Keele UniversityFaculty of Natural Sciences
Physics & Astrophysics
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Astrophysicists win more facility time
Keele Astronomers have been successful in winning facility time with a total monetary value well over £400,000.
Nye Evans, with PhD student Sarah Day, was awarded 48 hours of time on beamline I12 of the Diamond Light Source, in Oxfordshire, to study carbonation of calcium magnesium silicates. This not only has astrophysical applications in understanding how carbonates form in space but may also have relevance to sequestration of industrial CO2 in the terrestrial context.
David Anderson, with Alexis Smith, Coel Hellier and Pierre Maxted, were awarded three nights on the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope, in Chile, to measure the thermal infrared emission from exo-planets by comparing images taken when the planet is occulted by the host star with images taken when this is not the case. From this, the temperature structure and composition of the planet's atmosphere can be determined.
Keele PhD student Jeremy Tregloan-Reed, John Southworth, Pierre Maxted and Barry Smalley, were awarded six nights on the European Southern Observatory's New Technology Telescope, in Chile. They will defocus the telescope as part of a technique to obtain more accurate measurements of planets orbiting - and transiting - other stars. Jeremy and John were also awarded five nights on the 2.5m Isaac Newton Telescope, on La Palma,for a similar programme.
Jacco van Loon, pictured left, with PhD student Masha Lakicevic, won 47.5 hours of
observing time at the Australia Telescope Compact Array radio interferometre, in New South Wales. They will try to find maser emission ("lasers" operating at microwave frequencies) from hydroxyl molecules in the outflows of dying stars and supernova remnants, in the metal-depleted environments of the nearby Small Magellanic Cloud galaxy and globular star cluster 47 Tucanae.
Furthermore, James Reeves, with PhD student Jason Gofford, were awarded 200,000 seconds on NASA's Chandra space telescope to obtain highly detailed images and spectra of the gas surrounding the active nucleus of the galaxy NGC 1365. A grant of $60,000 has been awarded to James as part of the observing proposal.
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