Technology centre opens at Stromlo
A new multi-million dollar technology facility at Mt Stromlo has been linked to the resilience of all Australians.
|
|
|
|
The new AITC is open and ready for business. |
Federal Education Minister Julie Bishop opened the Advanced Instrument Technology Centre (AITC) at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics on 16 October.
The AITC is the first major building to be constructed at Mt Stromlo since the 2003 bushfires, and will allow ANU staff to take part in the development and construction of devices for international astronomy projects.
The AITC’s spacious Integration Hall will allow technicians to assemble the components required for large telescopes, such as the Chile-based Giant Magellan Telescope, of which ANU is a consortium partner.
The building also contains state-of-the-art laboratories, a central meeting area, and a walkway that will allow the public access without disrupting staff.
“In addition to being a founding member of the GMT consortium, we’re also engaged in a number of other collaborative projects that will benefit from the new centre,” RSAA Director Professor Penny Sackett said.
“ANU is a partner in the Mileura Wild-field Array (MWA) project that will be built in Western Australia to probe very early times in the Universe soon after the Big Bang. One of the first projects to be undertaken in the AITC will be the development by RSAA engineers of fast signal processing systems for the MWA.
“Every new generation of telescopes demands more complex and efficient instruments. This centre means that Stromlo will long have the facilities to play a role in the development of new technology.”
This optimism was reinforced by the Education Minister, who backed up the view that the greatest asset of the RSAA was its people.
“The rebirth of Mount Stromlo is testament not only to Australia's success in the field of astronomy on a global scale, but also a testament to the resilience of the Australian spirit,” Ms Bishop said.
^^
New camera improves view from Earth for astronomers
Earthbound astronomers are a step closer to capturing images of space that rival in detail and size those obtained with the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope, thanks to a new camera created at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics (RSAA).
The Gemini South Adaptive Optics Imager (GSAOI) was designed and built by engineers at the RSAA. The multi-million dollar camera was shipped to the eight metre diameter Gemini South telescope in Chile on 4 October.
“Star light often looks blurred when we observe it here on Earth, because the rays of lights from these distant suns are affected by the dynamic turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere,” GSAOI project scientist Dr Peter McGregor said. “As a result, a large telescope magnifies the blurring, so stars appear like indistinct blobs.”
The Gemini Observatory has a major program underway to develop a wide-field adaptive optics system that will correct this blur over a region of sky as large as is obtained with the Hubble Space Telescope. GSAOI is the near-infrared camera that will work with the Gemini system to record these images.
“It will be the commissioning instrument for Gemini’s new Multi-Conjugate Adaptive Optics system so it had to be ready before the MCAO system comes together in early 2007,” Dr McGregor said.
Adaptive optics is commonly used on the world’s largest telescopes, such as the twin Gemini telescope to which Australian astronomers have access. Previously it has been possible to produce extremely sharp images over only a small area of the sky, but MCAO will do this over a much larger region. The GSAOI camera includes a highly sophisticated wide-field digital imaging detector in order to accommodate this large field.
“RSAA leads the world in developing sophisticated near-infrared detector systems for astronomy” GSAOI Project Manager Dr Matt Doolan said. “GSAOI uses a mosaic of four detectors that were designed originally for the Next Generation Space Telescope.”
GSAOI has been under development at RSAA since 2002. A team of 12 astronomers and engineers have been involved in its design, construction, and testing.
^^
Hubble access for astronomers
In the latest annual round of awards to use Hubble Space Telescope (HST) time, a total of two large Treasury Programs were approved. Scientists from the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics were named investigators in both, and were the only Australians involved in these programs. From 2006 to 2008, using HST's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), these programs will acquire images of galaxies beyond our Milky Way for the purpose of better understanding the formation of galaxies in our Universe.
The first of these, on which Dr Alister Graham is a participating researcher, will look at dwarf galaxies in the densely populated Coma Cluster of galaxies. This program will study the age and chemical composition of the stars in these galaxies, and their main morphological features. The program intends to learn more about what happens to these properties when galaxies collide. Our own galaxy, although not a dwarf galaxy, is on course to collide with Andromeda in about 3.5 billions years.
Professor Ken Freeman is taking part in the second program, which will look at galaxies in the local universe to attain unprecedented measures of star formation, the properties of thick galaxy disks, and the nature of globular clusters in relation to galaxy mass and environment. This work will lay the tracks for near-infrared imaging of millions of nearby stars.
^^
|
Search Marketing & Comm.
Home
