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Changing the universe through stargazing

University of Sydney astronomers are leading the global pursuit of answers to the difficult problems and unexplained phenomena within our universe.

Professor Bryan Gaensler, Assoc Prof Scott Croom, Professor Elaine Sadler, PhD student Kitty Lo

Star power: CAASTRO team members (left to right) Associate Professor Scott Croom, Professor Elaine Sadler, Professor Bryan Gaensler and PhD student Kitty Lo.

“I’d claim that the hardest questions anyone asks are astronomy questions,” says Professor Bryan Gaensler, an ARC Federation Fellow from the University’s School of Physics, and director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO).

“There are stars billions of light years away that we’re never going to visit, and we can’t even really see. Yet we still ask: how heavy are they, what are they made of, how old are they? And we have figured out ways to answer these questions.”

Answering these questions could help us resolve some of astronomy's most difficult issues: the origin and evolution of cosmic magnetism, the activity of black holes, the building blocks of the universe, flashes and pulses in the distant sky, and how the very first stars and galaxies came to form.

Professor Gaensler may be studying the stars, but his feet are planted firmly on the ground when it comes to spreading the news about CAASTRO, and how their work affects and is influenced by the national agenda. When the federal budget was announced, Gaensler let CAASTRO’s Twitter followers know that the Gillard government had funded Australia’s bid to host the Square Kilometre Array in participation with New Zealand.

Gaensler’s team at CAASTRO aims to make Australia a leader in the science programmes planned for the SKA, the world’s largest radio telescope, which will generate enough raw data to fill 15 million 64GB iPods every day. CAASTRO researchers will use this data to answer questions about the ecology of the Milky Way, galaxy evolution and cosmology.

They already lead the field in this area, with access to enormous data-sets that cover thousands of square degrees of sky, thanks to Australia’s recent investment of more than $400 million into new wide-field telescopes and high performance computers. Based on these data-sets, CAASTRO researchers are following three scientific programs studying the evolution and dynamics of our universe and dark energy and dark matter.

They also intend to train the future scientists of the world, with the work being done now forming a legacy for the astronomical community. The centre mentors current undergraduate and postgraduate students and also invests in the creation of content for national film and television to highlight Australian innovation and inspire students to go into careers in science and engineering, to be the future astronomers of our nation.

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