Astrophysics

At Peripety Scientific we are engaged in a number of astrophysical research projects and our staff and students are members of several major international teams spanning primarily radio and optical astronomy. The focus of our research is varied but broadly concentrates on physics of radio galaxies, galaxy clusters and cosmic magnetism.

Recent Research

Radio galaxies: we are interested in understanding how environment influences the generation and evolution of radio galaxies, particularly giant radio galaxies (GRGs) and tailed radio galaxies.

Diffuse Emission in Galaxy Clusters: we are searching the low frequency radio sky for new markers of shock waves and turbulence in galaxy clusters and using optical and X-ray analysis along with modelling to better understand how these features correlate with the dynamical evolution of the Universe.

Modelling Foregrounds for the Epoch of Reionisation: As part of our Marsden funded work we are attempting to improve foreground model subtraction for the detection of the epoch of reionisation.

International Collaborations

Murchison Widefield Array: the MWA is low-frequency precursor telescope to the Square Kilometre Array. The array is located in Western Australia and operated between 70 and 300 MHz. Peripety Scientific staff and students have a number of on-going research projects with the MWA in fields including detection of new supernova remnants, seeking new halos and relics in clusters, finding new giant radio galaxies and mapping foreground contaminates to the epoch of reionsation.

Video shows an aerial view of the MWA telescope. Credit: CAASTRO

ASKAP-POSSUM: POSSUM is a survey to map the radio polarisation of the Southern sky with the ASKAP telescope in Western Australia. The goal of POSSUM is to understand the origin and evolution of cosmic magnetism. Melanie has been a member of the POSSUM team since it's inception and is focused on magnetic fields in galaxy clusters and the cosmic web.

ASKAP-EMU: The Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) is a survey of the radio sky with the ASKAP telescope with the view to addressing a vast array of scientific questions about our Universe (see Norris et al. 2013 for details). Within EMU Melanie is the Working Group leader for science with Galaxy Clusters.

Taipan: Taipan is a multi-fibre spectroscopic optical survey being undertaken in Australia. Melanie, Siamak and Natalia are members of the Taipan team.

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