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Filtering by Tag: Research
My student Adam Ussing show that simulated galaxies, with different dark matter properties can form the same numer of stars but with observable consequences elsewhere in the amount of dust produced… a unique and potentially powerful probe of the nature of dark matter itself.
Read MoreThe transition to green steel production is pivotal for reducing global carbon emissions. My student Matthew Humbert undertook this study on a comprehensive techno-economic analysis of various green steel production methods, including hydrogen reduction and three different electrolysis techniques: aqueous hydroxide electrolysis (AHE), molten salt electrolysis, and molten oxide electrolysis (MOE).
The analysis reveals that MOE, despite its ongoing development, offers a promising route for iron production given its ability to process a wide range of ore qualities and the potential to sell electrolyte as a cement product. However, the best balance between deployment ready technology and economic benefit is AHE.
Read MoreEarth Observation is a powerful tool for mapping and monitoring the world from space, but satellites have limitations in their ability to scan - but can AI enhance that scanning capability? An extraordinary project that included the biggest EO fleet operator in history with Planet Labs, the leading Space Lab team at EY, and of course our own team at Swinburne with Stephen Petrie and Kai Qin - and our former student Jack White (now at EY!)
Read MoreThe last paper of the extraordinary Thesis of my student (now Dr!) Grace Lawrence focussed on the challenges of dark matter detectors on Earth (particularly those like the SABRE project I have been involved in for many years). We have a simple picture in mind in which the dark matter is a cloud within which the galaxy (and our own Sun!) turns, meaning from the perspective of the Solar System there is a constant ‘wind’ of dark matter rushing towards us - which is our motion through it - familiar to anyone who has put their hand out of the car window and felt that wind even on the stillest of days. The issue is that we have many ‘gusts’ in that wind of dark matter as it is far from a smooth and still cloud of particles and instead has a history of cannibalised galaxies that retain their clumpy structure in the dark matter streams to this day drastically complicating the interpretation of any future discovery!
Read MoreHow do you measure distances in space? There’s no tape measure to stretch between the stars of course, but instead there are a series of techniques that work over ever increasing distances with one technique handing over to the next - the first rung on that distance ladder is Parallax (I once tried to explain this live on national Breakfast TV!) and my student Mitchell Dixon has just published a definitive study on that technique as it maps to the next rung of a special class of stars known as Tip of the Red Giant Branch (TRGB) stars which have a known (or at least calibrated!) brightness that depends on how rapidly the brighten and fade.
Read MoreA gigantic study by my student Matt Shaw on how we might access the resource of the Moon - a technique known as InSitu Resource Utilisation (ISRU) - can take advantage of the conditions of the Moon itself. In particular, the fact that we have a vacuum that changes the way in which the metals might evaporate out of the soil of the Moon (called regolith) in a way different to that on Earth, and very much in a way that might help us access iron for future building!
Read MoreOur Universe is expanding, and indeed accelerating in that expansion, and primary means to that discovery last century was measuring the apparent brightness of exploding stars known as supernovae. A special kind of supernova explodes at (almost!) the same brightness, known as Type 1a, and hence if you measure that brightness you can figure out how far away they are relative to each other. My student Mitchell Dixon published an exhaustive analysis of how to better calibrate that brightness of the Type 1a supernovae, in particular showing that they depended on the dust in the galaxy (slightly dimming them, or else perhaps causing a slightly different explosion brightness).
Read MoreThis work led by the ANU’s Dr Roland Crocker and an absolutely gigantic list of the best and brightest in astronomy - with my student Thomas Venville proudly holding his head high amongst such giants - explored all the evidence we had from Fermi and found that sadly the signal from these pulsars can reasonably explain this… there is a hint of more but at this stage, we must be conservative and presume that this is the case for other such signals in more distant galaxies too. The search for the dark matter signal continues!
Read MoreA wonderful new paper by my student Adam Batten. Mysterious explosions occur across the sky from distant galaxies, visible only with radio telescopes, known as Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). There illuminate the intervening material as they travel to our telescopes, allowing us to probe that otherwise hard to image Cosmic Web. But how do we know what that should look like? Simulations like EAGLE predict that distribution and in this beautiful work by Adam we can therefore shine simulated FRBs through this to create predictions for the dispersion measure. This then is directly tested by the telescopes.
Read MoreThis is one of the most fun papers I have ever written (and not just because of the title). The picture astronomers have of the early universe is one of galaxies growing rapidly, turning vast quantities of gas rich clouds into stars in a boom-time of star formation. By using the Smaug simulations of this period I and my DRAGONS colleagues were able to explore this picture. We found that cold gas is indeed consumed rapidly, in just 300 million years irrespective of how stars explode or that gas can cool. However, theres so much material pouring into the galaxies at this time that they simply can't consume it all! A system where demand (gas turing into stars) can't raise to meet supply (of new primary material flowing in) is a recession.
Far from a booming bull-market, the early Universe was a recessionary bear-market and that's why I love this paper...
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