The Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre is hosted by the Faculty of Science and Engineering. This Strength-at-Scale Centre aims to push the limits of astrophysics and space science through cutting-edge instrumentation development and complex data-intensive research capabilities.
Centre expertise
By bringing together astronomy researchers, instrumentation experts and data specialists, the Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre works across traditional discipline boundaries, creating a collaborative ecosystem for research and discovery driven by astronomy, but with the potential to benefit a range of stakeholders, from the defence industry to remote sensing. The Centre’s focus on astronomy also provides an inspiring vehicle for engaging the public in science, including highlighting First Nations culture and knowledge. Centre membership spans multiple areas of expertise from the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences to Australian Astronomical Optics– Macquarie (AAO), the School of Computing and Walanga Muru.
Centre leadership
The Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre is led by Director Professor Richard McDermid and Co-Directors Professor Mark Casali and Professor Orsola De Marco.
The Centre’s activities are overseen by a inter-department Executive Group: Professor Richard de Grijs, Professor Andrew Hopkins (external research engagement); Dr Joanne Dawson, Dr Angel Lopez-Sanchez (ECR and HDR Development); Associate Professor Lee Spitler (industry engagement – space); Associate Professor Simon Ellis (industry engagement – instrumentation); Dr Simon O’Toole (data – infrastructure); Dr Matt Owers (data – astronomy applications); Professor Benoit Liquet-Weiland (data – statistics and data science); Professor Dan Zucker, Dr Tayyaba Zafar (equity, diversity and inclusion); Professor Leanne Holt (Indigenous community engagement); and Dr Devika Kamath (public outreach).
Research themes
Driving questions of modern astrophysics, and their societal impact
The Centre’s astronomy researchers are tackling some of the biggest questions in astrophysics, including: How did the first stars and galaxies transform the Universe? What is the nature of dark matter and dark energy? How do galaxies form and evolve across cosmic time? How do stars and planets form? How are elements produced by stars and recycled through galaxies? What is the nature of matter and gravity at extreme densities? Sharing our discoveries through active outreach is key to our societal impact and builds the long-term flow of young people into STEM.
Data-intensive capabilities
The Centre brings together AAO’s nationally important Data Central e-Research platform with data science and statistics experts from the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences and School of Computing, creating new opportunities to collaborate on data-intensive research applications linked astronomy facilities, such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA).
Instrumentation research and technology development
AAO is a world-leading astronomical instrument designer and builder, with technical capabilities in advanced manufacturing and precision optics that has application in telecommunications, space science, medical imaging and defence. Developing new technology for major telescope facilities can also provide dedicated access to these new facilities for Centre researchers.
Key partners
The Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre works in collaboration with a range of partners including the national and international astronomy research community, CSIRO, the European Southern Observatory, the Giant Magellan Telescope, the Australian SKA Regional Centre, the Australian Space Agency and Gilmour Space Technologies.
Current projects
The MAVIS instrument
In collaboration with national and international partners, AAO is building a unique piece of technology that harnesses the combined power of one of the world’s largest telescopes, powerful lasers and state-of-the-art control software, to overcome the limitations imposed by Earth’s atmosphere on astronomical observations. This will enable a new view on the cosmos and complement advances from other space- and ground-based facilities. The Centre will lead research that will including studying individual stars in distant galaxies and seeing deeper into visible space than ever before.
The MANIFEST fibre positioner
MANIFEST is a multi-object fibre positioning system for the Giant Magellan Telescope. MANIFEST will consist of hundreds of high precision robots (called “Starbugs”) that patrol the telescope field of view and feed celestial light into optical spectrographs. The Starbug technology underpinning MANIFEST uses piezoceramic actuators operating in closed loop via a fixed metrology camera bank to obtain 20 micron precision over the full metre-scale field-of-view of the telescope. This technology has been developed at the AAO over the last decade.
Data pipelines for the European Southern Observatory
Centre member Data Central is collaborating with the European Southern Observatory (ESO) on the development and maintenance of pipeline data reduction software its instruments at La Silla and Paranal observatories in Chile. This software cleans the collected data by removing the signatures left by the telescope and instruments, leaving only features pertaining to the astronomical objects to be studied. The data are also calibrated so that meaningful scientific measurements can be made and compared with data taken at different times and on other instruments.
Malya Thermal Camera
AAO is partnering with Gilmour Space Technologies – an Australian space company that is developing launch vehicles and satellite platforms – to produce a new sovereign space technology, set to launch in 2023. As part of this project, a team of technical specialists at AAO are designing and will construct and deliver a thermal camera payload, called Mayla, which could be used for many different applications, including water quality monitoring, bushfire detection, weather monitoring and more.
The Hector Galaxy Survey
Hector is a multi-integral field unit spectrograph located on the Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, that aims to map the distribution of stars and gas in up to 15,000 galaxies. Key questions include: How do galaxies build up mass and angular momentum? How is star formation and nuclear activity affected by environment? How does the large-scale environment modulate galaxy growth? In addition to AAO designing and constructing the spectrograph and telescope interfaces, the Centre’s astronomers are leading key aspects of the survey science, as well as data collection over the next several years.
How to engage with the Astrophysics and Space Technologies Research Centre
Staff interested in contributing to the works of the Centre are encouraged to contact Professor Richard McDermid, Professor Mark Casali or Professor Orsola De Marco.
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