Book an Astronomer – Connecting to the Universe for Science Week 2024
This year during Science Week the astronomers of the Sydney Institute for Astronomy have specifically set aside the time to bring our exciting science into the community. If your organisation is fascinated by space, intrigued by the universe or dazzled by the solar system—why not ask for an astronomer? An in-person or virtual visit from …
SIfA PhD students attended the Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting
Congratulations to SIfA PhD students – Simon Weng & Emily Kerrison – chosen as part of the group of ten ECRs to attend the Lindau Nobel Laureate meeting: Ms Emily Kerrison of the University of Sydney, who is a PhD student in radio astronomy, using telescopes in Western Australia and around the world to hunt down supermassive …
We’ve detected a star barely hotter than a pizza oven – the coldest ever found to emit radio waves
Congrats to Kovi Rose whose recent paper got some good media coverage We have identified the coldest star ever found to produce radio waves – a brown dwarf too small to be a regular star and too massive to be a planet. Our findings, published today in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, detail the detection of pulsed radio …
A long-period radio transient active for three decades
Congratulations to Manisha who was part of a recent paper published in Nature this month: This object belongs to a new class of radio transients of which only 3 are now known. Manisha found one source and Natasha Hurley-Walker (ICRAR) found two sources. Abstract Several long-period radio transients have recently been discovered, with strongly polarized coherent …
Bringing artificial intelligence to the search for habitable planets
University partners with Spiral Blue for the TOLIMAN space telescope mission A team led by astronomer Professor Peter Tuthill at the University of Sydney has announced a partnership with Sydney-based space technology company, Spiral Blue, for the TOLIMAN Space Telescope Mission. The TOLIMAN mission aims to detect potentially habitable worlds in our near solar neighbour, the …
Research.com rankings – Joss #1 in Australia
Research.com, a leading academic platform for researchers, has just released the 2023 Edition Ranking of Best Scientists in the field of Physics. Congratulations to Joss Bland-Hawthorn who ranked #204 in the world ranking and #1 in Australia and has also been recognized with their Physics Leader Award for 2023. The ranking is based on D-index (Discipline …
From platypus to parsecs and milliCrab: why do astronomers use such weird units?
You may have heard about an asteroid set to fly near Earth that is the size of 18 platypus, or maybe the one that’s the size of 33 armadillos, or even one the size of 22 tuna fish. These outlandish comparisons are the invention of Jerusalem Post journalist Aaron Reich (who bills himself as “creator of the giraffe metric”), but real …
Dark Side of the Universe
Amazing things happen every day. Despite this, the sum total of our sense impressions is only 5% of the totality of reality. Professor Tamara Davis talks to the pioneers in the search for the unknown parts of the universe. We live in a spectacular world. And yet everything we have ever seen, felt, or touched …
FAST RADIO BURSTS — explained in an elevator ride | Elevator Pitch
Why these flashes of energy happen is a mystery. But by studying them, we’ve solved a big question about our universe. Dr Manisha Caleb explains. The universe is vast and full of mystery and one that has been puzzling astronomers for a while now is fast radio bursts. What are fast radio bursts Fast radio bursts, …
Blinded by the light: gamma ray burst brighter than any seen before
Gamma ray bursts are the most explosive events in the Universe. Astronomers last year witnessed the brightest ever seen and have analysed the results, with a Sydney team providing important evidence. Australian astronomers have provided vital information in the global effort to understand the brightest-ever detected gamma ray burst, which swept through our Solar System …