Snap-chatting with the universe

Astronomy is undergoing a revolution. New surveys are regularly scanning the sky and create movies rather than static images of the sky. This allows us to capture how stars explode or how black holes accrete mass over time with for large samples of objects.
In Southampton, we are leading VEILS and VOILETTE, infrared and optical time-domain surveys with goals that range from discovering and characterising distant supernovae to mapping the variations in the growth process of supermassive black holes in the centre of galaxies. These variations will be used to reveal the physics at play that lead to the most energetic radiation output in the universe. In addition, we can measure time lags between variations in the optical and infrared and constrain the equation-of-state of the elusive dark energy that fills about 70% of the universe.
As a student on this project, you will take a leading role in the VOILETTE survey. You will be working on the discovery of new transient objects and the identification, classification, and interpretation of variable supermassive black holes. This will involve a large range of skills from data reduction of a large stream of data, machine learning techniques to identify variable sources, to developing physical models to interpret the data.