Current Research Projects
ATLAS 1.4GHz Survey
We are using the Australia Telescope Compact Array, which is a large radio-telescope near Narrabri, NSW, Australia, to make a survey of all the radio emission from a large patch of the sky. By doing this, we will get a snapshot of thousands of galaxies, stetching in time from shortly after the Big Bang to the present day, in different stages of formation and evolution.We will then use this information, together with information from other telescopes such as the Spitzer Space Telescope, to work out how galaxies form and evolve. [Read More]
Radio GalaxiesEnvironments
Galaxy clusters are among the largest structures in the Universe. They provide a high-density environment where galaxies undergo high-speed collisions, ram pressure stripping and tidal interactions. The resulting debris can sometimes be detected in the form of neutral or ionized intergalactic filaments. In this project we will be able to investigate the environmental effect on star formation and galaxy evolution in individual galaxies falling into the cluster through radio observations of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Current models of galaxy evolution regulate the star formation rates within the simulated galaxies by invoking radio-mode feedback from AGN. As the kinetic energy in a radio jet is understood to be 2-3 orders higher in magnitude than the observed radio luminosity, we can expect that such radio outflows to affect the star formation history of neighbouring galaxies of the AGN host galaxy.
Radio Galaxy Zoo Citizen Science
Radio Galaxy Zoo is a project on the Zooniverse to hunt for supermassive blakc holes. The Zooniverse is a collection of web-based science projects that use the efforts of volunteers to help researchers handle the large data volumes. Radio Galaxy Zoo matches radio images to infrared image as we are looking for the host galaxies of the radio emission. [Read More]