observatories

Bringing undiscovered Earths into focus

How many of the planets scattered across the Universe have the potential to harbour life? An observatory being built in Tasmania is poised to help answer just that question. Astronomers at the University of Tasmania (UTas) currently use the Mount Canopus Observatory in Hobart to search for Earth-like planets orbiting distant suns—but the growing city [...]

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Starquakes reveal family secrets

Stars forming in clusters from a single galactic dust cloud are not as similar to one another as previously thought, according to an international team of astronomers who analysed ‘starquakes’ from just three months of data from NASA’s Kepler space telescope. And there is at least another four years’ data to come. “In the past, [...]

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Mount Stromlo Observatory rising from the ashes

The Mount Stromlo Observatory of the Australian National University (ANU) is rising from the ashes of Canberra’s 2003 bushfires, after an investment of millions of dollars into cutting-edge technologies and facilities. The Mount Stromlo site—home to the ANU’s Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics (RSAA)—no longer acts as a research observatory, but rather as a [...]

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From mapping a continent to surveying the Universe

Australia’s first observatory was built on the shores of Sydney Harbour by Lieutenant William Dawes of the First Fleet, on the point where the southern pylon of the Sydney Harbour Bridge now stands. Optical astronomy was essential for maritime navigation, and for providing precise location measurements for surveying the new continent. The country’s first major [...]

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Ten times more galaxies

A new “super survey” is producing the largest database of galaxy measurements, spanning the last five billion years of cosmic history.

The international GAMA (Galaxy and Mass Assembly) project is combining data from ground- and space-based observatories to measure the dark matter “haloes” that surround galaxies. Dark matter, its nature still unknown, makes up 24% per cent of the universe.

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