CASS Astrophysics

Overview

Astrophysics is one of four 'themes' within CASS, the others being National Facility Operation, Technologies for Radio Astronomy and the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP). Our aim in the Astrophysics theme is:

• To conduct world-class research in astrophysics, retaining astronomy's position as Australia's highest impact science and furthering our understanding of the Universe through innovative use of CSIRO's telescopes.

Group Structure

The astrophysics group currently comprises some 24 FTE (full-time equivalent positions) distributed over about 50 individuals.

• Astrophysics Theme Leader: Simon Johnston
• Deputy Astrophysics Theme Leader: Naomi McClure-Griffiths
• Astrophysics Group Secretary: Sue Broadhurst

Graduate Student Program

Southern Cross Astrophysics Conference Series

• "Merging Black Holes in Galaxies: Galaxy Evolution, AGN and Gravitational Waves", Katoomba, 15-20 June 2008
• "Galaxy Metabolism: Galaxy Evolution near and far", Darling Harbour in Sydney, 22-26 June 2009
• "Cosmic magnetism From stellar to intergalactic scales", Kiama, 7-11 June 2010
• "Supernovae and their host galaxies", Darling Harbour in Sydney, 20-24 June 2011
• "tbd, 2012

Science Highlights

Some science highlights of Astrophysics group members and other astronomers using the ATNF facilities are can be found here, in the ATNF Annual Report.

Projects

There are several major projects currently underway within the astrophysics group, and a number of smaller-scale projects. Some recent projects include:

Extragalactic	Contact
Science with ASKAP	Ilana Feain
A Long Overdue Synthesis Image of Centaurus A	Ilana Feain
Parkes 21cm Multibeam Project	Bärbel Koribalski
Structure and Evolution of Galaxies	Bärbel Koribalski
The Local Volume HI Survey (LVHIS)	Bärbel Koribalski
*** WALLABY ***	Bärbel Koribalski
*** EMU ***	Ray Norris
Deep Field Surveys at the ATNF	Ray Norris
The Australia Telescope 20 GHz Survey (AT20G)	Ron Ekers
LUNASKA: a Lunar Cerenkov experiment	Ron Ekers
Galactic/Magellanic
Pulsars	Simon Johnston, George Hobbs, Dick Manchester
Southern Galactic Plane Survey	Naomi McClure-Griffiths
Galactic All-Sky Survey	Naomi McClure-Griffiths
*** GASKAP ***	Naomi McClure-Griffiths
Masers and Star Formation	Jim Caswell
A Multibeam Survey of the Galaxy for Methanol Masers	Jim Caswell

(last updated 01/07/2011 by B. Koribalski)