The hearts of galaxies. The centres of galaxies harbour fascinating astrophysical objects, such as black holes one thousand million times more massive than our Sun. This project will measure the damage that they have caused, searching for binary black holes, and helping to determine the extent to which galaxies have collided.
Massive black holes in dense star clusters. This project will be investigating the metamorphosis of dense star clusters containing millions of stars into massive black holes at the centres of galaxies. The research will be undertaken using the world's largest optical telescopes and one of the nation's fastest supercomputers.
Ancient stars: the origin of elements. The story of the origin of the elements fascinates mankind and touches many branches of science. This project combines new stellar population models of the oldest stars with new data from the Australian million-star GALactic Archaeology with HERMES (GALAH) survey to address basic astrophysical problems: mixing in stars, mass transfer in binary stars and measurement of the masses of the first stars. Knowing how these ancient stars behave is crucial to unders ....Ancient stars: the origin of elements. The story of the origin of the elements fascinates mankind and touches many branches of science. This project combines new stellar population models of the oldest stars with new data from the Australian million-star GALactic Archaeology with HERMES (GALAH) survey to address basic astrophysical problems: mixing in stars, mass transfer in binary stars and measurement of the masses of the first stars. Knowing how these ancient stars behave is crucial to understanding element production in the early Universe, both in our Milky Way and distant galaxies. By statistically comparing new models to the GALAH data, this project aims to measure the masses of the oldest galactic stars directly impacting branches of astrophysics from planets to galaxies.Read moreRead less
“Beacons in the Night” unveiling how galaxies light up dark matter. How dark matter influences the formation and evolution of galaxies is to this day an outstanding question in astrophysics. To answer it, world-class facilities and a unique combination of observations and theory are required. This DP team, a world-class team of observers and theorists, will tackle this question by leveraging on two multi-million dollar projects: the MAGPI galaxy survey and the hydrodynamical simulations suite EA ....“Beacons in the Night” unveiling how galaxies light up dark matter. How dark matter influences the formation and evolution of galaxies is to this day an outstanding question in astrophysics. To answer it, world-class facilities and a unique combination of observations and theory are required. This DP team, a world-class team of observers and theorists, will tackle this question by leveraging on two multi-million dollar projects: the MAGPI galaxy survey and the hydrodynamical simulations suite EAGLE-XL. MAGPI will deliver exquisite kinematics for hundreds of galaxies in the middle ages of the Universe, providing a view to the effect of dark matter on galaxies at this critical time, while EAGLE-XL represents the technological frontier in simulations and provides the best interpretative framework for MAGPI.Read moreRead less
The birth of stars and planets. How are stars and planets formed? The question is critical to understanding the evolution of the Universe. This project will address four questions: Does turbulence determine the mass of stars? How do magnetic fields in the star formation process change the mass distribution of stars? Can we model the formation of stars on the scale of observed stellar nurseries in the Milky Way? What are the starting ingredients for planet formation? The project will achieve this ....The birth of stars and planets. How are stars and planets formed? The question is critical to understanding the evolution of the Universe. This project will address four questions: Does turbulence determine the mass of stars? How do magnetic fields in the star formation process change the mass distribution of stars? Can we model the formation of stars on the scale of observed stellar nurseries in the Milky Way? What are the starting ingredients for planet formation? The project will achieve this by performing the world's largest and most detailed supercomputer simulations of star cluster formation, while developing new algorithms and simulation methods for fluid dynamics, building collaborations across six countries and publicly releasing a major simulation code.Read moreRead less
Putting Einstein to the test: Probing gravity with gravitational waves. This project aims to capitalise on the momentous discovery of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). In 2016, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration announced the first detection of gravitational waves coming from the collision of two massive black holes approximately one billion light years from Earth. The project aims to use proprietary LIGO data, of multiple gravitational-wave ob ....Putting Einstein to the test: Probing gravity with gravitational waves. This project aims to capitalise on the momentous discovery of gravitational waves by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO). In 2016, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration announced the first detection of gravitational waves coming from the collision of two massive black holes approximately one billion light years from Earth. The project aims to use proprietary LIGO data, of multiple gravitational-wave observations, to perform unprecedented tests of Einstein's theory of gravity in regions of the Universe where new physics is most likely to occur - at the surfaces of black holes. The project is designed to develop the foundation of gravitational-wave astronomy for the next three-to-five years.Read moreRead less
The convective boundaries in stars. This project aims to locate the boundaries of convection, a problem in models of stars. It will calculate high-resolution three-dimensional simulations of stars and observe star clusters. The effect of this advance on stellar modelling could be profound since almost all stars contain convective regions. Many branches of astronomy rely on stellar models so the effect could extend far beyond the immediate field, ultimately expanding understanding of the Universe ....The convective boundaries in stars. This project aims to locate the boundaries of convection, a problem in models of stars. It will calculate high-resolution three-dimensional simulations of stars and observe star clusters. The effect of this advance on stellar modelling could be profound since almost all stars contain convective regions. Many branches of astronomy rely on stellar models so the effect could extend far beyond the immediate field, ultimately expanding understanding of the Universe. It could also be crucial in realising the scientific advances of the surveys which are gathering data for up to a billion stars.Read moreRead less
Extreme astrophysics in the age of gravitational waves. This project aims to probe the most catastrophic explosions in the universe. It will use gravitational wave astronomy to detect an exotic effect that causes space to permanently deform following cataclysmic events, determine the origin of binary black holes by measuring statistical properties of many mergers, and use observations of colliding neutron stars to understand the physics of the biggest explosions in the Universe. This project wil ....Extreme astrophysics in the age of gravitational waves. This project aims to probe the most catastrophic explosions in the universe. It will use gravitational wave astronomy to detect an exotic effect that causes space to permanently deform following cataclysmic events, determine the origin of binary black holes by measuring statistical properties of many mergers, and use observations of colliding neutron stars to understand the physics of the biggest explosions in the Universe. This project will lay the framework for the next decade of the new field of gravitational-wave astronomy.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100656
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$364,259.00
Summary
The stars that should not exist. This project aims to explain the origin of stars with a chemical composition that is so peculiar that they cannot be explained by any theory of how stars evolve or how elements are created. Their very existence represents fundamental problems in astrophysics. This project proposes a novel method to distinguish peculiarity of up to 20 million stars, mostly observed from Australia. Expected outcomes include new theories to explain two of the most puzzling kinds of ....The stars that should not exist. This project aims to explain the origin of stars with a chemical composition that is so peculiar that they cannot be explained by any theory of how stars evolve or how elements are created. Their very existence represents fundamental problems in astrophysics. This project proposes a novel method to distinguish peculiarity of up to 20 million stars, mostly observed from Australia. Expected outcomes include new theories to explain two of the most puzzling kinds of peculiar stars, discoveries of new kinds of anomalous stars, and discoveries of ancient or metal-free stars that should not exist. The project is expected to generate social benefit, as well as long-term economic benefits by inspiring and training the next generation of data analysts, programmers, engineers, teachers, and scientists. It may also generate economic benefits from a generalised method for outlier detection in high-dimensional datasets.Read moreRead less
Nucleosynthetic signatures of convective-reactive events in stars. This project aims to better understand where the elements in the periodic table come from, by investigating spectacular but poorly understood nuclear-burning events that occur in stars. The project aims to understand the inner workings of stars by calculating detailed three-dimensional simulations using Australia's largest supercomputers, and to combine this with telescope surveys that are recording the chemical make-up of millio ....Nucleosynthetic signatures of convective-reactive events in stars. This project aims to better understand where the elements in the periodic table come from, by investigating spectacular but poorly understood nuclear-burning events that occur in stars. The project aims to understand the inner workings of stars by calculating detailed three-dimensional simulations using Australia's largest supercomputers, and to combine this with telescope surveys that are recording the chemical make-up of millions of stars. The project expects to create new knowledge in the areas of stellar physics and nucleosynthesis. Many branches of astronomy rely on stellar models so the impact would extend far beyond the immediate field, ultimately expanding our understanding of the Universe.Read moreRead less