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Who are we?

We are The Australian National University's Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics. We are one of the Schools in the Institute of Advanced Studies - the part of the ANU devoted to research and research training.

We are Australia's premier university centre for astronomical research. Our mission is to:

• advance the observational and theoretical frontiers of astronomy and its enabling technologies;
• provide national and international leadership;
• train outstanding scientists.

Our headquarters are located on Mount Stromlo, a twenty minute drive from the centre of Canberra, Australia's capital city. We run Australia's two largest optical observatories: Mount Stromlo Observatory itself (damaged by the Canberra bushfires of 18 January 2003) and Siding Spring Observatory, which is located near the town of Coonabarabran, in the Western Plains of NSW.

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Did you know?

Not only are we the largest group of astronomy researchers in Australia - by almost any measure, we are also the best.

• The RSAA has Australia's largest grouping of astronomers, most comprehensive set of undergraduate and graduate astronomical courses, and has trained many of the world's astronomical leaders residing in the United States, Europe, Asia, Africa, as well as Australia.
• RSAA hosts the only astronomer named in the 2004 ISI (Institute for Scientific Information) list of the most cited scientists for Australia.
• RSAA has one of Australian Astronomy's two Fellows of the Royal Society, two Federation Fellows, and has 2 current members of staff who are members of the Australian Academy of Science.
• RSAA scientists have led the 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey, the High-Z SN Search, the HST Key Project for measuring the Hubble Constant, and Mount Stromlo has been the home of the MACHO experiment.
• RSAA students have been awarded 6 of Australia's 10 Hubble Fellowships, making the RSAA the 2nd most successful non-US institution (behind Cambridge which has 7) in these prestigous postdoctoral fellowship competitions.
• RSAA is building Australia's first two instruments for the Gemini 8m telescopes (NIFS and GSAOI), has been involved in instrumentation for ESO's Very Large Telescopes, and runs the 2.3m and 1m telescopes at Siding Spring Observatory, with SKYMAPPER - a new 1.3m telescope - to see first light in 2006.
• Over the past 6 Hubble Space Telescope proposal cycles (Cycles 6-11), RSAA astronomers have led 12 of Australia's 20 approved GO proposals.

We study many aspects of our universe, including:

• searches for planets around other stars;
• mapping the expansion of space and time;
• modelling and observing the formation of galaxies;
• designing cutting-edge astronomical instrumentation to go on some of the world's largest telescopes;
• studying the violent flows of gas around black holes;
• finding the oldest stars in the galaxy.

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Want to know more?

• See Public Information
• Look at our Current strategic plan, 2003-2007 (PDF document, requires Acrobat reader)
• Read our Annual Reports
• RSAA Alumni

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Mount Stromlo Redevelopment

• Keep an eye on our What's On page to find out how Mount Stromlo is rebuilding since the fires of January 2003
• Find out how you can help by contributing to the Stromlo Redevelopment Fund

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About our website

• The Home page and the RSAA-specific page banners were designed and manufactured by "Crashing By Design"
• All other pages use the ANU standard PHP templates