Supermassive black hole growth - a small-scale solution to a large-scale problem
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Southampton
Department Name: Sch of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
In the centre of almost every galaxy sits a dark object, with a mass over a million times that of the Sun. Although massive, these objects have been compressed by their own gravity to extremely high densities, so dense in-fact that light cannot escape their surface; these are the supermassive black holes (SMBHs). How these exotic objects formed is one of the outstanding mysteries facing astronomers and one I find particularly intriguing.
By looking to great distances we are able to glimpse what happened in the first few billion years of the Universe's life. Although very difficult to perform studies at these distances, a few SMBHs can be 'weighed'. Surprisingly this has shown that they were fully-grown when the Universe was only ~1 billion years old. Although scientists thought that growth should take a long time, this discovery demands that they instead grew incredibly quickly by material falling onto the black hole at extreme rates - faster than should be allowed by the balance of radiation and gravity, the so-called Eddington limit. How accretion operates at such rates is unclear but is a pressing issue in astrophysics - an issue I aim to address.
Although we cannot study the SMBHs growing directly, we can observe how material falls onto SMBHs in nearby galaxies and onto much smaller black holes (with orbiting stars in binary systems: BHBs) within our own Galaxy. As a result, we know that material doesn't fall directly onto the black hole but forms an accretion disc, which emits large amounts of radiation. At very high rates, not all of the material falls onto the black hole; instead some fraction is expelled in 'winds' or 'jets'. Winds carry material from the surface of the disc at fairly 'slow' speeds (~10% of the speed of light) whereas jets are much more powerful ejections of matter from close to the black hole at almost the speed of light. It is logical that similar outflows will have accompanied the SMBH growth, with matter taken from the accretion flow and redistributed to the surroundings - a form of 'feedback'.
Understanding the nature of Eddington accretion and the associated outflows is necessary for understanding the growth of SMBHs and the impact feedback must have had on the host galaxy. In practice this requires observing how the accretion flow changes as it reaches the Eddington limit and couples to the outflow, i.e. how they interact. In practice this has proven to be extremely difficult: emission from the accretion flow onto both SMBHs in nearby galaxies and onto Galactic BHBs is obscured by intervening material, preventing a view of the coupling. My proposal approaches this problem in a new way: by looking at BHBs accreting at high rates in nearby galaxies where the amount of intervening material is much lower, allowing the emission from the inflow to be studied. These extragalactic BHBs come in two 'flavours': those which are commonly seen in the Milky Way and show powerful jets, and those which are even brighter and thought to be a more extreme form of Eddington accretion with powerful winds.
I am leading the first major search for new BHBs with powerful jets in two nearby galaxies. By observing with several instruments across a range of wavelengths, including the world's foremost radio telescope, the VLA, and NASA's X-ray satellite, Swift, I will observe how the disc and jets change together, thereby constraining both the nature of the inflow and how the jets are launched. In order to understand the brightest sources with powerful winds, I will combine novel analysis techniques with theory to reveal the nature of both inflow and outflow. By studying accretion onto SMBHs in the local Universe, I will extrapolate my findings to larger black hole masses where the coupling of inflow and outflow cannot be studied. Finally, by using simulations of high redshift SMBH growth I will be able to explore the impact of feedback on the host galaxies, in an epoch otherwise hidden from view.
By looking to great distances we are able to glimpse what happened in the first few billion years of the Universe's life. Although very difficult to perform studies at these distances, a few SMBHs can be 'weighed'. Surprisingly this has shown that they were fully-grown when the Universe was only ~1 billion years old. Although scientists thought that growth should take a long time, this discovery demands that they instead grew incredibly quickly by material falling onto the black hole at extreme rates - faster than should be allowed by the balance of radiation and gravity, the so-called Eddington limit. How accretion operates at such rates is unclear but is a pressing issue in astrophysics - an issue I aim to address.
Although we cannot study the SMBHs growing directly, we can observe how material falls onto SMBHs in nearby galaxies and onto much smaller black holes (with orbiting stars in binary systems: BHBs) within our own Galaxy. As a result, we know that material doesn't fall directly onto the black hole but forms an accretion disc, which emits large amounts of radiation. At very high rates, not all of the material falls onto the black hole; instead some fraction is expelled in 'winds' or 'jets'. Winds carry material from the surface of the disc at fairly 'slow' speeds (~10% of the speed of light) whereas jets are much more powerful ejections of matter from close to the black hole at almost the speed of light. It is logical that similar outflows will have accompanied the SMBH growth, with matter taken from the accretion flow and redistributed to the surroundings - a form of 'feedback'.
Understanding the nature of Eddington accretion and the associated outflows is necessary for understanding the growth of SMBHs and the impact feedback must have had on the host galaxy. In practice this requires observing how the accretion flow changes as it reaches the Eddington limit and couples to the outflow, i.e. how they interact. In practice this has proven to be extremely difficult: emission from the accretion flow onto both SMBHs in nearby galaxies and onto Galactic BHBs is obscured by intervening material, preventing a view of the coupling. My proposal approaches this problem in a new way: by looking at BHBs accreting at high rates in nearby galaxies where the amount of intervening material is much lower, allowing the emission from the inflow to be studied. These extragalactic BHBs come in two 'flavours': those which are commonly seen in the Milky Way and show powerful jets, and those which are even brighter and thought to be a more extreme form of Eddington accretion with powerful winds.
I am leading the first major search for new BHBs with powerful jets in two nearby galaxies. By observing with several instruments across a range of wavelengths, including the world's foremost radio telescope, the VLA, and NASA's X-ray satellite, Swift, I will observe how the disc and jets change together, thereby constraining both the nature of the inflow and how the jets are launched. In order to understand the brightest sources with powerful winds, I will combine novel analysis techniques with theory to reveal the nature of both inflow and outflow. By studying accretion onto SMBHs in the local Universe, I will extrapolate my findings to larger black hole masses where the coupling of inflow and outflow cannot be studied. Finally, by using simulations of high redshift SMBH growth I will be able to explore the impact of feedback on the host galaxies, in an epoch otherwise hidden from view.
Organisations
- University of Southampton (Fellow, Lead Research Organisation)
- UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD (Collaboration)
- Max Planck Society (Collaboration)
- University of Geneva (Collaboration)
- California Institute of Technology (Collaboration)
- University of Virginia (UVa) (Collaboration)
- Kavli Institute For Theoretical Physics (Collaboration)
- Texas Tech University (Collaboration)
- College of Charleston (Collaboration)
- University of Amsterdam (Collaboration)
- University of Warsaw (Collaboration)
People |
ORCID iD |
Matthew Middleton (Principal Investigator / Fellow) |
Publications
Alston W
(2019)
The remarkable X-ray variability of IRAS 13224-3809 - I. The variability process
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Alston W
(2020)
A dynamic black hole corona in an active galaxy through X-ray reverberation mapping
in Nature Astronomy
Alston W
(2021)
Quasi-periodic dipping in the ultraluminous X-ray source, NGC 247 ULX-1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Alston William
(2019)
The deepest look at the accretion process with a 2 mega-second observation of a highly variable active galaxy
in AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division
Alston William
(2019)
The deepest look at the accretion process with a 2 megasecond observation of a highly variable active galaxy
in AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division
Alston William N.
(2020)
A dynamic black hole corona in an active galaxy through X-ray reverberation mapping
in Nature Astronomy
Anderson G
(2019)
Discovery of a radio transient in M81
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ashton D
(2021)
Searching for energy-resolved quasi-periodic oscillations in AGN
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bachetti M
(2020)
All at Once: Transient Pulsations, Spin-down, and a Glitch from the Pulsating Ultraluminous X-Ray Source M82 X-2
in The Astrophysical Journal
Bachetti Matteo
(2019)
All at once: transient pulsations, spin down and a glitch from the Pulsating Ultraluminous X-ray Source M82 X-2
in arXiv e-prints
Beri A
(2021)
AstroSat observations of the first Galactic ULX pulsar Swift J0243.6+6124
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Beri Aru
(2018)
Super-Eddington X-ray pulsar Swift J0243.6+6124 as seen with AstroSat
in 42nd COSPAR Scientific Assembly
Beri Aru
(2018)
X-ray Observations of Two Very Faint X-ray Transients (VFXTs) during their outbursts
in 42nd COSPAR Scientific Assembly
Brightman M
(2016)
A BROADBAND X-RAY SPECTRAL STUDY OF THE INTERMEDIATE-MASS BLACK HOLE CANDIDATE M82 X-1 WITH NuSTAR, CHANDRA, AND SWIFT
in The Astrophysical Journal
Brightman M
(2018)
Magnetic field strength of a neutron-star-powered ultraluminous X-ray source
in Nature Astronomy
Brightman Murray
(2019)
Breaking the limit: Super-Eddington accretion onto black holes and neutron stars
in Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society
Brightman Murray
(2019)
Magnetic field strength of a neutron-star-powered ultraluminous X-ray source
in AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division
Brightman Murray
(2018)
Magnetic field strength of a neutron-star-powered ultraluminous X-ray source
in 42nd COSPAR Scientific Assembly
Buisson D
(2018)
Is there a UV/X-ray connection in IRAS 13224-3809?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cardoso V
(2018)
Constraining the mass of dark photons and axion-like particles through black-hole superradiance
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Cardoso Vitor
(2018)
Constraining the mass of dark photons and axion-like particles through black-hole superradiance
in ArXiv e-prints
Castro A
(2019)
OPTICAM: A TRIPLE-CAMERA OPTICAL SYSTEM DESIGNED TO EXPLORE THE FASTEST TIMESCALES IN ASTRONOMY
in Revista Mexicana de Astronomía y Astrofísica
D'Aì A
(2021)
The Chameleon on the branches: spectral state transition and dips in NGC 247 ULX-1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dauser T
(2017)
Modelling the light curves of ultraluminous X-ray sources as precession
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Earnshaw H
(2020)
The (Re)appearance of NGC 925 ULX-3, a New Transient ULX
in The Astrophysical Journal
Earnshaw H
(2019)
A new, clean catalogue of extragalactic non-nuclear X-ray sources in nearby galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Earnshaw H. P.
(2019)
VizieR Online Data Catalog: Non-nuclear X-ray sources in nearby galaxies (Earnshaw+, 2019)
in VizieR Online Data Catalog
Earnshaw H. P.
(2020)
Monitoring the extreme long-term variability of NGC 925 ULX-3
in American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #235
Earnshaw Hannah
(2018)
A new, clean catalogue of ULXs in nearby galaxies
in 42nd COSPAR Scientific Assembly
Earnshaw Hannah P.
(2020)
The (re)appearance of NGC 925 ULX-3, a new transient ULX
in arXiv e-prints
Fabian A. C.
(2020)
Blueshifted absorption lines from X-ray reflection in IRAS 13224-3809
in arXiv e-prints
Fuerst Felix
(2019)
Understanding the orbital period and accretion torque in the ultra-luminous X-ray pulsar NGC 7793 P13
in AAS/High Energy Astrophysics Division
Fürst F
(2018)
A tale of two periods: determination of the orbital ephemeris of the super-Eddington pulsar NGC 7793 P13
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Fürst F
(2021)
Long-term pulse period evolution of the ultra-luminous X-ray pulsar NGC 7793 P13
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Fürst F
(2016)
DISCOVERY OF COHERENT PULSATIONS FROM THE ULTRALUMINOUS X-RAY SOURCE NGC 7793 P13
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Henze M.
(2016)
M31N 2016-08d is a luminous nova candidate in M31 with Swift/UVOT detections
in The Astronomer's Telegram
Ingram A
(2017)
Tomographic reflection modelling of quasi-periodic oscillations in the black hole binary H 1743-322
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ingram A
(2016)
A quasi-periodic modulation of the iron line centroid energy in the black hole binary H1743-322
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ingram Adam
(2016)
Tomographic reflection modelling of quasi-periodic oscillations in the black hole binary H 1743-322
in arXiv e-prints
Kara E
(2020)
Discovery of a soft X-ray lag in the ultraluminous X-ray source NGC 1313 X-1
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Knight A
(2022)
Eclipse mapping of EXO 0748-676: evidence for a massive neutron star
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Krishnan S
(2021)
Detection of periodic signals in AGN red noise light curves: empirical tests on the Auto-Correlation Function and Phase Dispersion Minimization
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Madsen Kristin
(2019)
HEX-P: The High-Energy X-ray Probe
in Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society
Middleton M
(2018)
Lense-Thirring precession in ULXs as a possible means to constrain the neutron star equation of state
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Middleton M
(2022)
Thermally driven winds in ultraluminous X-ray sources
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Middleton M
(2019)
The Lense-Thirring timing-accretion plane for ULXs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Middleton M
(2017)
Paving the way to simultaneous multi-wavelength astronomy
in New Astronomy Reviews
Middleton M
(2017)
Erratum: Predicting ULX demographics from geometrical beaming
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters
Middleton M
(2021)
NuSTAR reveals the hidden nature of SS433
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Middleton M
(2019)
On the magnetic field in M51 ULX-8
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Description | The presence of winds being driven from material falling onto the gravitationally compact object in ULXs (either a black hole or a neutron star) - this is a vital step forwards in understanding super-Eddington accretion and has created a new sub-field of study. In 2014, the field changed dramatically and the objectives of this project evolved as a result - much of the work focussed on isolating signatures of black holes in ULXs for testing accretion models and to accomplish the aims of the grant. I have pioneered new methods using the effects of general relativity in accretion flows. |
Exploitation Route | The work done has led to numerous new projects and follow on funding, |
Sectors | Other |
Description | RAS Council |
Geographic Reach | National |
Policy Influence Type | Membership of a guideline committee |
Description | Binary population synthesis |
Organisation | University of Warsaw |
Country | Poland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | A key component of the ERF project is the connection of ULX physics to the high redshift Universe. My collaboration with Dr Chris Belzynski and Dr Grzegorz Wiktorowicz is bearing fruit and the completed simulations are expected to place limits in the ionizing flux by ULXs as a function of redshift - potentially important to the nature of local environments and contribution to re-ionisation (should their number be significant) |
Collaborator Contribution | Dr Chris Belzynski and Dr Grzegorz Wiktorowicz have written and executed the code, I am using the meta products. |
Impact | The first paper has now been accepted and several further papers are in preparation. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | EC status renewal |
Organisation | Max Planck Society |
Department | Max Planck Institute for Astronomy |
Country | Germany |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I am an external collaborator in the eROSITA mission, renewed for 2020. I am leading a number of key ULX projects. Renewal is now being applied for |
Collaborator Contribution | N/A |
Impact | No outputs yet |
Start Year | 2018 |
Description | Modelling of ULX nebulae |
Organisation | University of Amsterdam |
Country | Netherlands |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I have entered into a new collaboration with Prof Sera Markoff and Dr Tobias Beuchart at the University of Amsterdam where we will be taking the 3D kinetic and radiative energy output from simulations (see previous mention of my award of HPC time) to compare to observations of nebulae surrounding ULXs to determine whether additional physical components are required. A paper is in prep and will soon be submitted. |
Collaborator Contribution | Prof Sera Markoff and Dr Tobias Beuchart are using bespoke codes to determine the energy deposition by winds (which take as input the simulations I am coordinating with Dr Jan-Fei Jiang, Prof Shane Davis and Prof Jim Stone). |
Impact | The first paper from this collaboration is now in preparation. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | NuSTAR |
Organisation | California Institute of Technology |
Department | Caltech Astronomy |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I am an ongoing member of the ULX and binaries NuSTAR working groups. Whilst the core science period has ended, the collaboration is highly successful and remains productive (see the many papers based on NuSTAR data). Notably a new paper (of which I am co-author) from the ULX collaboration is about to be published in Nature Astronomy with an associated press release. I continue to lead multiple NuSTAR projects connected to the ERF project and these are close to journal submission. |
Collaborator Contribution | My partners are the members of the NuSTAR science teams. |
Impact | I am co-author on several papers as a consequence of my NuSTAR team membership (see portfolio) with the results from the large campaign on SS433 (for which I was PI) now submitted. |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | SMARTNet |
Organisation | University of Geneva |
Country | Switzerland |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | In 2015 I chaired an international meeting of directors and key scientists at the Lorentz Centre, NL. The result of this meeting is a review/white paper of which I am first author (New Astronomy Reviews) which has now been published. Our associated network entitled "SMARTNet" has now gone live (http://www.isdc.unige.ch/SmartNet/) and is being used to coordinate observations of new transients at multiple wavelengths. |
Collaborator Contribution | My partners are the members of SMARTNet. |
Impact | The community white paper has now been published |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | STROBE-X |
Organisation | Texas Tech University |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I am a collaboration member for the new proposed NASA (probe class) satellite mission, STROBE-X and am performing investigative work to establish its potential to study ULXs and better probe the physics of such accretion flows. |
Collaborator Contribution | The proposed mission is being led by one of my collaborators, Prof Tom Macaroni |
Impact | The mission planning is in its early stages but a white paper should be published in the next year |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | Theoretical modelling of ULXs |
Organisation | College of Charleston |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I continue to explore the theoretical aspects underpinning the ERF project and by virtue of an award of DiRAC time I have cemented my collaboration with Drs Yan-Fei, Shane Davis and Jim Stone. We are in the process of applying for additional HPC time with which we will explore the parameter space for the large scale-height accretion flow in ULXs (and AGN at super-Eddington accretion rates), needed to create models for comparison to current and next-generation data. |
Collaborator Contribution | My partners are world-leading, US based theorists who have developed advanced numerical codes for describing accretion flows. |
Impact | We have one paper submitted and more to follow. We await the outcome of the latest DiRAC round after which we hope to perform further simulations. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Theoretical modelling of ULXs |
Organisation | Kavli Institute For Theoretical Physics |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I continue to explore the theoretical aspects underpinning the ERF project and by virtue of an award of DiRAC time I have cemented my collaboration with Drs Yan-Fei, Shane Davis and Jim Stone. We are in the process of applying for additional HPC time with which we will explore the parameter space for the large scale-height accretion flow in ULXs (and AGN at super-Eddington accretion rates), needed to create models for comparison to current and next-generation data. |
Collaborator Contribution | My partners are world-leading, US based theorists who have developed advanced numerical codes for describing accretion flows. |
Impact | We have one paper submitted and more to follow. We await the outcome of the latest DiRAC round after which we hope to perform further simulations. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | Theoretical modelling of ULXs |
Organisation | University of Virginia (UVa) |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I continue to explore the theoretical aspects underpinning the ERF project and by virtue of an award of DiRAC time I have cemented my collaboration with Drs Yan-Fei, Shane Davis and Jim Stone. We are in the process of applying for additional HPC time with which we will explore the parameter space for the large scale-height accretion flow in ULXs (and AGN at super-Eddington accretion rates), needed to create models for comparison to current and next-generation data. |
Collaborator Contribution | My partners are world-leading, US based theorists who have developed advanced numerical codes for describing accretion flows. |
Impact | We have one paper submitted and more to follow. We await the outcome of the latest DiRAC round after which we hope to perform further simulations. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | ULX radio monitoring |
Organisation | University of Oxford |
Department | Department of Physics |
Country | United Kingdom |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I am leading the coordination of several radio campaigns to study ULXs. Observations are being made by AMI-LA, VLA and eMERLIN, and we have submitted a proposal to use MeerKAT with a view to submitting a request for an SKA program. A new campaign is starting in March coordinated between XMM-Newton and VLA of which I am the PI. |
Collaborator Contribution | I have written most of the proposals requesting time on the instruments. |
Impact | We are in the process of writing a high-impact paper that also utilises data from NASA's NICER mission. |
Start Year | 2018 |
Description | eROSITA |
Organisation | Max Planck Society |
Department | Max Planck Institute For Extraterrestrial Physics (MPE) |
Country | Germany |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | I remain an active external collaborator for the eROSITA satellite mission (due for launch in mid-2019) and - in collaboration with a colleague at the University of Durham (Prof Tim Roberts) - have been awarded performance verification (PV) time to study a bright ULX which shows pulsations. In addition I am now a member of an additional eROSITA project to study TDEs and transient ULXs. This directly connects to (and extends) the proposed science of my ERF project to study transient ULXs, and builds upon my existing and ongoing project to monitor M31 with NASA's Swift satellite in order to find new sources (supported by continued awards of time from NASA's Chandra and ESA's XMM-Newton satellites). |
Collaborator Contribution | My partners are the science team members of the eROSITA mission. |
Impact | There no outputs to report yet although there is a paper in preparation related to ULX demographics. |
Start Year | 2017 |
Description | BBC World Service |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I was interviewed for the BBC World Service (CrowdScience) on the dual particle-wave name of light. The typical reach of the program is enormous and intended for non-scientists in the developed and developing world. I am recording another segment in the near future. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | BBC radio |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | In addition to public lectures (see portfolio), I have also appeared a number of times on the BBC Radio Cambridge show 'The Naked Scientists' for their live Q&A, fielding astronomy questions which have touched upon my research (specifically astrophysical jets) and have provided a pre-recorded segment on the physics of black holes. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
Description | Citizen Science |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | We have created a Zooniverse platform Citizen Science program to help in the search for self-lensing binary systems. Over 2500 volunteers have taken part to-date. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
URL | https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/hughdickinson/superwasp-black-hole-hunters |
Description | Press release (Nature Astronomy) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I am leading the University of Southampton press release for a paper (on which I am co-author) being published in Nature Astronomy. The paper details the discovery of a cyclotron resonant scattering feature which provides an estimate for the magnetic field strength of the neutron star in a ULX for the first time. I am also being interviewed live on US radio (Sciencefriday) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
URL | https://www.sciencefriday.com |
Description | Press release to accompany Nature Astronomy publication |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | A press release was carried out by the University of Southampton to coincide with the publication of a Nature Astronomy paper (on which I was co-author). |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
Description | The Naked Scientists 2017 |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | I have continued to appear on the BBC Radio Cambridge show 'The Naked Scientists' for their live Q&A, fielding astronomy questions which have touched upon my research. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |