Keele UniversityFaculty of Natural Sciences
Physics & Astrophysics
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Keele astronomers win time on telescopes in space and on the ground
Keele astronomer Dr Joana Oliveira has won 38.8 hr of observing time in the highest-priority category on the European Space Agency's (ESA) Herschel Space Observatory, a telescope in space that detects long-infrared and short-radio waves.
Dr Oliveira leads an international team studying ice and gas chemistry in star-forming regions under primitive conditions that resemble those found in the early Universe. This award generated approximately $92,000 of funding for her collaborators in the USA.
Dr Oliveira, Keele astronomer Dr Jacco van Loon, PhD student Masha Lakicevic and astronomer Dr James Reeves, are co-investigators on a further eight successful Herschel proposals in this latest round, totalling 117.7 hr.
Professor Rob Jeffries has been awarded 13 hours of time on another ESA satellite, XMM-Newton, in order to study X-ray emission from very fast-rotating stars that are analogues of the young Sun. The aim is to determine how coronal X-ray generation in these stars is influenced by the extreme centrifugal forces experienced by the 10-million degree plasma trapped in their strong magnetic fields.
For the purposes of the next REF exercise, the above Keele-led awards on ESA telescopes have a notional value of about £200k.
Keele research associate David Anderson, with Keele astronomers Dr Alexis Smith and Dr Barry Smalley, have been awarded 2.7 nights on the 3.6-m Canada France Hawai'i Telescope on Hawai'i, externally funded through OPTICON. They plan to measure the thermal emission of three exoplanets by observing as they are occulted by their host stars. This will enable them to determine if the planet atmospheres have temperature inversions (stratospheres).
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