Sky survey provides clues to how they change over time.

The direction in which a galaxy spins depends on its mass, researchers have found.

A team of astrophysicists analysed 1418 galaxies and found that small ones are likely to spin on a different axis to large ones. The rotation was measured in relation to each galaxy’s closest “cosmic filament” – the largest structures in the universe.

Filaments are massive thread-like formations, comprising huge amounts of matter – including galaxies, gas and, modelling implies, dark matter. They can be 500 million light years long but just 20 million light years wide. At their largest scale, the filaments divide the universe into a vast gravitationally linked lattice interspersed with enormous dark matter voids.

Australian-led astronomers find the most iron-poor star in the Galaxy, hinting at the nature of the first stars in the Universe.

A newly discovered ancient star containing a record-low amount of iron carries evidence of a class of even older stars, long hypothesised but assumed to have vanished.

In a paper published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, researchers led by Dr Thomas Nordlander of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) confirm the existence of an ultra-metal-poor red giant star, located in the halo of the Milky Way, on the other side of the Galaxy about 35,000 light-years from Earth.

In a quest to learn more about our own galaxy, a Sydney astronomer has identified dozens of previously unknown galaxies in a distant cluster.

Using one of the world’s largest optical telescopes, Dr Amanda Bauer—an ARC Super Science Fellow at the Australian Astronomical Observatory—and her team around the world have been studying this cluster closely. They have found that the galaxies close together in the crowded centre of the cluster mature faster than those in isolation on the cluster’s outskirts.

“We are trying to find out why galaxies stop growing and mature, because this will tell us something about the ultimate fate of our own galaxy, the Milky Way,” Amanda says.

A galaxy grows when it is forming new stars. Amanda is trying to find out what stops galaxies from doing this, therefore reaching maturity. [continue reading…]

Welcome to my bulletin covering physics news and events for August 2012 and beyond: National Science Week is here again and the AIP is bringing the science of invisibility, solar cars and optics to Queensland; and in Sydney we’re exploring the strange world of quantum physics in the 2012 Einstein Lecture. There also other physics-themed […]

Wombat combat, the science of ageing live on stage and more.

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Public help sought in state-wide hunt for meteorites, the science behind cooking the perfect steak, whoopee cushion as educational tool and more.

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Welcome to my bulletin covering physics news and events for May 2012 and beyond. It’s a bumper month for nuclear physics: in Sydney, ANSTO is opening its doors for a tour of its particle accelerators and a talk by Vincent Smith from CERN. There’s also a public lecture in Tasmania April 30 by ANU physicist […]

From Marc Duldig, President of the Australian Institute of Physics Around the country in April you can hear about solar radiation and Antarctic sea ice in Hobart; exploring space with the head of NASA in Canberra; the sub-atomic world on the edge of th…

Welcome to my bulletin for people around the country with an interest in physics. In March, I’ll be presenting Ben Eggleton with the 2011 AIP Boas Medal in Melbourne and he’ll talk about his linear photonic circuits research. You can also also explore quantum electronic transport in Sydney, hear about space biology in Melbourne, string […]