Документ взят из кэша поисковой машины. Адрес оригинального документа : http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/annualReport/2001/AnnualRep_6pg_2001.pdf Дата изменения: Fri Oct 15 10:47:56 2004 Дата индексирования: Tue Oct 2 05:51:44 2012 Кодировка: Поисковые слова: virgo cluster

RESEARCH SCHOOL OF ASTRONOMY & ASTROPHYSICS { ANNUAL REPORT 2001
John Norris, Interim Director March 13, 2002

1 Overview

2001 was an interim year for RSAA. Professor Jeremy Mould resignedas Director in January. After an international search, Professor Penny Sackett of Rijksuniverseit Groningen accepted the position in February 2002. The excel lence of the research undertaken at the School was recognised in two ways. First, at the ISI symposium \Honouring Excel lence in Australian Research" held at the Australian Academy of Science in March, six of the 33 Australian citation laureates were RSAA sta members. Second, RSAA's Professor Michael Dopita was awarded a Federation Fel lowship. The School was successful in attracting a number of signi cant grants: it was part of the Major National Research Facilities proposal \Gemini and SKA { Australia's Astronomy Future" 60% of its ARC Discovery proposals were funded and it was successful in obtaining a large grant from the Systemic Infrastructure Initiative to upgrade the facilities at Siding Spring Observatory. A number of signi cant scienti c discoveries weremade during the period. Highlights included the discovery of young, nearby, stars which might host, and permit detailed study of, extrasolar planets a deeper understanding of conditions at the centre of our Galaxy the demonstration of the existence of stars in intergalactic space and important constraints on the large scale structure and acceleration of the Universe. The School hosted two international scienti c meetings. The rst was in honour of its Du eld Professor, Kenneth Freeman, on the occasion of his 60th birthday, while the second was \Planetary Nebulae: Their Evolution and Role in the Universe" { also known as Fourth Stromlo Symposium { held at the Australian Academy of Science.

2 RSAA Directorship
In January 2001, Prof. Jeremy Mould resigned as Director RSAA, to become Director of the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Arizona. He had served as Director RSAA for seven years, during whichMount Stromlo & Siding Spring Observatories became the ANU's ninth Research School. He strengthened RSAA's ties with ANU's Faculties and other Australian Universities, and fostered Australia's becoming a partner in the International Gemini consortium to establish twin 8 metre optical telescopes in Hawaii and Chile.
RSAA Annual Reports maybe found at http://msowww.anu.edu.au/astronomy/

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Prof. John Norris was appointed Interim Director of the School. Following an international search, the Directorship was o ered to Prof. PennySackett of the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, Rijksuniverseit Groningen, who accepted the position in February 2002. Prof. Sackett's areas of expertise include Galactic and extragalactic astronomy{from the searchfor extrasolar planets to the little-understood dark matter whichcomprises some 90% of individual galaxies. Prof. Sackett is expected to begin her Directorship in June 2002.

3 Ma jor Prizes, Honours, Awards
In March, the Institute of Scienti c Information (ISI) held its symposium \Honoring Excellence in Australian Research" at the Australian Academy of Science, during which it celebrated the achievementof the thirty-three scientists whose research had been the most in uential in Australian research during the period 1981-1998. Six of these \ISI Citation Laureates" were RSAA sta members { Prof. M.S. Bessell, Dr. M.M. Colless, Prof. M.A. Dopita, Prof. K.C. Freeman, Prof. J.R. Mould, and Dr. B.A. Peterson {a remarkable achievement for the School byanystandard.

Figure 1: RSAA's ISI citation laureates. From left to right: M.A. Dopita, K.C. Freeman, M.S. Bessel l, B.A. Peterson, M.M. Col less. (J.R. Mould could not be present for the photograph.) In September, Prof. Michael Dopita was awarded a Federation Fellowship for research into \The EpochofGalaxy Formation". The proposed researchensures Australian leadership in the theoretical modelling of interstellar plasmas at the epochofgalaxy formation. It will develop pan-spectral diagnostics, and apply these to observations to determine fundamental parameters of collapsing galaxies and their massiveBlack Holes.

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4 Signi cant Achievements in Research and Teaching
4.1 Research Highlights
4.1.1 The search for extra-solar planets
Bessell, with Zuckerman and Song (UCLA), discovered 22 young stars that are coeval and comoving with Beta Pictoris, the archetypal A star surrounded byaplanetary disk. These stars are the closest group of young stars to Earth and are obvious candidates to search for orbiting hot Saturn/Jupiter mass planets with the Hubble Space Telescope. They were found with a survey program conducted with the 2.3 metre telescope at Siding Spring Observatory.

4.1.2 Strong magnetic elds at the Galactic centre
Bicknell and Li proposed a fundamentally new model to explain one of \The Great Mysteries of the Galactic Center" { the existence of laments of nonthermal emission associated with magnetic elds that are about 300 times stronger than observed elsewhere in the Galaxy. Their model appeals to the energy released by reconnection in twisted magnetic ux tubes to accelerate electrons to relativistic energies. The explanation for the strong magnetic eld ( 400 Gin this case) is that it originates in the cores of molecular clouds in which the magnetic eld is anchored and that a strong self-con ning toroidal eld results from twisting by the rapidly rotating core. With a team of international collaborators, Freeman discovered that the space between the galaxies in the Virgo cluster is not empty, but inhabited byadi use population of stars. They found that these intracluster stars contribute at least 20% of the total lightofthe cluster. Where do these intracluster stars come from? Maybe they were torn from their parent galaxies by the tidal eld of the cluster. Maybe they formed much earlier, when the cluster itself was assembling in the early Universe. Each possibilityhas its signature, and the team is nowtesting to see whichiscorrect.

4.1.3 Stars between galaxies

4.1.4 Structure of the local Universe

The 2dF Galaxy Redshift Survey (Colless, Peterson, Jackson + 25 Australian and UK collaborators) has now mapped 200,000 galaxies in the largest-ever survey of the structure of the local Universe. This information has been used to determine fundamental cosmological parameters suchas the mass densityofthe Universe and to study the properties and formation history of the galaxy population. In June, the RSAA members of the collaboration produced the public release of the rst 100,000 redshifts from the survey. For further details, see http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/2dFGRS.

4.1.5 Accelerating Universe
Using data taken with the Hubble Space Telescope, Schmidt and colleagues havemeasured the distance to a supernova whichexploded more than 10 billion years ago. The ob ject, called SN 1997 , reveals the Universe at a time when gravity dominated the cosmos, and was causing the Universe to slow down. This slowing down is just as predicted bythe existence of a Dark Energy pervading all of space as indicated by the work done by Schmidt and colleagues in 1998. This work, named the Science Magazine's 1998 \Breakthrough of the Year", demonstrated that over the past 5 billion years, the Universe has been accelerating in its rate of expansion. See http://msowww.anu.edu.au/ brian for more details.

4.2 International Conferences

In 2001 RSAA organised twointernational conferences: The rst was entitled \The Dynamics, Structure and History of Galaxies" in celebration of RSAA's Du eld Professor Kenneth C. Freeman's 60th birthday. The meeting, whichwas held at Dunk Island, 3


was attended by 50 astronomers from around the world, including 16 of Ken's current and former graduate students, who presented papers in areas to which he has made a number of outstanding contributions. The meeting was organised byDr. Gary Da Costa. The second was the Fourth Stromlo Symposium (akaIAU Symposium 209) and was entitled \Planetary Nebulae: Their Evolution and Role in the Universe" and was held in the Shine Dome of the Australian Academy of Science, in November. Despite the events of September 11, out of 187 registrants the meeting had 156 attendees representing 28 countries. There were 45 talks and 173 poster papers on all aspects of planetary nebulae, whichprovide important insights into numerous important areas of astronomy. Prof. M.A. Dopita had overview of the organisation of the meeting.

5 New Grants

5.1 Ma jor National Research Facilities

RSAA was part of a successful consortium which was granted $23.5M for the pro ject \Gemini and SKA { Australia's AstronomyFuture". The speci c aims of the pro ject are to increase Australia's role in the International Gemini Partnership (twin 8 metre optical telescopes in Hawaii and Chile) from 5% to 10%, and to enhance Australia's existing radio-telescopes by demonstrating enabling technologies for the Square Kilometer Array.

5.2 Systemic Infrastructure Initiative

RSAA, in partnership with other Australian Universities, obtained funding of $5.6M to upgrade the facilities at ANU's Siding Spring Observatory. The pro ject will improve existing facilities, construct new instrumentation, and automate both ANU and UNSW telescopes to allow them to be operated remotely. The aim is to provide telescope control centres to participating universities to expand their access to these facilities, enhance their studenttraining, and optimise their research outcomes.

5.3 ARC Discovery & Linkage Grants
Discovery: Pro jects Discovery: Pro jects Discovery: Pro jects Linkage: Infrastructure Linkage: Infrastructure Linkage: Infrastructure Linkage: International RSAA not administering M.M. Colless M.A. Dopita &R.Sutherland B.P Schmidt

RSAA, ANU G.V. Bicknell B.P. Schmidt M.S. Bessell institution.

The 6dF Galaxy Survey $279k Interstellar Physics at the $300k EpochofGalaxy Formation Taking Measure of the Universe $232k with Exploding Stars Australian Membership of Gemini Partnership $1602k CANGAROO III Gamma-ray Telescope $220k ARenewed Great Melbourne Telescope $210k Discovering the First Generation of Stars $70k

6 Budget Performance
In 2001, the School received a block grant of $5507k, external funds of $2405k, and income from ancillary activities of $988k. At the end of 2000, RSAA had carried forward a recurrentde citof $244k, while at the end of 2001 there was a recurrent surplus of $251k. RSAA operates three business units: MountStromlo Visitors' Centre, SSO Lodge & Visitors' Centre, and MountStromlo Housing. Atthe end of 2001, all returned small operating surpluses. (The Stromlo and SSO Visitors' Centres were visited by some 26,000 and 12,000 people, respectively.) 4


7 Gender Equity Performance
In 2001, nine of the School's 21 graduate students were female { a relativedoubling over the situation ve years ago. Women represent some 24% of the general sta { relatively unchanged over recent years. Only one of RSAA's 21 academic sta is female { a decrease of one from 2000. In December 2001, the Directorship of RSAA was o ered to Prof. PennySackett (see Section 1), who accepted the position in February 2002.

8 Student Numbers
The Graduate Program in Astronomy & Astrophysics currently comprises 21 students. In 2001, seven students entered the program: Scott Edwards, Craig Harrison and Matthew Coleman accepted APA/GSS scholarships Laura Stanford, Bradley Warren and David Weldrake accepted ANU Scholarships and Alexey Avakyan accepted a VC's tuition scholarship and an ANU scholarship. For 2002, seven o ers of scholarship have been made. RSAA runs a yearly Summer ResearchScholar Program. During the summer of 1999-2000 the program was convened by Dr. Carol Jackson and Dr. Peter Wood: six undergraduates from Australian Universities participated for about eight weeks, working on pro jects supervised by RSAA sta . The 2001-02 program is being convened by Dr. Agris Kalna js with seven scholars taking part. The program provides a regular source of incoming graduate students.

9 Future Directions
2001 has been an interim period for the School, during whichitconsolidated its Cosmology initiative (funded by the Institute Planning Committee in 2000), with the arrival of Dr Simon Driver. In the short term, the School is committed to upgrading the facilities at SSO as part of its success in the Systemic Infrastructure Initiative, and individual research programs are being submitted for funding bythe ARC. Future directions will be shaped under the Directorship of Prof. Sackett.

10 Compliance with ANU Environmental Policy
RSAA works closely with ANU Facilities & Services in managing its sites at Mount Stromlo and SSO to ensure compliance with the ANU policy. In 2001, work was completed on upgrading septic waste systems at SSO costing in excess of $0.5M. This pro ject was undertaken in consultation with the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Parks & Wildlife Service. RSAA operates its own water treatment plant at SSO which produces high quality water for consumption by sta and visitors. At MSO, we regard land management as a high priority and liaise regularly with F & S, ActewAGL and ACT Forestry in maintaining the site. Recycling practices were implemented at both sites in 2001 acting on recommendations submitted byF &S.

11 Achievements against ANU's Strategic Directions Implementation Plan
Achievements are listed against (numbered) items in the University's Plan.

1. Enhance our international reputation and develop our international roles

RSAA is committed to enhancing ANU's and Australia's role in international astronomy. It plays a critical role in the Australian consortium of universities which support Australia's membership of the international Gemini pro ject (twin 8 metre optical telescopes in Hawaii and Chile). Currently, Australia has a 5% share of the pro ject. In 2001, RSAA participated in the successful MNRF bid \Gemini & the SKA { Australia's Astronomy Future" (see Section 5.1), which sought to increase 5


Australia's Gemini share to 10%. ANU and Faulkes Telescope Ltd. have agreed to locate Faulkes Telescope South (FTS) at SSO. The telescope, with a 2 metre primary mirror, is valued at some $9.5M, and will complementa similar instrument(Faulkes Telescope North) in Hawaii. It will be equipped with a state-of-the-art imaging system. The telescopes are the core of an educational program of UK businessman Dr. Martin Faulkes to bring astronomyinto schools in the UK, USA and Australia. 15% of the time on FTS will be available for use bythe School, and RSAA and Swinburne UniversityofTechnology have developed an agreement to use the time for educational purposes in Australian schools and outreach centres. Siding Spring Observatory is a national facility owned by the ANU and operated by RSAA. It represents Australia's ma jor on-shore optical observatory,and is available for use byall Australian astronomers and their students in open competition, based on scienti c merit. International astronomers also haveaccess to the facility, principally through collaboration involving Australian astronomers. In 2001, RSAA was successful in obtaining a grantof$5.6M to upgrade the facilities of the observatory (see Section 5.2). RSAA participated in the Mid-Term Review of the decadal plan \Australian Astronomy: Beyond 2000". The review, entitled \Beyond 2000: The WayAhead", was prepared under the auspices of the Australian AcademyofScience, and published bythe Australian ResearchCouncil. In keeping with the Mid-Term Review, RSAA is playing a ma jor role in de ning the Australian National Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics, a virtual network comprising eightAustralian groups, to enhance the nation's program of theoretical/computational astrophysics.

2. Identify our national roles

3. Improve the educational experience of our students

RSAA encourages its students to attends meetings and courses outside the ANU to broaden their experience. In 2001 our students attended six Australian workshops/ winter school/ scienti c meetings in Melbourne, Lorne, Narrabri, Sydney and Dunk Island. Lisa Kewley,Marc Metchnik and Paul Price travelled overseas to attend meetings and work on their theses with international astronomers.

9. Compliance with ANU environmental policy
See Section 10.

RSAA's instrumentation program enhances its ability not only to construct innovative astronomical instruments but also to diversify the School's funding base. Construction of the $4.5M Gemini instrument\Near-Infrared Integral Field Spectrograph" is scheduled for completion early in 2003. In 2001, RSAA was successful, under the leadership of Dr. Peter McGregor, in winning a contract for a conceptual design study for a further instrument\Gemini-South AdaptiveOptics Imager".

12. Diversify funding base

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