Free Astronomy Public Lectures

Presented by Associate Professor Kim-Vy Tran on Friday 9 October 2015.

Since Galileo's time, our ability to study the universe has been driven by our ability to collect light from distant objects. Due to tremendous technological advances in the last few decades, we can now study the most distant galaxies known in the universe. In addition to seeing fainter objects at higher resolution, we can also view the universe at many different wavelengths ranging from gamma rays to radio waves. I highlight the major advances that have been made with, e.g. the Keck telescopes and Hubble Space Telescope, and discuss why we need to continue pushing our limits by developing and building new observatories like the Giant Magellan Telescope.

Presented by Associate Professor Kim-Vy Tran on Friday 9 October 2015.

Since Galileo's time, our ability to study the universe has been driven by our ability to collect light from distant objects. Due to tremendous technological advances in the last few decades, we can now study the most distant galaxies known in the universe. In addition to seeing fainter objects at higher resolution, we can also view the universe at many different wavelengths ranging from gamma rays to radio waves. I highlight the major advances that have been made with, e.g. the Keck telescopes and Hubble Space Telescope, and discuss why we need to continue pushing our limits by developing and building new observatories like the Giant Magellan Telescope.

Presented by Prof. Sarah Russell on 11 September 2015.

2015 has been decreed the International Year of Light by the United Nations, and in recognition of this we expand our public astronomy lecture series from telescopes to microscopes. Our immune system protects us from infections and cancer when it works well, and caused autoimmune diseases when it goes wrong. Understanding how immunity is regulated has enabled the development of vaccines, immunosuppressive drugs, and cancer immunotherapies, but gaps in our understanding have prevented development of vaccines to all infectious agents, and mean many autoimmune diseases are still difficult to manage. By linking the expertise in physics at Swinburne with the immunological proficiency at PeterMac, we have developed novel approaches to watching the immune response as it unfolds. These studies are beginning to highlight new paradigms by which immunity is regulated. In this talk, I will describe the challenges and rewards of this interdisciplinary research, and highlight how our work reveals the fascinating mechanisms by which we tread the fine line between too much and too little immunity.

Presented by Prof. Sarah Russell on 11 September 2015.

2015 has been decreed the International Year of Light by the United Nations, and in recognition of this we expand our public astronomy lecture series from telescopes to microscopes. Our immune system protects us from infections and cancer when it works well, and caused autoimmune diseases when it goes wrong. Understanding how immunity is regulated has enabled the development of vaccines, immunosuppressive drugs, and cancer immunotherapies, but gaps in our understanding have prevented development of vaccines to all infectious agents, and mean many autoimmune diseases are still difficult to manage. By linking the expertise in physics at Swinburne with the immunological proficiency at PeterMac, we have developed novel approaches to watching the immune response as it unfolds. These studies are beginning to highlight new paradigms by which immunity is regulated. In this talk, I will describe the challenges and rewards of this interdisciplinary research, and highlight how our work reveals the fascinating mechanisms by which we tread the fine line between too much and too little immunity.

Presented by Prof. Roger Davies on 4 September 2015.

Using exceptional data from Hubble Space Telescope astronomers have discovered supermassive black holes, with masses ranging from millions to billions times the mass of the Sun, at the very centre of massive galaxies. Intriguingly the mass of this central black hole scales with many of the properties of the host galaxy, for example the total mass of the galaxy is about five hundred times the mass of the black hole. However the direct gravitational influence of the black hole extends to only a minute fraction of the volume of the galaxy (about one billionth of the total volume). So, how are these connections established? I will explore this question and reveal an unexpected twist in the story of galaxy evolution.

Presented by Prof. Roger Davies on 4 September 2015.

Using exceptional data from Hubble Space Telescope astronomers have discovered supermassive black holes, with masses ranging from millions to billions times the mass of the Sun, at the very centre of massive galaxies. Intriguingly the mass of this central black hole scales with many of the properties of the host galaxy, for example the total mass of the galaxy is about five hundred times the mass of the black hole. However the direct gravitational influence of the black hole extends to only a minute fraction of the volume of the galaxy (about one billionth of the total volume). So, how are these connections established? I will explore this question and reveal an unexpected twist in the story of galaxy evolution.

Celebrate the International Year of Light and National Science Week 2015 with Assoc. Prof. Chris Fluke, as he hosts his fifth annual review of the State of the Universe. This year, the focus is on the visual Universe. No supercomputers. No radiotelescopes. Just good old fashioned astronomy with images. Taken from spacecraft. Which needed radio telescopes to collect the images on Earth. And computers to process them. Presented by Chris Fluke on 14 August 2015.

Presented by Emily Petroff on 19 June 2015.

Most things in the Universe happen over millions or even billions of years but some things change on the timescales of human life and can be seen to change in a matter of months, days, or even seconds. These sources are called transients and are some of the most extreme events in the Universe, things like the collapse of a dying star, or a collision of two massive objects. Humans have been observing astronomical transients for centuries, from supernovae to gamma ray bursts, but recent advances in telescope power and technology mean we're observing more and more transients each year and even finding new types such as the discovery of fast radio bursts in the past decade. This talk will focus on these elusive and ephemeral objects, how they are found, and where they are coming from.

Presented by Emily Petroff on 19 June 2015.

Most things in the Universe happen over millions or even billions of years but some things change on the timescales of human life and can be seen to change in a matter of months, days, or even seconds. These sources are called transients and are some of the most extreme events in the Universe, things like the collapse of a dying star, or a collision of two massive objects. Humans have been observing astronomical transients for centuries, from supernovae to gamma ray bursts, but recent advances in telescope power and technology mean we're observing more and more transients each year and even finding new types such as the discovery of fast radio bursts in the past decade. This talk will focus on these elusive and ephemeral objects, how they are found, and where they are coming from.

Presented by Prof. Jeremy Mould on 7th May 2015.

The skies of northern Chile are considered the best in the world for astronomy at visible through millimetre wavelengths. Most of the observatories are in the Norte Chico and Atacama regions. Cerro Paranal Observatory is the largest in the world. The Atacama Large Millimeter Array is an international astronomical facility composed of a group of up to 66 radio antennae working together 5000 meters above sea level in the hghlands (Llano de Chajnantor) of the Andes Mountain Range, 50 kms from San Pedro de Atacama. ALMA is the most global astronomical project. Under development is the LSST - Large Synoptic Survey Telescope. The project, which brings together 19 universities and laboratories is under construction on Cerro Pachon and will be able to view, weekly, the entire visible Universe using a digital camera of 3000 million pixels. Cerro Armazones, 3,060 meters in height, situated in the Atacama desert some 130 km south of Antofagasta, Chile, is the site chosen for the largest telescope in the world -known as European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT). Las Campanas observatory is operated by Carnegie Institution of Washington, and its location is 2,500 meters above sea level. It will host the Giant Magellan Telescope. Australian astronomers are participating in its construction.