ATNF Media Releases


18 December 2001

CSIRO-TRW ALLIANCE EXPLORES SPEEDY SEMICONDUCTORS

CSIRO and U.S. telecommunications giant TRW have formed a strategic alliance to develop high-performance gallium arsenide and indium phosphide components for radio astronomy, advanced millimetre-wave sensors and telecommunications systems.

More Information:

Ms Helen Sim, Communications Manager, Australia Telescope National Facility
Helen.Sim@csiro.au +61-2-9372 4251
Mobile: 0419-635-905

Mr Jack Prichett, Media Relations Manager, TRW +1-310-812-5227
jack.prichett@trw.com

Prof. Ron Ekers, Director, CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility
(in Berkeley, California) +1-510-642-7768 (work)
Ron.Ekers@csiro.au +1-510-548-2223 (home)

Dr John Archer, CSIRO Telecommunications and Industrial Physics
John.Archer@csiro.au +61-2-9372-4456

 

16 November 2001

NEW AUSTRALIA TELESCOPE 'EYES' LOOK AT EXPLODED STAR

Astronomers are announcing today that they have used a new receiving system on CSIRO's Australia Telescope to make the first image at short (12-millimetre) wavelengths of Supernova 1987A, the remains of an exploded star in a nearby galaxy.

The picture marks another step in the telescope's progress to sharper eyesight.

More Information:

Dr Richard Manchester, CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility
02-9372 4313
Dick.Manchester@csiro.au

Dr Bryan Gaensler, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
+1-617 496 7854
bgaensler@cfa.harvard.edu

Helen Sim, Australia Telescope National Facility,
02-9372-4251 or 0419-635-905
Helen.Sim@atnf.csiro.au

 

 

31 October 2001

"THE DISH" TURNS 40 TODAY

CSIRO's Parkes Radio telescope was officially opened on 31 October 1961.

Tomorrow scientists will celebrate the anniversary with a scientific symposium at the Parkes Observatory in mid-west NSW. Parkes was the world's second 'big dish' radio telescope. Its design was copied later for the antennas of NASA's deep-space tracking stations.

More Information:

Helen Sim, Australia Telescope National Facility,
02-9372-4251 or 0419-635-905
Helen.Sim@atnf.csiro.au

Dr John Reynolds, Officer in Charge (OIC), Parkes Observatory
02-6861-1733
John.Reynolds@atnf.csiro.au

Mr John Brooks, Assistant Director, Australia Telescope National Facility
02-9372-4227 and 0419-412-947
John.Brooks@atnf.csiro.au

Mr John Sarkissian, Operations Scientist, Parkes Observatory
02-6861-1769
John.Sarkissian@atnf.csiro.au

Mr Rick Twardy, Manager, Parkes Visitors Discovery Centre
02-6861-1777
Rick.Twardy@atnf.csiro.au

Mr Peter Robertson, author of a history of the Parkes telescope, "Under Southern Skies"
03-9499-1897

 

21 August 2001

MNRF FUNDING TO BOOST ASTRONOMY SCIENCE AND INSTRUMENTATION

Australian astronomers were jubilant to hear today that they have received $23.5 million under the Major National Research Facilities Program to increase Australia's share of time on the Gemini telescopes in Hawaii and Chile and further Australia's involvement with the planned international giant radio telescope called the Square Kilometre Array.

More Information:

Professor Ray Norris, Acting Director, CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility
Phone: 02-9372-4416
Mobile 0417-288-307
Email: rnorris@atnf.csiro.au

Professor Brian Boyle, Director, Anglo-Australian Observatory
Phone: 02-6842-6279
Email: director@aaoepp.aao.gov.au

Dr Peter Hall, CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility
Phone: 02-9372-4195
Mobile: 0400-801-531
Email: Peter.Hall@atnf.csiro.au

Dr Rachel Webster, Chair, National Committee for Astronomy
Phone: 03-8344-5450
Email: webster@physics.unimelb.edu.au

Dr Warrick Couch
Project Scientist, Australian Gemini Project Office
Sydney, Australia
Phone: 02-9385-4578
Email: wjc@newt.phys.unsw.edu.au

 

23 May 2001
"THE DISH" TESTS EINSTEIN'S WARPED SPACE

In the most precise astrophysics experiment ever made, Australian and U.S. astronomers have used CSIRO's Parkes radio telescope to measure the distortion of space-time near a star 450 light-years (more than 4 000 million million kilometres) from Earth.

Their results, confirming Einstein's general theory of relativity, are published in the July 12 issue of the journal "Nature".

More Information:

Professor Matthew Bailes, Swinburne University of Technology
Phone: +61-3-9214-8782
Email: mbailes@pulsar.physics.swin.edu.au

Mr Willem van Straten, Swinburne University of Technology
Phone: +61-3-9214-5244
Email: wvanstra@pulsar.physics.swin.edu.au

Dr Richard Manchester, CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility
Phone: +61-2-9372-4313
Email: rmanches@atnf.csiro.au

 

23 May 2001
GIANT "EYEBALL" BRINGS MEGA-TELESCOPE CLOSER

A satellite receiver that works like a giant eyeball has arrived in Sydney for testing by CSIRO.

Its arrival brings a step closer one idea for the world's next 'mega-telescope' —an army of giant spheres to collect radio waves from the cosmos, dotted in patches across the landscape.

Testing the 'eyeball' will help CSIRO refine the mathematics and software for designing its own spherical collectors for the mega-telescope.

More Information:

Dr Peter Hall, CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility
Phone: 02-9372-4195 or 0400-801-531 (mobile)
Email: Peter.Hall@atnf.csiro.au

Dr Andrew Parfitt, CSIRO Telecommunications and Industrial Physics
Phone: 02-9372-4187 or 0408-164-432 (mobile)
Email: Andrew.Parfitt@tip.csiro.au

Ms Helen Sim, CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility
Phone: 02-9372-4251 or 0419-635-905 (mobile)
Email: Helen.Sim@atnf.csiro.au



23 May 2001
"TADPOLE HUNTERS" MAY NET FORMING PLANETS

Researchers using CSIRO's Australia Telescope have found they can spot the dusty blobs that might be planet systems in the making.

This will help astronomers hunt more effectively for these elusive objects, and better estimate how many planet-forming systems are out there.

"We were very surprised that we could see these blobs," says Dr Bärbel Koribalski of CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility. "It goes against the predictions."

More Information:

Dr Bärbel Koribalski, CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility
Phone: 02-9372-4361
Email: bkoribal@atnf.csiro.au

Dr Anita Mücke, University of Montreal, Canada
Phone: +1-514-343-6111 ext 4681
Email: muecke@astro.umontreal.ca



29 March 2001
AUSSIE ASTRONOMY TECHNOLOGY IS STAR MATERIAL

Astronomy has a world market and Australia can be a major producer of the technologies it needs, Federal MPs were told at a National Science Briefing in Canberra today.

"Over the next decade 10 billion US dollars will be invested worldwide in astronomical facilities and observatories," says Professor Brian Boyle, Director of the Anglo Australian Observatory.

Australia is well placed to play a major role in, and reap the benefits of, this investment in a highly technological science, he says.

"Gone are the days when astronomers sat frozen to the eyepieces of their telescopes. Modern-day astronomical research pushes technology to the limit to detect and analyze all forms of light coming from the cosmos," he says.

More Information:

Prof Brian Boyle, AAO
Email: director@aaoepp.aao.gov.au

Dr John O'Sullivan, Cisco Pty Ltd
Email: johnos@cisco.com

Mr Aaron Chippendale, ATNF
Email: Aaron.Chippendale@atnf.csiro.au

Helen Sim, ATNF
Email: hsim@atnf.csiro.au



6 February 2001
TITANIC COLLISION SEEN IN DISTANT UNIVERSE

A student astronomer has discovered evidence of a vast collision between two giant clusters of galaxies.

Using CSIRO's Australia Telescope, PhD student Melanie Johnston-Hollitt of the University of Adelaide has found 'wreckage' indicating that two giant clusters of galaxies have collided and merged.

The finding changes astronomers' views of how clusters and individual galaxies evolve.

"Space is big. The chance of things running into each other is small," says Professor Ron Ekers, Director of the Australia Telescope National Facility. "Until now there has been only weak evidence that clusters might collide."

More Information:

Ms. Melanie Johnston-Hollitt, University of Adelaide
Email: mjohnsto@physics.adelaide.edu.au

Dr. Richard Hunstead, University of Sydney
Email: r.hunstead@physics.usyd.edu.au

Dr. Roger Clay, University of Adelaide
Email: rclay@physics.adelaide.edu.au

Prof. Ron Ekers, CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility
Email: director@atnf.csiro.au



10 January 2001
ASTRONOMERS FIND MOST MASSIVE COMPANION TO RADIO PULSAR

Astronomers have found a radio pulsar with a companion at least 11 times the mass of the Sun - the most massive pulsar companion known. The identity of the companion is uncertain: it may be a massive late-type (red) star, a massive but compact blue star, or possibly a black hole. If it is a black hole then this will be the first pulsar - black hole binary system found, and a superb natural laboratory for testing general relativity.

More Information:

Dr. Ingrid Stairs, National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Email: istairs@nrao.edu

Dr. Richard Manchester, CSIRO Australia Telescope National Facility
Email: rmanches@atnf.csiro.au

Prof. Andrew Lyne, University of Manchester, Jodrell Bank Observatory
Email: agl@jb.man.ac.uk

Dr. Fernando Camilo, Columbia University
Email: fernando@astro.columbia.edu

Prof. Victoria Kaspi, McGill University
Email: vkaspi@physics.mcgill.ca




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General public relations enquiries should be directed to: Helen Sim (hsim@atnf.csiro.au)
Phone: +61 2 9372 4251, Fax: +61 2 9372 4310

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