Related papers: AAO Observer Number 122 (August 2012)
The Galactic Centre has been studied with the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) for over 10 years, revealing a bright, complex gamma-ray morphology. Besides a strong point-like very-high-energy gamma-ray source coincident with the…
The co-evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes (SMBHs) underpins our understanding of galaxy evolution, but different methods to measure SMBH masses have only infrequently been cross-checked. We attempt to identify targets to…
Galaxy Surveys are enjoying a renaissance thanks to the advent of multi-object spectrographs on ground-based telescopes. The last 15 years have seen the fruits of this experimental advance, including the 2-degree Field Galaxy Redshift…
Swift is a satellite equipped with gamma-ray, X-ray, and optical-UV instruments aimed at discovering, localizing and collecting data from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Launched at the end of 2004, this small-size mission finds about a hundred…
By incorporating our major recent discoveries with re-measured and verified contents of existing catalogues we provide, for the first time, an accessible, reliable, on-line SQL database for essential, up-to date information for all known…
The GAMA survey has now completed its spectroscopic campaign of over 250,000 galaxies ($r<19.8$mag), and will shortly complete the assimilation of the complementary panchromatic imaging data from GALEX, VST, VISTA, WISE, and Herschel. In…
Rather than giving a complete overview on extragalactic Zone of Avoidance research, this paper will highlight some recent discoveries in the ZOA, such as new NIR to FIR observations (IRSF, Spitzer) of the most massive disk galaxy found…
Contents: Editorial Correspondents News: - Topical Group News, by Jim Isenberg - We hear that..., by Jorge Pullin - The Chandra Satellite, by Beverly Berger Research Briefs: - Analytical event horizons of merging black holes, by Simonetta…
The image subtraction technique applied to study variable stars in globular clusters represented a leap in the number of new detections, with the drawback that many of these new light curves could not be transformed to magnitudes due to the…
LAMOST (Large sky Area Multi-Object fiber Spectroscopic Telescope) is a Chinese national scientific research facility operated by National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NAOC). After two years of commissioning…
We use the Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) survey to measure the local Universe mass dependent merger fraction and merger rate using galaxy pairs and the CAS structural method, which identifies highly asymmetric merger candidate galaxies.…
The 6dF Galaxy Survey is measuring around 150000 redshifts and 15000 peculiar velocities from galaxies over the southern sky at |b|>10 degrees. When complete, it will be the largest survey of its kind by more than an order of magnitude.…
We present an overview of the Space Telescope A901/2 Galaxy Evolution Survey (STAGES). STAGES is a multiwavelength project designed to probe physical drivers of galaxy evolution across a wide range of environments and luminosity. A complex…
The accelerating expansion of the universe is the most surprising cosmological discovery in many decades, implying that the universe is dominated by some form of "dark energy" with exotic physical properties, or that Einstein's theory of…
We present the first scientific results from the Sydney-AAO Multi-Object IFS (SAMI) at the Anglo-Australian Telescope. This unique instrument deploys 13 fused fibre bundles (hexabundles) across a one-degree field of view allowing…
General importance and capabilities of observations of eclipsing binaries by the forthcoming ESA mission GAIA are discussed. Availability of spectroscopic observations and a large number of photometric bands on board will make it possible…
The International Axion Observatory (IAXO) is a forth generation axion helioscope designed to detect solar axions and axion-like particles (ALPs) with a coupling to the photon $g_{a\gamma}$ down to a few $10^{-12}$ GeV$^{-1}$, 1.5 orders of…
The next generation X-ray observatory ASTRO-H will open up a new dimension in the study of galaxy clusters by achieving for the first time the spectral resolution required to measure velocities of the intracluster plasma, and extending at…
We have undertaken an adaptive optics (AO) imaging survey of extrasolar planetary systems and stars showing interesting radial velocity trends from high precision radial velocity searches. AO increases the resolution and dynamic range of an…
Gaia is an all sky, high precision astrometric and photometric satellite of the European Space Agency (ESA) due for launch in 2010-2011. Its primary mission is to study the composition, formation and evolution of our Galaxy. Gaia will…