Astrophysics at St.Andrews
Lead Research Organisation:
University of St Andrews
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Our Galaxy contains many fossils of its formation history. Smaller galaxies that collided with the Milky Way long ago formed streams of stars that still linger as fossils of the Galaxy's formation, orbiting in the gravitational field of the Galaxy's primordial dark-matter halo. From 2011 the GAIA mission will map the positions and motions of these streams. We will develop new techniques to use data from GAIA to map the dark matter, and to test whether conventional theories of gravity work as expected at large distances. Clusters of new stars and planetary systems are constantly forming inside the dark clouds of gas and dust that delineate the Milky Way's spiral arms. In the biggest clusters, stars form that are up to 100 times as massive as the Sun. These massive stars burn so brightly that they are clearly visible in neighbouring galaxies. Many of them are binary stars. Our measurements of their mutual eclipses and spectra will reveal their sizes and temperatures, and hence the distances to the nearest galaxies. We do not yet understand how these massive stars form, or why so many of them are binaries. We will simulate how the most massive and hottest stars manage to form despite the tendency of their radiation fields to blow away the gas that feeds them. We also aim to find out how their winds, and the shock waves from the supernova explosions that eventually blow them apart, affect neighbouring gas clouds, perhaps triggering new bursts of star formation. The dark clouds where stars form contain needle-like dust grains that line up with the Galaxy's magnetic fields and polarize radiation passing through them. We will measure the polarization of infrared and mm-wave radiation coming from regions where cloud material is just beginning to form new stars, to discover what is happening to the magnetic field and to the grains themselves as the star condenses. Newly-born stars are surrounded by flat, rotating discs of gas and dust, which persist for two or three million years. As planets form in the disc material, some gas continues to feed the growing star, which at this stage possesses a strong magnetic field. We can now map these stars' magnetic fields using new instruments. We will use these maps to predict how the magnetic field acts to channel material into streams, and how the field structure regulates the flow rate on to the star and the star's spin. We will seek out rapidly rotating young stars near the Sun, in remnants of star clusters that formed up to 50 million years ago but fell apart. By this age the discs have gone, but an enigmatic fossil remnant of earlier processes lingers in their spin rates. Among otherwise identical stars in the same cluster, some spin much faster than others. We want to know if this difference in spin rate is a clue as to how many stars possess planetary systems, or if the difference originates in some peculiarity of the stars' magnetic fields. We will map the magnetic fields of the fast rotators and their more slowly-rotating siblings, to see if there is a difference in the rate at which hot gas flowing out along the field lines can carry away the star's spin. Finally, we will seek out planetary systems around nearby and distant stars. We are working with astronomers at several other institutions to monitor the brightnesses of hundreds of thousands of nearby stars, in order to pick out tiny dips in light caused by close-orbiting Jupiter-sized planets passing in front of their parent stars. We aim to discover dozens of such planets, and to measure their sizes, masses and temperatures. We will also search for planets further from their stars, by monitoring distant stars whose light is being temporarily magnified by the gravitational field of a foreground star. Distortions in the resulting light variation have already revealed Jupiter-mass planets around a couple of these foreground stars. We aim to find many more using a network of new robotic telescopes.
Organisations
Publications
Christian D
(2006)
The WASP project in the era of robotic telescope networks
in Astronomische Nachrichten
Tsapras Y
(2009)
RoboNet-II: Follow-up observations of microlensing events with a robotic network of telescopes
in Astronomische Nachrichten
Holzwarth V
(2007)
Formation of polar starspots through meridional circulation
in Astronomische Nachrichten
Dominik M
(2008)
ARTEMiS (Automated Robotic Terrestrial Exoplanet Microlensing Search): A possible expert-system based cooperative effort to hunt for planets of Earth mass and below
in Astronomische Nachrichten
Collier Cameron A
(2007)
Differential rotation on rapidly rotating stars
in Astronomische Nachrichten
Deleuil M
(2008)
Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission VI. CoRoT-Exo-3b: the first secure inhabitant of the brown-dwarf desert
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Barros S
(2016)
WASP-113b and WASP-114b, two inflated hot Jupiters with contrasting densities
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Bentley S
(2009)
The masses and radii of HD 186753B and TYC7096-222-1B: the discovery of two M-dwarfs that eclipse A-type stars
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Calchi Novati S
(2007)
Probing MACHOs by observation of M 31 pixel lensing with the 1.5 m Loiano telescope
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Faria J
(2016)
Uncovering the planets and stellar activity of CoRoT-7 using only radial velocities
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Tiret O
(2007)
Velocity dispersion around ellipticals in MOND
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Motalebi F
(2015)
The HARPS-N Rocky Planet Search I. HD 219134 b: A transiting rocky planet in a multi-planet system at 6.5 pc from the Sun ?
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lam K
(2017)
From dense hot Jupiter to low-density Neptune: The discovery of WASP-127b, WASP-136b, and WASP-138b
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Holzwarth V
(2006)
Theoretical mass loss rates of cool main-sequence stars
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Neveu-VanMalle M
(2014)
WASP-94 A and B planets: hot-Jupiter cousins in a twin-star system
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
West R
(2009)
The sub-Jupiter mass transiting exoplanet WASP-11b
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Aigrain S
(2008)
Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission IV. CoRoT-Exo-4b: a transiting planet in a 9.2 day synchronous orbit
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Dumusque X
(2017)
Radial-velocity fitting challenge II. First results of the analysis of the data set?
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Mortier A
(2016)
The HARPS search for southern extra-solar planets XXXIX. HD 175607, the most metal-poor G dwarf with an orbiting sub-Neptune
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lazorenko P
(2009)
Precision multi-epoch astrometry with VLT cameras FORS1/2
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Norton A
(2007)
New periodic variable stars coincident with ROSAT sources discovered using SuperWASP
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Díaz R
(2016)
The HARPS search for southern extra-solar planets XXXVIII. Bayesian re-analysis of three systems. New super-Earths, unconfirmed signals, and magnetic cycles ???
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Bonomo A
(2014)
Characterization of the planetary system Kepler-101 with HARPS-N A hot super-Neptune with an Earth-sized low-mass companion
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lazorenko P
(2007)
High-precision astrometry on the VLT/FORS1 at time scales of few days
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lanza A
(2009)
Photospheric activity and rotation of the planet-hosting star CoRoT-4a
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Description | Not applicable this year |
Exploitation Route | Not applicable this year |
Sectors | Education |