Milky Way’s graveyard of dead stars found
A study creates the first map of our galaxy’s ancient dead stars In the first map of the ‘galactic underworld’, a study from the University of Sydney has revealed a graveyard that stretches three times the height of the Milky Way. It has also indicated where the dead stars lie. The first map of the …
Measuring reliable stellar abundances towards crowded regions using MUSE
With the rapid development of stellar spectroscopy in the past decade, many stellar spectroscopic surveys, for example LAMOST, GALAH and APOGEE, combined with the astrometric information of Gaia have played a pivotal role in explaining the chemo-dynamic evolution of the Milky Way. By extracting the elemental abundances and ages of millions of stars from the …
Australian-based astronomers to take a deep dive into the cosmos with time awarded on one of ESO’s most powerful instruments
Two teams of astronomers led by The University of Sydney and by The University of Western Australia node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR/UWA) have recently each been awarded substantial amounts of observing time on one of the most in-demand instruments at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) – the Multi Unit Spectroscopic …
This newly discovered neutron star might light the way for a whole new class of stellar object
The discovery of a neutron star emitting unusual radio signals is rewriting our understanding of these unique star systems. My colleagues and I (the MeerTRAP team) made the discovery when observing the Vela-X 1 region of the Milky Way about 1,300 light years away from Earth, using the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. We spotted a …
Event Horizon Telescope set to reveal ‘exciting results’ about the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way
There’s a monster lurking in the heart of our galaxy, and we may get our first glimpses of it tonight. At 11pm AEST, an international team of scientists will reveal what they’re calling a “groundbreaking” discovery from our galactic centre — and you’ll be able to watch it live. There are rumbles the Event Horizon Telescope …
We’ve used a new technique to discover the brightest radio pulsar outside our own galaxy
When a star explodes and dies in a supernova, it takes on a new life of sorts. Pulsars are the extremely rapidly rotating objects left over after massive stars have exhausted their fuel supply. They are extremely dense, with a mass similar to the Sun crammed into a region the size of Sydney. Pulsars emit …
Worlds next door: looking for habitable planets around Alpha Centauri
Could life survive around the nearest stars? In collaboration with the Breakthrough Initiative, Saber Astronautics and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Professor Peter Tuthill is leading TOLIMAN, a project to discover if the nearest stars have planets that could support life. A mission to discover new planets potentially capable of sustaining life around Earth’s nearest neighbour, …
A FLASH combination: ASKAP and MUSE sniff out gas around galaxies
The timescales in which star-forming galaxies deplete their gas is found to be short relative to the age of the Universe. This points to the conclusion that galaxies must have a way to replenish their gas reservoirs and indeed, early cosmological simulations reveal cold gas being channeled along dark matter filaments. At the same time, …
We found a mysterious flashing radio signal from near the centre of the galaxy
In early 2020, we detected an unusual radio signal coming from somewhere near the centre of our galaxy. The signal blinked on and off, growing 100 times brighter and dimmer over time. What’s more, the radio waves in the signal had an uncommon “circular polarisation”, which means the electric field in the radio waves spirals around as …
Galactic Archaeology and Modeling the Milky Way
Researchers have created a model of the evolution of the Milky Way which explains how key chemical distributions in the galaxy’s stars came to be. One of the biggest questions in astronomy is related to how our home galaxy, the Milky Way, came to be in its current state. Whilst this might seem like it …