Astrophysics
Grant Success
|
|
Congratulations to
the following staff members who have recently been successful in
obtaining research grants:
Prof.
John Dickey, Prof. Larry Forbes & Dr Simon Ellingson (+
collaborators)
|
ARC
Linkage, Infrastructure, Equipment & Facilities Grant
"A 10 Gbit/s Fibre Optic Link to Mt Pleasant & Mt Canopus
Observatories"
|
| Prof.
John Dickey |
ARC
Discovery Grant
"Transient Astronomical Sources at Radio Frequencies:"
|
| Dr
Melanie Johnston-Hollitt |
University
of Tasmania Internal Research Grant Scheme
"Understanding Dynamical Processes in Clusters & Superclusters of
Galaxies"
|
|
|
Welcome
to Astrophysics Summer Students
|
|
Welcome to Mayumi
Sato, Steve Ambrose and Min-Young Lee, three astrophysics students
selected for our summer scholarship program. Mayumi is from Keio
University, Japan and will be working with Dr Johnston-Hollitt,
Min-Young is from Yonsei University, Korea and will be working with Dr
Cimo and Steve is from UTas and will be working with Prof Dickey.
|
|
Mt
Pleasant and Ceduna Telescopes Take Part in Cassini-Huygens Mission
|
|
The Mt Pleasant and
Ceduna radio telescopes operated by the discipline of physics are
gearing up to participate in the NASA operated Cassini-Huygens
space probe mission which is examining the rings of Saturn and the moon
Titan. The spacecraft which as already returned amazingly detailed data
about the rings of Saturn will soon launch the Huygens probe to the
surface of Titan. Tracking for part of the mission has been entrusted
to the Mt Pleasant and Ceduna radio telescopes. Currently testing is
underway to ensure we record the data for the probe's mission. The
timeline of the mission is as follows:
Dec. 25, 2004: Huygens probe separates
from the Cassini orbiter and begins
its 21 day journey to Titan.
Jan. 14, 2005:
Huygens begins its descent through Titan's atmosphere and will land on
the surface about two and half hours later.
Further details
about the mission are on the NASA website and the Cassini-Huygens site.
|
"Huygens probe
jettison. In
this
artist's rendition, the Huygens probe is finally ejected by the Cassini
spacecraft and begins its 22-day coast phase toward Titan." Courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech.
|
Physics
Student Selected for Astrophysics Scholarship
|
|
Congratulations to
Clair Murrowood, a third year Physics student who has been selected as
a summer vacation Scholar at the Anglo-Australia Observatory,
NSW. Clair will spend 10-12 weeks at the AAO headquarters in
Sydney working with leading optical astromomers over the summer, before
returning to UTas to continue her studies.
|
|
| New Associate Lecturer
in Physics |
|
| From December 2004
the
Discipline of Physics will have a new lecturer, Dr Stefan Dieters. Stefan is an
astrophysicist whos principal research
interestes are X-ray binaries. Stefan completed his PhD on "Hard X-ray observations of Sco X-1 and GX 1+4
" at the
University of Tasmania in 1990. Prior to commencing at the University
of Tasmania, Dr Dieters held several positions in the United States and
Europe. |
|
|
|
New
Professor of Astrophysics
|
|
The
University of Tasmania has recently appointed Professor John Dickey as
the chair of Radio Astronomy in the Discipline of Physics. John arrived
shortly after the start of the second semester this year to take up his
position. John's research area is radio spectroscopy of the Milky Way
and nearby galaxies. His specialty is 21-cm line studies of the atomic
hydrogen in the interstellar medium. In addition he is the principal
investigator of the Southern Galactic Plane Survey, a large project to
survey the 21-cm emission and absorption from the inner Milky Way
galaxy using the Australia Telescope National Facility telescopes and
Parkes and Narrabri in New South Wales. You can read more about John's
work on his personal page.
|
|
|
|
New Associate Lecturer
in Physics
|
|
From July 2004 the
Discipline of Physics will have a new lecturer, Dr Melanie
Johnston-Hollitt. Melanie is an astrophysicist whos principal research
interestes are clusters and superclusters of galaxies and cosmic
magnetic fields. Prior to commencing at the University of Tasmania, Dr
Johnston-Hollit
worked as a LOFAR Fellow in the Netherlands. More details of Melanie's
research and other interests can be found on
her personal webpage.
|
|
|
|
