Overview

The Keele Astrophysics group currently consists of 11 academic staff members, with research interests including star formation and stellar clusters, late stellar evolution, massive stars and their impact on the early universe, the interstellar medium, binary stars, interacting binary stars, the detection of extra-solar planets and high energy observations of active galaxies & GRBs. Further information on the group is available on their website.

Research interests

• Star formation and young stellar objects (Prof Rob Jeffries & Dr Joana Oliveira)
• WASP – the search for extrasolar planets (WASP@Keele)
• Transiting extrasolar planetary systems (Prof Coel Hellier, Dr Pierre Maxted, Dr John Southworth)
• Eclipsing binary star systems (Dr Pierre Maxted, Dr John Southworth)
• Evolved stars – mass loss and explosive ends (Prof Nye Evans, Dr Jacco van Loon, Dr Raphael Hirschi)
• Laboratory Astrophysics – studying cosmic dusts with synchrotron radiation (Prof Nye Evans)
• Structure, content and dynamics of the interstellar medium (Prof Nye Evans, Dr Jacco van Loon)
• Theoretical and computational modelling of stellar interiors, stellar evolution and stellar atmospheres (Dr Raphael Hirschi, Dr Barry Smalley, Dr Dean McLaughlin)
• Galactic dynamics and dark matter (Dr Dean McLaughlin)
• Active Galactic Nuclei &  Gamma-ray bursts (Dr James Reeves & Dr Raphael Hirschi )
• Nuclear astrophysics and the origin of the elements (Dr Raphael Hirschi)
• Atmospheric properties of A, F and G stars (Dr Barry Smalley)