Abstracts
Michele Bannister (MSO)
How do they name a dwarf planet? The mythological titles of KBOs, SDOs and assorted TNOs
All the world's cultures have given names to the planets: they have been known by those of our deities, heroes and demons. Today, most of the Solar System's small and distant objects glory in memorable designations such as 2009 KM30 or (15760) 1992 QB1. Fortunately, some lucky objects are graced with enough mass to be worthy of a more personal name: and here in the 21st century, Graeco-Roman mythology is only one among many from which these names are drawn. I will explain how planetary astronomers have got from Altjira to Varuna, via Echidna, Makemake, and Quaoar.
Ben Barsdell (Swinburne)
The future of computational astronomy: Turning the multi-core corner
Astronomers have come to rely on the increasing performance of
computers to reduce, analyse, visualise and simulate their data. In
this environment, faster computation can mean more science outcomes.
The recent paradigm shift from single to multi-core computers is
heralding a new era of ubiquitous parallel computing; but are
astronomers ready for it? We present a generalised approach to
tackling the shift towards massively-parallel computing in astronomy.
Several example applications running on Graphics Processing Units
(GPUs) will be described.
Christina Blom (Swinburne)
GRaSPInGS: Getting ReAlly Small People INterested in Grownup Science
Science outreach is a tricky, often time-consuming and very rewarding beast that often has no place in a PhD at all. I've tried to make time to talk to kids of all ages about Science and Astronomy while in my first year at least. I am by no means an expert and GRaSPInGS is just about sharing some of the insight my extra-curricular work has brought.
Justin Bray (Adelaide)
High-energy Astronomy - The 'A' series
Beyond the teeming masses of radio waves, the steady stream of optical photons, and the occasional bright x-ray, lie the rare and elusive big game of Astronomy - individual particles with energies beyond a particle accelerator's wildest dreams. Catching such prey requires detectors larger than the largest artificial structures, and astroparticle physicists are busily sticking sensors in any natural formation that looks like it might do.
There are rather a lot of such projects, so I'm going to start at the beginning of the alphabet and see how far I get.
Donna Burton (USQ)
A.C.N.E - the plague of hot adolescent stars
I report on data collected as part of my research using the ANU 2.3m Telescope and Echelle Spectrograph. Initial observations were the conducting of a survey for suitable targets for follow up Doppler Imaging, and having obtained a number of targets I undertook a feasibility study, using the 2.3m telescope for doppler imaging, which we had previously only been able to undertake on the AAT. I report my results on some hot adolescent active stars which suffer badly from ACNE.
John Ching (USyd/AAO)
Age of MOBSTRS: Multi-OBject SpecTRoscopic Surveys
The development of multi-fibre object spectroscopy has led to many massive multi-object spectroscopic surveys. These massive multi-object spectroscopic surveys have then led to great scientific discoveries.
Many of these multi-object spectroscopic surveys have been conducted here in Australia with the AAT. I will present my PhD project and discuss the various multi-object spectroscopic surveys from the AAT that are vital to my project.
Aditya Chopra (MSO)
Rise to the top
E. T. (EARTHRISE TEAM)
Dream of going into space? (Who doesn't?)
Missed out on Sir Richard's Virgin Galactic give away? (Thought so.)
Can't afford the $30 Million the Russians are asking? (We are PhD students too!)
Is your supervisor NASA? (Not Accepting of Space Activities)
Then join us on an adventure to the top of the world!
And the best part is, you can grab this chance to do real space science if you can classify yourself as any one of the following: Astronomer, Earth Scientist, Physicist, Chemist, Biologist, Mathematician, Engineer, Bureaucrat, Teacher, Artist, Philosopher, Human.
Kimberly Cullen (MSO)
P.U.R.P.L.E.
P.U.R.P.L.E. - People Underestimate the Remarkable Purple Loveliness Everywhere. In this talk I'll be giving you a brief overview of purple and some pretty pictures in astronomy that are clearly enhanced by this wondrous colour. Be prepared people: if you don't like purple, you won't like this...
Jacinta Delhaize (UWA)
S.U.P.E.R.T.E.D and the Search for the Missing Gas
The universe is in trouble. A whole lot of hydrogen gas has gone missing and is nowhere to be found! How will galaxies form stars to keep planets like Earth warm and habitable? Can S.U.P.E.R.T.E.D (Studies Using Parkes for spEctRal sTacking of nEutral hyDrogen) save the day? Be prepared for adventure as S.U.P.E.R.T.E.D pushes the boundaries of possibility in search of the missing gas.
Kyle DePew (Macquarie)
Wolf-Rayet Central Stars of Planetary Nebulae in the MASH Survey
The Macquarie/AAO/Strasbourg H&alpha (MASH) survey of planetary nebulae has increased the number of known PNe by ~60%. Among central stars of planetary nebulae (CSPNe) there exists a class of H-deficient objects called Wolf-Rayet or [WR] type central stars. These stars exhibit strong, turbulent winds and high terminal velocities. The origin of these objects is still a matter of debate. In my talk I will give a brief overview of the [WR] class and current research involving their chemical composition, morphology, and subtype evolution sequence.
Brendan Griffen (UQ)
Globular Cluster Formation Within The Aquarius Simulation
The Aquarius project is a series of high-resolution cosmological simulations being carried out by a heap of really clever people from institutes all over the world. It has a particle mass of mp=1.4 x 104 Msol which means dark matter concentrations (haloes) that give rise to globular clusters (GCs) via our formation criteria contain a minimum of ~3000 particles (one of the first to achieve such a result!). In my talk I discuss two tasty globular cluster formation scenarios; one for metal poor GCs and one for metal-rich GCs. In my metal-poor GC model, they form when they reach a unique temperature (104 K) enabling them to cool efficiently to collapse to form stars. I calculate the ionising flux from the stars in the first clusters and stop the formation of new clusters when all the baryonic gas of the galaxy is ionised. I then compare their z = 0 properties to that of the Milky Way. For metal-rich GCs I examine mergers that trigger star formation within central gas disks at later times. I again, compare these objects to the Milky Way. For some rad simulation pictures/movies I suggest you stay awake during my talk!
Shane Hengst (UNSW)
UNSW AOG
The University of New South Wales (UNSW) Astrophysics department formed the Astronomy Outreach Group (AOG) in February this year. It was motivated to reinvigorate Astronomy outreach programs from within the university with the additional stimulus of the International Year of Astronomy (IYA) helping to promote the presence of the group. The two main goals of the group are to help make the public aware of Astronomy and to entice future students to consider science at UNSW. The group actively runs StarLab (portable planetarium) shows, telescope viewing (night & solar) and interactive presentations. A notable achievement was presenting nine StarLab shows to children with hearing impairment and one to a deaf audience at the annual Veronica James Science Challenge (VJSC). In between events the postgraduate members of the group have successfully developed various aspects required of a professional outreach group, including the recent launch of the official Astronomy Outreach website. This talk will highlight the overall success of AOG over the past year.
Peter Jensen (Swinburne)
Galaxy evolution and substructure in the X-ray cold front cluster A3667
Major galaxy cluster mergers are the most energetic phenomena in the universe. Such mergers radically alter the environments of their constituent galaxies and may result in rapid changes in galaxy properties. One of the earliest results to come from Chandra was the discovery of "cold fronts" which appear as extended edge features in cluster X-ray surface brightness maps (Markevitch et al. 2000; Vikhlinin et al. 2001). Recently, Owers et al. (2009a; 2009b) have demonstrated a link between the presence of cold fronts and substructure. I aim to extend this work by exploring the possibility of a link between galaxy evolution and cluster mergers, using cold fronts as a signpost for recent merger activity. In this talk I will present preliminary results from my studies of A3667, one of the most disturbed-looking clusters from the Chandra cold front sample of Owers et al. (2009c).
Libby Maunder (MSO)
From B.C. to the BFG: Why we abbreviate
I will take you on a tour of the history of contractions, initialisms, acronyms and the human need to economise language. From ancient Hebrew to instant messaging, you will learn why abbreviations are so common in our language and what drives us to contraction.
k thx bai!
Melissa Ness (MSO)
On This Day
My talk will showcase random science and non science events that have taken place on this very day, the 27th of November. There are a lot of things to find out about any given day, and I acknowledge the selection effects in that events presented here have passed through the MKN filtering function.
Although biased, my findings should convey that it is a deeply rewarding and scientifically valid utilisation of Google to spend 10 minutes in the morning researching events of the day through history. Importantly, this work highlights how acronyms have permeated stories through time and in engaging in this activity one should expect to build a broader and diversified knowledge base (or BADKEB). BADKEBs promote enhanced skills in scientific argument and discussion and importantly, give one something to talk about at morning and afternoon tea.
David Nicholls (MSO)
G.O.A.T.S
I will address the problem of recent poor economic advice to governments around the world, leading to the global recession, and show that the solution lies in the early history of Astronomy - and that there are numerous side benefits to the solution I propose. Three types of goat are discussed.
Stephen Parker (UNSW)
Hunting for Brown Dwarfs in Corona Australis
Brown dwarfs are an important tool in the development of stellar and planetary evolutionary models. With inferred masses extending from below 5 Mjup up to tens of Jupiter masses, they lie at the junction between high-mass planets and low-mass stars, so an understanding of their formation and evolution is critical in answering questions like ‘What is the minimum mass for star formation?’. However, these planetary-mass brown dwarfs are very rare and have very low luminosities, making them difficult to find. In this talk I will detail the technique I am using to find these faint, failed stars, as well as present some preliminary candidates from a survey of the nearby star forming cluster Corona Australis.
Tiago Pereira (MSO)
IRIS, SDO and CRISP: following MR from MHD to CMEs
Despite many dedicated space missions and telescopes, there are still
many gaps in the understanding of the Sun's atmosphere. In the next few
years an unprecedented number of solar space missions will be
operational, allowing for a detailed study of the dynamics of the solar
atmosphere, the magnetic field generation and its interaction with
radiation and matter.
In this talk a review of the unsolved problems in the solar photosphere,
chromosphere and corona will be given, and their importance to astronomy
and physics discussed. Additionally, I will outline the capabilities and
key science goals of new instruments such as SST/CRISP and the upcoming
SDO and IRIS space missions.
Pat Scott (Stockholm)
PLUMs: when acronyms just don't quite make it
I will tell the story of a bright, young, up-and-coming acronym, savagely cut down in its prime by a humourless referee and a conservative editor. Tissues and small violins will be provided.
Holly Trowland (USyd)
The cosmic field of spinning dark matter halos (TCFoSDMH)
Numerical-body (N-body) simulations are the most useful tool we have to recreate the formation of large scale structure in the universe. The spins of dark matter halos in Numerous-body (N-body) simulations contain important information about the early stages of structure formation. The direction and size of the spin angular momentum could reflect the primordial density field where halos were born. I search for this environmental dependence of halo spins in the context of cosmological Naked-body (N-body) simulations.
Marc White (MSO)
PARTIES. Procrastination: the ART of IntErrupting Study
I'll write an abstract.... once I get off Facebook and YouTube.
