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.
FIRE-DRIVE: Feedback in Realistic Environments to DRIVE turbulence. This project aims to understand galactic turbulence, which controls the formation of stars in the Universe and determines galaxy evolution and planet formation. Galactic turbulence is not yet well understood. This project’s goal is to determine the turbulence driving with realistic simulations and compare them to observations, to predict star, planet and galaxy formation and evolution. The simulations and observational tools dev ....FIRE-DRIVE: Feedback in Realistic Environments to DRIVE turbulence. This project aims to understand galactic turbulence, which controls the formation of stars in the Universe and determines galaxy evolution and planet formation. Galactic turbulence is not yet well understood. This project’s goal is to determine the turbulence driving with realistic simulations and compare them to observations, to predict star, planet and galaxy formation and evolution. The simulations and observational tools developed in this project will transform our understanding of galactic cloud and star formation, advancing international and Australian research on galaxies, stars and planets.Read moreRead less
SkyMapper and the Southern Sky Survey. The Southern Sky Survey is the first digital imaging survey of the entire southern hemisphere sky. The resulting information on a billion stellar and galaxy images underpins a number of significant national science programs of international prominence. These include the discovery of the oldest stars in our galaxy, fossils from its formation.
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
The formation of the first stars in the universe. This project aims to solve one of the fundamental problems in astrophysics, how the first stars in the Universe were formed after the Big Bang. Using high-resolution simulations, including magnetic fields and jet/outflow feedback, the mass function of the first stars can be determined. The project will transform our understanding of how the first heavy elements were created in the Universe, providing crucial input for Australian-lead internationa ....The formation of the first stars in the universe. This project aims to solve one of the fundamental problems in astrophysics, how the first stars in the Universe were formed after the Big Bang. Using high-resolution simulations, including magnetic fields and jet/outflow feedback, the mass function of the first stars can be determined. The project will transform our understanding of how the first heavy elements were created in the Universe, providing crucial input for Australian-lead international and national observational surveys, and semi-analytic models of galaxy, star and planet formation, all directly following the formation of the first stars. This project will contribute to three of the six big questions defined in the Decadal Plan for Australian Astronomy 2016-2025, expand knowledge in the physical sciences and drive the next generation of large facilities and Australian frontier technologies.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 mass function of stars at birth. This project aims to answer three questions surrounding the birth of stars: What determines the mass of stars when they are born in our Galaxy, the so-called Initial Mass Function (IMF)? How does the IMF depend on the physical properties of the gas cloud in which stars form? By what amount do outflows and jets reduce the mean stellar mass and determine the shape of the IMF? It is expected that the project will generate the most realistic computer simulations ....The mass function of stars at birth. This project aims to answer three questions surrounding the birth of stars: What determines the mass of stars when they are born in our Galaxy, the so-called Initial Mass Function (IMF)? How does the IMF depend on the physical properties of the gas cloud in which stars form? By what amount do outflows and jets reduce the mean stellar mass and determine the shape of the IMF? It is expected that the project will generate the most realistic computer simulations of the formation of star clusters to date, with relevance to galaxy formation and evolution. The simulations may also provide the initial conditions for understanding exo-planet formation.Read moreRead less
The key role of black holes in galaxy evolution. This project will determine the effect of black holes on galaxy formation using sophisticated supercomputer simulations of radiation, jets and winds interacting with multi-phase interstellar gas in the host galaxy. The results of these simulations will be calibrated against radio and optical observations and incorporated into larger scale simulations describing the growth of structure in the Universe and the evolution of galaxies. This research is ....The key role of black holes in galaxy evolution. This project will determine the effect of black holes on galaxy formation using sophisticated supercomputer simulations of radiation, jets and winds interacting with multi-phase interstellar gas in the host galaxy. The results of these simulations will be calibrated against radio and optical observations and incorporated into larger scale simulations describing the growth of structure in the Universe and the evolution of galaxies. This research is highly relevant to the future science programs of the Giant Magellan Telescope and the Square Kilometre Array.Read moreRead less