for the next decade.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE170100242
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$400,000.00
Summary
Hector-1: Unravelling how galaxies evolve. This project aims to deliver the first part of Hector, an instrument that can produce three-dimensional (3D) images of 60,000 galaxies in 5 years. This is an improvement on the SAMI instrument at the Anglo-Australian Telescope, which obtains spectroscopy at 61 contiguous positions across each galaxy and provides information about stars and gas in each galaxy. The massive amount of 3D data obtained over this 5-year survey will unlock secrets about how sp ....Hector-1: Unravelling how galaxies evolve. This project aims to deliver the first part of Hector, an instrument that can produce three-dimensional (3D) images of 60,000 galaxies in 5 years. This is an improvement on the SAMI instrument at the Anglo-Australian Telescope, which obtains spectroscopy at 61 contiguous positions across each galaxy and provides information about stars and gas in each galaxy. The massive amount of 3D data obtained over this 5-year survey will unlock secrets about how spinning galaxies like our own form. This cosmological survey of the local universe is expected to reveal how galaxies, including the Milky Way, evolve and build up their spin with cosmic time. Spin-off technologies could have important industrial applications outside astronomy.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE120100199
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$300,000.00
Summary
GNOSIS-J: completing the revolutionary OH suppression spectrograph. The GNOSIS-J project brings together leading Australian astronomers to make use of recent technological advances in photonics — a key strength of Australian research and industry — to provide a dramatic improvement in observational sensitivity at near-infrared wavelengths. This will allow new observations of the deep universe.
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE150100144
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$430,000.00
Summary
Hector - a revolutionary spectrograph for understanding how galaxies evolve. Hector - a revolutionary spectrograph for understanding how galaxies evolve: The project team recently demonstrated the extraordinary power of a new Sydney-Australian Astronomical Observatory Multi-object Integral-field spectrograph (SAMI) at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. This early prototype demonstrated it was possible to place 13 hexabundles accurately onto the images of 13 galaxies and to obtain spectroscopy at 61 ....Hector - a revolutionary spectrograph for understanding how galaxies evolve. Hector - a revolutionary spectrograph for understanding how galaxies evolve: The project team recently demonstrated the extraordinary power of a new Sydney-Australian Astronomical Observatory Multi-object Integral-field spectrograph (SAMI) at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. This early prototype demonstrated it was possible to place 13 hexabundles accurately onto the images of 13 galaxies and to obtain spectroscopy at 61 contiguous positions across each galaxy. This provides a wealth of information about stars and gas in each galaxy. SAMI has generated enormous interest in new science across the Australian and international community. This project intends to develop a far more powerful facility, 'Hector', that will allow us to answer new scientific questions. For the first time, we will learn how the properties of galaxies evolve with their surrounds, and what this tells us about how galaxies form.Read moreRead less
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL140100278
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,513,348.00
Summary
Hector: a revolutionary survey machine to discover how galaxies formed. Hector: a revolutionary survey machine to discover how galaxies formed. The formation of the Milky Way, is one of the most important questions in cosmology today. One of the key unknowns is how the gas, which forms the stars, gets into dark matter halos to make galaxies and why these galaxies spin. This project aims to assemble a first-rate instrument team to build Hector, the first automated hexabundle spectrograph; to ass ....Hector: a revolutionary survey machine to discover how galaxies formed. Hector: a revolutionary survey machine to discover how galaxies formed. The formation of the Milky Way, is one of the most important questions in cosmology today. One of the key unknowns is how the gas, which forms the stars, gets into dark matter halos to make galaxies and why these galaxies spin. This project aims to assemble a first-rate instrument team to build Hector, the first automated hexabundle spectrograph; to assemble a large team to combine Hector's spectral imaging of 100,000 galaxies with new Australian radio observations; and to extend this technology for the Giant Magellan Telescope. This will help to ensure Australia's leadership in observational cosmology and instrumentation through this decade and into the era of extremely large telescopes.Read moreRead less
Star and planetary system assembly with the VAMPIRES instrument. Understanding the origins of the Earth and our Solar System comprises one of the landmark challenges for contemporary astronomy. This project will commission the VAMPIRES instrument which will open a unique window upon planetary nurseries around distant stars. These dusty disks will be perturbed by any newborn planets orbiting within causing several subtle signatures which our instrument is designed to read. Such data will make a c ....Star and planetary system assembly with the VAMPIRES instrument. Understanding the origins of the Earth and our Solar System comprises one of the landmark challenges for contemporary astronomy. This project will commission the VAMPIRES instrument which will open a unique window upon planetary nurseries around distant stars. These dusty disks will be perturbed by any newborn planets orbiting within causing several subtle signatures which our instrument is designed to read. Such data will make a critical contribution to our understanding of planetary assembly. Revealing the primordial state, before the onset of structural changes as the system evolves, informs expectations for exoplanetary system architecture and for the chance that life is harboured around distant stars.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE150100055
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$560,000.00
Summary
The Australian European Southern Observatory Positioner (AESOP). The Australian European Southern Observatory Positioner (AESOP): The aim of the Australian European Southern Observatory Positioner (AESOP) is to fund the construction costs of an innovative instrument to be built in Australia and installed onto the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) VISTA telescope. Australia leads the world in fibre-positioning instrumentation and their scientific exploitation. This project will allow Australi ....The Australian European Southern Observatory Positioner (AESOP). The Australian European Southern Observatory Positioner (AESOP): The aim of the Australian European Southern Observatory Positioner (AESOP) is to fund the construction costs of an innovative instrument to be built in Australia and installed onto the European Southern Observatory's (ESO) VISTA telescope. Australia leads the world in fibre-positioning instrumentation and their scientific exploitation. This project will allow Australian researchers to take a leading role through major studies of the spatial distributions of galaxies. The outcomes of the project will be construction and delivery of an optical fibre-positioning system to the ESO, resulting in general access to the ESO's premier survey facility for eight Australian researchers.Read moreRead less