Related papers: Origins of Megalithic Astronomy in Britain
I review some recent progress made in our understanding of galaxy evolution and the cosmic history of star formation. Like bookends, the results obtained from deep ground-based spectroscopy and from the Hubble Deep Field imaging survey put…
We observed six fields of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) with the Advanced Camera for Survey on board the Hubble Space Telescope in the F555W and F814W filters. These fields sample regions characterized by very different star and gas…
Traditional Aboriginal Australian cultures include a significant astronomical component, perpetuated through oral tradition and ceremony. This knowledge has practical navigational and calendrical functions, and sometimes extends to a deep…
Observational Cosmology has indeed made very rapid progress in recent years. The ability to quantify the universe has largely improved due to observational constraints coming from structure formation Measurements of CMB anisotropy and, more…
Over the past century, rooted in the theory of general relativity, cosmology has developed a very successful physical model of the universe: the {\em big-bang model}. Its construction followed different stages to incorporate nuclear…
Abridged: The golden age of astrophysics is upon us with both grand discoveries (extra-solar planets, dark matter, dark energy) and precision cosmology. Fundamental understanding of the working of stars and galaxies is within reach, thanks…
The Milky Way has a giant stellar structure in the solar neighborhood, which has a size of $\sim 1$ kpc, a mass of $\sim 10^6 {\rm M}_{\odot}$, and a ring-like distribution of young stars. Fundamental physical properties of this local…
I present a comprehensive review of the evolution of galaxy structure in the universe from the first galaxies we can currently observe at z~6 down to galaxies we see in the local universe. I further address how these changes reveal galaxy…
More than 50 years have elapsed since the first studies of star clusters in the Magellanic Clouds. The wealth of data accumulated since then has not only revealed a large cluster system, but also a diversified one, filling loci in the age,…
Cosmology, as a science, started at the beginning of the last century with the advent of the Einstein cosmological equations. Based on these equations, the present main stream cosmological model is the well known big-bang, this name…
Statistical inference in observational science typically relies on a fundamental assumption: as sample size increases and uncertainties decrease, the inferred results should converge to the true physical quantities. This assumption…
In the first two years of operation JWST has delivered key new insights into the formation and evolution of galaxies in the early Universe. By combining imaging with spectroscopy, we discovered and characterised the first generation of…
Between the mid-eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, long-haul oceanic voyages of exploration and discovery routinely carried astronomical tent observatories to support land-based longitude determinations using heavy and cumbersome…
Soon after he proposed three classic observational tests for the general theory of relativity, Einstein realised that a consistent description of the universe as a whole provided another important challenge for the theory. In this essay, we…
Since the emergence in the late 1960s of the standard hot big-bang theory, cosmology has been dominated by finite-age models. However, the rival view that the universe has existed for an indefinite time has continued to be defended by a…
Using the growth of population in Australia in the past 10,000 years it is illustrated here how an illusion created by hyperbolic distributions may lead easily to incorrect conclusions. Contrary to the published claim, there was no change…
The formation of the Magellanic Bridge during an encounter between the Magellanic Clouds $\sim$200 Myr ago would be imprinted in the chemical evolution and kinematics of its stellar population, with sites of active star formation. Since it…
We describe observations in the nearby universe (<100 Mpc) with a 10-m or larger space-based telescope having imaging and spectral capabilities in the range 912-9000 \AA that would enable advances in the fields of massive stars, young…
The next decade promises an observational revolution which will change cosmology forever. The precise measurement of the angular anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background should specify to a few percent all of the parameters of the…
Galaxy formation is at the heart of our understanding of cosmic evolution. Although there is a consensus that galaxies emerged from the expanding matter background by gravitational instability of primordial fluctuations, a number of…