CAS Astrophysics

🌟 Join us on a virtual tour of Einstein's Universe! 🌟

🎉 Bring your kids for an exciting evening! We will have virtual reality, badge making, activity sheets and our tabletop interferometer

🌟 The evening will be topped off with an inspiring talk by none other than Prof. Matthew Bailes! Prof. Bailes co-discovered Fast Radio Bursts and is the director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery.

🪐 Don't miss out on this fantastic opportunity to learn more about the secrets of the Universe!

Registration here: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/a-virtual-tour-of-einsteins-universe-national-science-week-tickets-938132759337

Today we were thrilled with a talk by our PhD student Lewis de Zoete. In his insightful an engaging talk, Lewis ran us through the details of his groundbreaking research on early visual motion cue analysis for human-robot teaming. We are beyond proud of having such talented PhD students. Go Lewis!

This week CAS was honoured with the visit of Dr. Shanika Galaudage from l’Observatoire de la Côte d’Azur in Nice, France. On Monday, Shanika gave us an insightful talk about her work on the IncludeHer project, asking to increase the representation of women in Australian STEM education. Dr. Galaudage also presented a colloquium on Thursday, where she explained her research on gravitational waves to the whole centre.

📸 by Ashwathi Nair

Last weekend we were privileged with the view of an aurora australis. These auroras are caused by charged particles from the Sun interacting with the Earth's atmosphere. The beautiful green and red colours we see in the pictures are due to oxygen that is present in our atmosphere.

Here, CAS students, academics and staff are sharing the amazing pictures they captured during the weekend.

📸 Credits: (1) Prof. Karl Glazebrook, (2) Prof. Alister Graham, (3) Prof. Darren Croton/Linda Croton, (4) Prof. Virginia Killborn, (5) Tyler Hughes, (6) Adam Ussing, (7) Pratyasha Gitika, (8) Alma Sebastian, (9) Prof. Glenn Kacprzak, (10) Dr. Daniel Reardon

Our PhD student, Wesley Van Kempen, gave a delightful talk today, in which he explained to the audience how local environment affects nearby galaxies. Go, Wesley!

Starting a PhD is challenging, but thanks to our wonderful cookie monsters we were able to help our new students from the cookies, coding and computing side. They organised a workshop that went over what a computer actually is, which python packages make an astronomer's life easier, what makes good plots and good code, how to use version control with git and github, and, of course, the beautiful OzSTAR and Ngarrgu Tindebeek we have access to at Swinburne 💻

Big thanks to the team supporting our Scivr event at Burnley Brewing! Happy Science Week 📡🚀🔭

Tonight! Space beer

Happy Science Week! See you tonight from
7pm at Burnley Brewing. Don’t forget to grab your Red Giant IPA

Join the Mount Burnett Observatory team as they take over a footy oval for a night of astronomy.

View the night sky through our telescopes which will be trained on various objects in the night sky - Saturn, Mars, Mercury and the Moon should be visible. Learn how telescopes work and how to use one. The "Night at Mount Burnett Observatory" livestream team will operate a live Q & A throughout the night and present some of their favourite segments.

An MBO team will be at a rural site with a computer connected telescope that will transmit image of the night sky back to the footy oval visitors, and television viewers. These images will demonstrate the difference a "dark sky" site can make.

Check out our computer simulations of the night sky. Hear from guest speakers including Krystal de Napoli, co-author of "sky Country" (2022), a book on Indigenous astronomy; see the astrophotography display; learn about radio astronomy; see what our Young Observers get up to; and meet Monash University's High Powered Rocketry team. Music will be provided by a local band, and food and drinks will be available.

The three hour event will be broadcast live on Channel 31 and on Facebook. Viewers can ask questions in our live Q & A. Bookings for this event are essential and tickets are available here: https://mbo.org.au/

We have more National Science Week events!

Decades of relentless research has led astronomers to a staggering conclusion - the existence of a new, enigmatic type of mass, invisible yet surpassing everything we can see by an astonishing fivefold.

In this exciting public lecture, Swinburne’s internationally renowned astrophysicist Professor Alan Duffy, will explain what we know about this mysterious dark matter, a substance we are actually yet to find. He will also share how Australia is playing a leading role in uncovering the nature of dark matter with SABRE, the world’s first dark matter detector in the Southern Hemisphere located in the Stawell gold mine.

Join us for an inspiring journey as we explore one of the most profound challenges in the area of physical sciences this century.

Light refreshments will be served at 6:30pm and proceedings will commence at 7:00pm.

More info here: https://www.swinburne.edu.au/events/2023/08/darkness-visible-down-under-the-search-for-dark-matter-in-australia.html/

During National Science Week craft beer and astronomy collide in a fun and engaging talk featuring the immersive SciVR app. Explore the Milky Way and learn about the captivating realm of gravitational waves from Swinburne astronomer Dr Rebecca Allen. Made for this event, indulge in the flavours of a specially crafted Red Giant IPA by Burnley Brewing.

Prepare to be engaged, enlightened, and amazed by the intriguing discoveries of the universe.

Dr Rebecca Allen is the Co-Director of the Space Technology and Industry Institute at Swinburne University of Technology. She completed her PhD in astrophysics at Swinburne where she used information from powerful telescopes like the Hubble Space Telescope to study the evolution and growth of galaxies going back to when the Universe was barely a billion years old.

Now, Dr Allen applies her scientific expertise to help support Australia's growing space industry. To this end, she utilises cutting-edge research in areas such as microgravity experimentation and Earth observation to build climate change resilient communities and support health innovation.

When she’s not studying space or using it for Earth, she’s inspiring and empowering future space leaders by communicating the wonders of the Universe and creating immersive, hands-on learning experiences.

No registration necessary. Guests under 18 are welcome to attend the event venue until 10pm as long as they are accompanied by a parent or guardian.

More info: https://www.scienceweek.net.au/event/scivr-at-burnley-brewing/richmond/