1 / 14

ATUC Meeting, 14 Oct 2010, Astro Issues George Hobbs

ATUC Meeting, 14 Oct 2010, Astro Issues George Hobbs. Introduction. Note: This is based on a presentation prepared by Robert Braun. His original presentation will be made available. Overview of the astrophysics group Science highlights from Parkes, Mopra, Narrabri and ASKAP Other highlights

dewey
Download Presentation

ATUC Meeting, 14 Oct 2010, Astro Issues George Hobbs

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. ATUC Meeting, 14 Oct 2010, Astro IssuesGeorge Hobbs

  2. Introduction • Note: This is based on a presentation prepared by Robert Braun. His original presentation will be made available. • Overview of the astrophysics group • Science highlights from Parkes, Mopra, Narrabri and ASKAP • Other highlights • Notes on the Parkes receiver systems • See Simon’s talk for science highlights from ASKAP • (Thanks to Kate, Rob, Jill and Baerbel for helping me prepare this talk) CSIRO ATUC, Astro Issues

  3. The astrophysics group • Current staff: R. Braun, S. Breen, K. Brooks, S. Brown, J. Caswell, P. Diamond, R. Ekers, B. Emonts, I. Feain, J. Green, L. Harvey-Smith, G. Hobbs, S. Johnston, R. Jurek, M. Keith, B. Koribalski, E. Lenc, R. Manchester, N. McClure-Griffiths, R. Norris, S. O’Sullivan, J. Rathborne, D. Schnitzeler & J. Urquhart (24) • Welcome to: S. Breen, L. Harvey-Smith and J. Rathborne • 33 current students • Recent postdoc acceptance: R. Shannon (starting next week), M. Keith, S. Burke-Spolaor, J. Grant … • 8 postdocs and permanent positions currently being advertised on the AAS (closing 15th Nov) CSIRO ATUC, Astro Issues

  4. Summary of science highlights • Detection of CO 2-1 emission at high red-shift • Observation of the Sunyaev-Zel’Dovich effect • Discovery of new pulsars and a magnetar • Wide-area molecular mapping of NH3 and H2O masers • Improved determination of the Jovian system mass • Bursting 'bubbles' the origin of galactic gas clouds • Observational limits on UHE neutrinos • Observational limits on gravitational wave sources • First science with an ASKAP antenna • … • Apologies for all the work carried out by the astrophysics group on Australian and International telescopes that I’ve missed off … CSIRO ATUC, Astro Issues

  5. Science highlights from ATCA • Detection of CO 2-1 emission (~ 40 GHz) in a z = 4.76 SMG Coppin et al. 2010, MNRAS • High angular resolution of the Sunyaev-Zel’Dovich effect … Massardi et al. 2010 Lunaska experiment observational limits on UHE neutrinos from Centaurus A and the Galactic Centre James et al. 2010, MNRAS CSIRO ATUC, Astro Issues

  6. Science highlights from Parkes • Measuring the Mass of Solar System Planets Using Pulsar Timing – Yardley et al. 2010, ApJ • A radio loud magnetar in X-ray quiescence, Levin et al. 2010, MNRAS • Measuring the Mass of Solar System Planets Using Pulsar Timing - Champion et al. 2010, ApJ • Bursting bubbles the origin of galactic gas clouds – press release CSIRO ATUC, Astro Issues

  7. 1.2 degrees The “Nessie” Nebula:Cluster Formation in a filamentary Infrared Dark Cloud • Very filamentary infrared dark cloud (aspect ratio 150:1) • Mapped with Mopra: OTF, zoom mode, 16 lines at 90 GHz, 0.11 km s-1 • HNC (1–0) emission • Excellent morphological match to the mid-IR extinction • Same radial velocity  Nessie is a single, coherent cloud and not the chance alignment of multiple unrelated clouds along the line of sight • Multiple dense, compact molecular cores every ~4.5pc • If turbulence pressure dominates, core spacing matches theory (cores can form within a cylinder at regular intervals via the “sausage” fluid instability) 0.2 degs • High-mass star formation arises from the fragmentation of filamentary IRDCs Jackson, Finn, Chambers, Rathborne, Simon, 2010, ApJL

  8. Use of international facilities Astronomers find cause of "dicky tickers" CSIRO ATUC, Astro Issues

  9. The astrophysics group and outreach activities http://www.globaljetwatch.net: I. Faein and R. Hollow PULSE@Parkes: G. Hobbs, R. Hollow, J. Khoo, D. Yardley, M. Mao … Citizen science projects: R. Norris, R. Hollow … CSIRO ATUC, Astro Issues

  10. CASS Radio Astronomy School 2010 CASS RAS 2010 very successful • Excellent turn-out of 45 students • Very positive feed-back • RAS 2011 in Parkes CSIRO ATUC, Astro Issues

  11. Parkes 50th Anniversary Activities in 2011 Parkes “Golden Anniversary” Booklet On sale at the Visitor Centre from 1 December 2010 Open Weekend 8 & 9 October 2011 Possible public concert, etc. Dignitary Event on 30 October 2011 Commemorative monument “unveiling” Science Symposium 31 Oct – 3 Nov 2011 20% history, 80% science is planned mix CSIRO ATUC, Astro Issues

  12. Parkes FE & BE Systems Rationalisation • Working group discussions • Carretti, Edwards, Hobbs, Braun • “Ideal” front-end Suite • Phase-array-feed-low: 700-1800 MHz x 30 beams BW=1GHz  • Wide-band single-pixel feed options: • 0.7-12 GHz, BW=8GHz • 0.7-3 & 3-12 GHz, BW=8GHz • Concentric (0.3-0.7 plus 1.8-5) & (0.7-1.8 plus 5-12 GHz), BW=8GHz • MB(/PAF-)high: 5-12, 11-26 GHz x 30 beams, BW=8GHz. • All FE in focus cabin, no more receiver changes • Consider new FEs and upgrades in this framework CSIRO ATUC, Astro Issues

  13. Parkes FE & BE Systems Rationalisation • “Ideal” BE • “Single Digital Back-end” fully configurable in software • Unlikely to be viable in short term • Short-term BE developments • Decommission BEs superseded by DFB3, DFB4, APSR, BPSR • WBC, AFB, CPSR2, DFB2, DAS • Enhanced multi-beam correlator possibilities to replace MBCORR • BPSR-based (ARC request pending) • ASKAP board based CSIRO ATUC, Astro Issues

  14. Conclusion • For the “official” slides see Robert’s presentation • ADS search for “Parkes”, “Australia Telescope Compact Array”, “ATCA”, “Mopra” and “ASKAP” in abstract since April 2010 • Astrogroup members since April 2010: 145 papers with 279 citations: “The First Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of Gamma-ray Pulsars” CSIRO ATUC, Astro Issues

More Related