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RSAA Summer Research Scholarship Program 2008/2009

Research Projects Available for 2008/2009 - specific research projects are flexible but please include your preference in your online application

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Dr Stefan Keller - Tracing Galactic Cannabalism

Using data from the 2.3m and the Faulkes Telescope, we hope to trace streams of material tidally stripped from dwarf galaxies that have strayed too close to the Milky Way. We will use RR Lyrae variables as test particles to trace the stream of debris. Another aspect of this project will be to trace the mass distribution of the Milky Way, again using RR Lyrae variables. Analysis will involve image processing, extraction of photometry and analysis of light curves, together with interpretation of the results.

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Dr Stefan Keller - Probing the Large Magellanic Cloud with Carbon Stars

Using archival data from the AAT 2dF instrument and new data from the ANU 2.3m DBS we will measure the radial velocities for several thousand Carbon stars. The data set will be the basis for a study to trace the structure of LMC. Of particular interest will be following up on the "kinematically distinct population" of Carbon stars seen by Graff et al. 2000. These stars have the potential to describe the history of interaction between the LMC, SMC and MilkyWay over the last 3 billion years. The project will impart skills in data reduction, spectroscopy and data analysis.

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Dr David Yong - Radioactive elements in ancient stars

Thorium is a heavy, radioactive element with an atomic number of 90. By measuring the relative abundance of radioactive thorium to other stable heavy elements in an ancient cluster of stars we hope to understand the ages of these stars and how the heavy elements from iron to uranium were made.

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Dr Geoff Bicknell - Black Holes, Jets and Blazars

Ever wondered how a black hole works? This project will compare two different methods of estimating magnetic fields around black holes (from blazar emission and accretion disk modelling) in order to understand these mysterious objects better.

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Dr Geoff Bicknell - High redshift radio galaxies

High redshift radio galaxies are beacons of star formation in the early universe. They have been discovered by virtue of their steep radio spectra and once upon a time it was thought that this was the result of redshifting a typical radio galaxy spectrum. However, recent research by Ekers and Feain gave shown that the steep spectra are a result of environment. In this project we shall construct a model for the evolution of a radio galaxy spectrum which involves the injection of freshly accelerated relativistic particles into an expanding bubble. The expansion of the bubble is determined by the local environment.

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Dr Amanda Karakas - Fluorine in R Coronae Borealis stars

The rare element fluorine is observed to be in enriched in the atmospheres of R Coronae Borealis stars by factors of 800-8000 times the solar abundance. In this project we study the nucleosynthesis of fluorine in theoretical models of low-mass stars, with the aim of comparing current models to the F enrichments measured in the R Cor Bor stars and other evolved objects.

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Dr Charley Lineweaver - Determining the Distance to the Moon

How far is up? Determining the distance to the moon as a function of time and quantifying the heights of tides as a function of time, from 4.5Gyr to today.

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Dr Charley Lineweaver - Exoplanet statistics

Are the exoplanet statistics from the Doppler technique and the transit tenchnique consisten?

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Dr Charley Lineweaver - Host mass dependence of exoplanet statistics

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Prof. Mike Dopita - Commissioning of WiFeS

The RSAA has been developing and constructing the new Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS) over the past seven years. This instrument has outstanding spatial and spectral coverage. In November 2008 it is to be mounted on the 2.3m telescope at Siding Springs Observatory, where it is destined to become a workhorse for astrophysical research at the RSAA. The aim of this project is to assist in the technical commissioning and in the scientific verification of this new instrument.

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Prof Brian Schmidt - SkyMapper, a new frontier

Want to be part of refining a NEW telescope? RSAA's new telescope, SkyMapper, has never-before-seen commissioning data which needs analysing as soon as possible. Help optimise this new instrument and be part of a world-first project.

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Dr Peter Wood - Modelling pulsating stars with new opacities and/or convection theories

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Dr Peter Wood - Searching for dusty and cluster variable stars in the MACHO and OGLE databases

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Dr Raquel Salmeron - Mass Feeding and Feedback in Young Stellar Objects

Ever wondered how solar-mass stars form? And why all the solar planets lie in a plane? In order for material to accrete onto a protostar it has to lose angular momentum, which leads to the formation of a circumstellar disk as the cloud collapses. Investigate how these processes occur. See here for more info.

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Contact people:

Convenor of the RSAA Summer Research Scholarships Program:

Dr Elizabeth Wylie de Boer
Telephone: (61 2) 6125 8023
FAX: (61 2) 6125 0260
E-MAIL: