Astrophysics at Keele: the formation and evolution of galaxies, stars and planets
Lead Research Organisation:
Keele University
Department Name: Faculty of Natural Sciences
Abstract
In understanding our place in the universe we need to know how many planets there are, how planetary systems form and evolve, and how many of them are like our Solar System, possibly harbouring life. The best way of studying planets is to find the ones that pass in front of ("transit") their star. By looking for the tiny dips in a star's light caused by a transiting planet, Keele's WASP-South survey has found more transiting planets than anyone else in the Southern hemisphere, and is using them to answer questions about how planetary systems form.
Planets form around young stars, and star and planet formation are intimately connected. Keele will process the data from a very large survey of young stars and clusters of stars, using spectra obtained by ESO's Very Large Telescope, to combine with the unprecedented astrometry soon to be obtained by ESA's Gaia mission. The combination will provide the biggest survey yet of how stars and stellar clusters form and evolve.
The two Magellanic Clouds are the two galaxies closest to our own, so close that they interact with our galaxy, providing an excellent opportunity to study how galaxies affect each other, with collisions and mergers thought to be important factors in explaining galaxies today. Keele's role in the new-generation radio survey of the Magellanic Clouds provided by the GASKAP project will provide the most detailed yet picture of the dynamics and interactions of our Milky way with these two satellite galaxies.
At the cores of galaxies, supermassive black holes can grow by sucking in material from their surroundings. It is now realised that powerful winds generated by the swirling around a black hole can both regulate the growth of the black hole and affect the future evolution of the whole galaxy. A Keele-led program using the latest X-ray satellites studies the X-ray emission generated by the extreme gravity of the black hole to study the black-hole winds and their affect on their environment.
Planets form around young stars, and star and planet formation are intimately connected. Keele will process the data from a very large survey of young stars and clusters of stars, using spectra obtained by ESO's Very Large Telescope, to combine with the unprecedented astrometry soon to be obtained by ESA's Gaia mission. The combination will provide the biggest survey yet of how stars and stellar clusters form and evolve.
The two Magellanic Clouds are the two galaxies closest to our own, so close that they interact with our galaxy, providing an excellent opportunity to study how galaxies affect each other, with collisions and mergers thought to be important factors in explaining galaxies today. Keele's role in the new-generation radio survey of the Magellanic Clouds provided by the GASKAP project will provide the most detailed yet picture of the dynamics and interactions of our Milky way with these two satellite galaxies.
At the cores of galaxies, supermassive black holes can grow by sucking in material from their surroundings. It is now realised that powerful winds generated by the swirling around a black hole can both regulate the growth of the black hole and affect the future evolution of the whole galaxy. A Keele-led program using the latest X-ray satellites studies the X-ray emission generated by the extreme gravity of the black hole to study the black-hole winds and their affect on their environment.
Planned Impact
The astrophysics group has a vigorous outreach programme, which benefits from the networks provided by Keele's Widening Participation Division and Science Learning Centre West Midlands and provides benefit to the general public, school children (particularly in the 11-18 age range) and their teachers. We actively enthuse school children, their teachers and the public about STFC science by: taking a planetarium into schools; operating the well-equipped Keele observatory, encouraging both public access and visits from schools; providing adult education classes focused on our research topics; and organising well-attended teacher-training workshops.
In the next grant period we are planning major enhancements to our planetarium activities. We will upgrade its projector system, transforming it into an "exoplanetarium"; develop new planetarium resources based on our exoplanetary and stellar research , which will be widely and freely disseminated to a worldwide open-source planetarium software community; train a chort of undergraduate "Science Mentors" and astrophysics postgraduates to deliver outreach; and take the exoplanetarium into about 30 schools per year, interacting with more than 5000 pupils and their teachers. Our aims are to inspire more children (and their teachers), from an area with a traditionally low HE participation rate, to think about University and science at University level, hence promoting their economic well-being, and showcasing our STFC-funded research.
Book, magazine and newspaper publishers, blog writers and science news websites have all benefited from several press releases and interviews by members of the Keele astrophysics group in recent years. These media events are the result of major discoveries in the areas of star formation, massive stars and exoplanets. Keele will continue to announce major discoveries throughout the forthcoming grant period.
We are developing links with local industry. A Stoke-based SME, who manufacture parts for NASA and ESA astrophysics missions, will be sponsoring an undergraduate Astrophysics prize at Keele and providing careers advice; we in turn will benefit them by assisting them with their public relations and website.
In the next grant period we are planning major enhancements to our planetarium activities. We will upgrade its projector system, transforming it into an "exoplanetarium"; develop new planetarium resources based on our exoplanetary and stellar research , which will be widely and freely disseminated to a worldwide open-source planetarium software community; train a chort of undergraduate "Science Mentors" and astrophysics postgraduates to deliver outreach; and take the exoplanetarium into about 30 schools per year, interacting with more than 5000 pupils and their teachers. Our aims are to inspire more children (and their teachers), from an area with a traditionally low HE participation rate, to think about University and science at University level, hence promoting their economic well-being, and showcasing our STFC-funded research.
Book, magazine and newspaper publishers, blog writers and science news websites have all benefited from several press releases and interviews by members of the Keele astrophysics group in recent years. These media events are the result of major discoveries in the areas of star formation, massive stars and exoplanets. Keele will continue to announce major discoveries throughout the forthcoming grant period.
We are developing links with local industry. A Stoke-based SME, who manufacture parts for NASA and ESA astrophysics missions, will be sponsoring an undergraduate Astrophysics prize at Keele and providing careers advice; we in turn will benefit them by assisting them with their public relations and website.
Organisations
Publications
{Boyer}, M.~L. And {Srinivasan}, S. And {van Loon}, J.~T. And {McDonald}, I. And {Meixner}, M. And {Zaritsky}, D. And {Gordon}, K.~D. And {Kemper}, F. And {Babler}, B. And {Block}, M. And {Bracker}, S. And {Engelbracht}, C.~W. And {Hora}, J. And {Indebetouw}, R. And {Meade}, M. And {Misselt}, K. And {Robitaille}, T. And {Sewi{\l}o}, M. And {Shiao}, B. And {Whitney}, B.
(2012)
Erratum: ''Surveying the Agents of Galaxy Evolution in the Tidally Stripped, Low-metallicity Small Magellanic Cloud (SAGE-SMC). II. Cool Evolved Stars''
(2011, AJ, 142, 103)
in \aj
{Pillitteri}, I. And {Wolk}, S.~J. And {Megeath}, S.~T. And {Allen}, L. And {Bally}, J. And {Gagn{\'e}}, M. And {Gutermuth}, R.~A. And {Hartman}, L. And {Micela}, G. And {Myers}, P. And {Oliveira}, J.~M. And {Sciortino}, S. And {Walter}, F. And {Rebull}, L. And {Stauffer}, J.
(2013)
Erratum: ''An X-Rays Survey of the Young Stellar Population of the Lynds 1641 and Iota Orionis Regions''
(2013, ApJ, 768, 99)
in \apj
Garland Justin
(2016)
Spitzer Secondary Eclipses of WASP-32b
in AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts #48
Kittang A
(2013)
Adaptation response of Arabidopsis thaliana to random positioning
in Advances in Space Research
Reeves JB
(2012)
Mid-infrared spectroscopy of biochars and spectral similarities to coal and kerogens: what are the implications?
in Applied spectroscopy
Mo
(2017)
Starspots on WASP-107 and pulsations of WASP-118
in ArXiv e-prints
Georgy Cyril
(2016)
Massive Star Evolution: What we do (not) know
in ArXiv e-prints
Cristini Andrea
(2016)
3D Hydrodynamic Simulations of Carbon Burning in Massive Stars
in ArXiv e-prints
Georgy Cyril
(2017)
Possible pair-instability supernovae at solar metallicity from magnetic stellar progenitors
in ArXiv e-prints
Choplin Arthur
(2016)
Nucleosynthesis in the first massive stars
in arXiv e-prints
Rauscher T.
(2016)
Production Uncertainties of p-Nuclei in the $\gamma$-Process in Massive Stars Using a Monte Carlo Approach
in ArXiv e-prints
Nishimura N.
(2017)
Impacts of nuclear-physics uncertainty in stellar temperatures on the s-process nucleosynthesis
in ArXiv e-prints
Lam K. W. F.
(2016)
From dense hot Jupiter to low-density Neptune: The discovery of WASP-127b, WASP-136b and WASP-138b
in ArXiv e-prints
Reeves James
(2017)
High Resolution X-ray Spectroscopy of the Seyfert 1, Mrk 1040. Revealing the Failed Nuclear Wind with Chandra
in ArXiv e-prints
Nishimura Nobuya
(2017)
Uncertainties in s-process nucleosynthesis in massive stars determined by Monte Carlo variations
in ArXiv e-prints
Mo
(2016)
Recurring sets of recurring starspots on exoplanet-host Qatar-2
in ArXiv e-prints
Anderson D. R.
(2017)
The discoveries of WASP-91b, WASP-105b and WASP-107b: two warm Jupiters and a planet in the transition region between ice giants and gas giants
in ArXiv e-prints
Braito Valentina
(2017)
A high spectral resolution map of the nuclear emitting regions of NGC 7582
in ArXiv e-prints
Eggenberger P.
(2016)
Constraining the efficiency of angular momentum transport with asteroseismology of red giants: the effect of stellar mass
in ArXiv e-prints
Graczyk Dariusz
(2016)
The Surface Brightness--Color Relations Based on Eclipsing Binary Stars: Toward Precision Better than 1% in Angular Diameter Predictions
in ArXiv e-prints
Herranz R
(2013)
Proteomic signature of Arabidopsis cell cultures exposed to magnetically induced hyper- and microgravity environments.
in Astrobiology
Meibom S
(2013)
Angular momentum evolution of cool stars: Toward a synthesis of observations and theory before and after the ZAMS
in Astronomische Nachrichten
Geier S
(2012)
MUCHFUSS - Massive Unseen Companions to Hot Faint Underluminous Stars from SDSS
in Astronomische Nachrichten
Clark B
(2018)
Thermal emission of WASP-48b in the K s -band
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Magrini L
(2014)
The Gaia -ESO Survey: Abundance ratios in the inner-disk open clusters Trumpler 20, NGC 4815, NGC 6705
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gillon M
(2012)
The TRAPPIST survey of southern transiting planets I. Thirty eclipses of the ultra-short period planet WASP-43 b??????
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Smolders K
(2012)
The Spitzer spectroscopic survey of S-type stars
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Triaud A
(2012)
The EBLM project I. Physical and orbital parameters, including spin-orbit angles, of two low-mass eclipsing binaries on opposite sides of the brown dwarf limit
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Bachelet E
(2012)
A brown dwarf orbiting an M-dwarf: MOA 2009-BLG-411L
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Geier S
(2013)
A progenitor binary and an ejected mass donor remnant of faint type Ia supernovae
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
West R
(2016)
Three irradiated and bloated hot Jupiters: WASP-76b, WASP-82b, and WASP-90b?
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gómez Maqueo Chew Y
(2013)
Discovery of WASP-65b and WASP-75b: Two hot Jupiters without highly inflated radii
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lendl M
(2016)
FORS2 observes a multi-epoch transmission spectrum of the hot Saturn-mass exoplanet WASP-49b
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Hénault-Brunet V
(2012)
The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey VI. Evidence for rotation of the young massive cluster R136
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Cescutti G
(2013)
The s -process in the Galactic halo: the fifth signature of spinstars in the early Universe?
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Tatton B
(2013)
The VMC survey VII. Reddening map of the 30 Doradus field and the structure of the cold interstellar medium
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lakicevic M
(2012)
Zooming in on Supernova 1987A at submillimetre wavelengths
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Evans D
(2016)
High-resolution Imaging of Transiting Extrasolar Planetary systems (HITEP) I. Lucky imaging observations of 101 systems in the southern hemisphere???
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Kirkby-Kent J
(2016)
Absolute parameters for AI Phoenicis using WASP photometry
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Cioni M
(2014)
The VMC survey IX. Pilot study of the proper motion of stellar populations in the LMC from 2MASS and VISTA data???
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Neveu-VanMalle M
(2016)
Hot Jupiters with relatives: discovery of additional planets in orbit around WASP-41 and WASP-47
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gillon M
(2013)
WASP-64 b and WASP-72 b: two new transiting highly irradiated giant planets
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Gillon M
(2014)
WASP-103 b: a new planet at the edge of tidal disruption
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Jeffries R
(2014)
The Gaia -ESO Survey: Kinematic structure in the Gamma Velorum cluster
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Doran E
(2013)
The VLT-FLAMES Tarantula Survey XI. A census of the hot luminous stars and their feedback in 30 Doradus
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Faedi F
(2013)
WASP-54b, WASP-56b, and WASP-57b: Three new sub-Jupiter mass planets from SuperWASP
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Hébrard G
(2013)
WASP-52b, WASP-58b, WASP-59b, and WASP-60b: Four new transiting close-in giant planets
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Graczyk D
(2016)
A solar twin in the eclipsing binary LL Aquarii
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Smith A
(2013)
WASP-71b: a bloated hot Jupiter in a 2.9-day, prograde orbit around an evolved F8 star
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Description | Lots and lots of them |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
Results and Impact | We have particpated in dozens and dozens of such activites. Lots. We have about dozens and dozens of such feedbacks. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | Pre-2006,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014 |