Free Astronomy Public Lectures

Presented by Prof. Richard de Grijs on 26th October 2012.

Studying galactic interactions is like sifting through the forensic evidence at a crime scene. Astronomers wade through the debris of a violent encounter, collecting clues so that they can reconstruct the celestial crime to determine when it happened. Take the case of Messier 82, a small, nearby galaxy that long ago bumped into its larger neighbour, Messier 81. When did this violent encounter occur? New infrared and visible-light pictures from the Hubble Space Telescope reveal for the first time important details of large clusters of stars, which arose from the interaction. The talk focuses on the train wrecks resulting from galaxy collisions and the implications for us in the Milky Way.

Presented by Associate Professor Darren Croton on 5th October 2012.

Black holes are amongst the most bizarre objects predicted by Einstein's theory of General Relativity. Many people may not realise that our own galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole at its centre that is three million times more massive than our own Sun! In this talk Associate Professor Darren Croton discusses the physics of black holes and their formation, how they can grow to become so massive, active black hole "quasars" in the distant universe and the unexpected impact that a supermassive black hole can have on the evolution of an entire galaxy. We will finish by side stepping into the exotic world of wormholes, the black hole's tormented cousin.

Presented by Associate Professor Darren Croton on 5th October 2012.

Black holes are amongst the most bizarre objects predicted by Einstein's theory of General Relativity. Many people may not realise that our own galaxy hosts a supermassive black hole at its centre that is three million times more massive than our own Sun! In this talk Associate Professor Darren Croton discusses the physics of black holes and their formation, how they can grow to become so massive, active black hole "quasars" in the distant universe and the unexpected impact that a supermassive black hole can have on the evolution of an entire galaxy. We will finish by side stepping into the exotic world of wormholes, the black hole's tormented cousin.

Presented by Prof. Karl Glazebrook on 9th September 2012.

On Sep 17th 1912 Vesto M. Slipher at Lowell Observatory measured the first redshift of a galaxy and established their large velocities, this laid the groundwork for Hubble's discovery of the expansion of the Universe. One hundred years later we have measured close to 2 million galaxy redshifts (about one third of these measured in Australia) and this has been fundamental to our understanding of the structure of the Universe. In this public lecture, Professor Karl Glazebrook will tell the story of how galaxy redshift surveys have transformed our picture of cosmology and what the future might entail.

Presented by Prof. Karl Glazebrook on 9th September 2012.

On Sep 17th 1912 Vesto M. Slipher at Lowell Observatory measured the first redshift of a galaxy and established their large velocities, this laid the groundwork for Hubble's discovery of the expansion of the Universe. One hundred years later we have measured close to 2 million galaxy redshifts (about one third of these measured in Australia) and this has been fundamental to our understanding of the structure of the Universe. In this public lecture, Professor Karl Glazebrook will tell the story of how galaxy redshift surveys have transformed our picture of cosmology and what the future might entail.

Presented by Professor Jeremy Mould on 20th July 2012.

Dome A on the Antarctic Plateau may be the best site for astronomical telescopes on Earth, In the Mawson centennial year we should note that Australians have been pioneers in collecting these site test data. We now have an opportunity to join a Chinese project to build a 2.5 metre telescope at Dome A. This would be the most powerful infrared survey telescope anywhere. A two-micron survey of the southern hemisphere would find targets for spectroscopy with NASA's successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, JWST. We would detect the first generation of stars to form in the Universe after the Big Bang and see the powerful supernovae that produce the first black holes.

Presented by Professor Jeremy Mould on 20th July 2012.

Dome A on the Antarctic Plateau may be the best site for astronomical telescopes on Earth, In the Mawson centennial year we should note that Australians have been pioneers in collecting these site test data. We now have an opportunity to join a Chinese project to build a 2.5 metre telescope at Dome A. This would be the most powerful infrared survey telescope anywhere. A two-micron survey of the southern hemisphere would find targets for spectroscopy with NASA's successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, JWST. We would detect the first generation of stars to form in the Universe after the Big Bang and see the powerful supernovae that produce the first black holes.

Presented by Christina Blom-Smith on 12 June 2012.

Despite their uniform appearance elliptical galaxies often have complex and disturbed formation histories. Without the presence of gas, dust and star formation, that we see readily in spiral galaxies, it can be extremely tricky to probe their intriguing formation histories. It is vital to understand how they form since elliptical galaxies contain the highest proportion of stars in the universe and the largest ones uniformly dominate galaxy clusters. Christina Blom, 3rd year PhD student at Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing will take you on a tour of our efforts to unravel the mysteries of elliptical galaxies and share some of our recent successes.

Presented by Christina Blom-Smith on 12 June 2012.

Despite their uniform appearance elliptical galaxies often have complex and disturbed formation histories. Without the presence of gas, dust and star formation, that we see readily in spiral galaxies, it can be extremely tricky to probe their intriguing formation histories. It is vital to understand how they form since elliptical galaxies contain the highest proportion of stars in the universe and the largest ones uniformly dominate galaxy clusters. Christina Blom, 3rd year PhD student at Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing will take you on a tour of our efforts to unravel the mysteries of elliptical galaxies and share some of our recent successes.

Presented by Catarina Ubach and Francesco Pignatale on 25th May 2012.

Solar System bodies such as planets, meteorites and comets are all created from small grains during the protoplanetary disk phase. The chemical composition of all these objects is intrinsically related to the chemistry of gas and grains in the parent disk. In the first part of the lecture we will explore the evidence we have to understand grain growth in discs. In the second part of the lecture we will go through the chemistry of discs and how thermodynamics can help us to understand the formation of our Solar System and the bulk composition of exoplanets orbiting stars different from our Sun.