Astronomy in New Zealand

Astrophysics

100 years ago the Milky Way Galaxy constituted the entire Universe for most astronomers. In the years that followed, the emergence of nuclear and quantum physics and Relativity coupled with bigger telescopes, better instrumentation and new "windows" on the universe in radio and other wavelengths, led to such remarkable discoveries as the nuclear source of stars´ energy, the expansion and "Big Bang" origin of the universe, the synthesis of elements in stars and an array of extraordinarily energetic particles and celestial objects from cosmic rays to black holes. Several New Zealanders have been part of these exciting and continuing advances.

Beatrice Tinsley, a leader in her field for her work on stellar and galactic evolution, constructed an initial model for galactic evolution which became a cornerstone of modern cosmology.

Roy Kerr´s 1963 solution to Einstein´s field equations which describe the space around a rotating black hole, has been described as "the most important exact solution to any equation in physics". Relativists Matt Visser and David Wiltshire are both leading contributors in the fields of gravitation and cosmology.

Gerry Gilmore, currently at Cambridge University, discovered a new component of the Galaxy - the "thick disk", and has made many important contributions to cosmology and astrophysics in his research which mainly relates to stellar populations. He is a lead scientist for the European Space Agency´s prime astrophysical mission Gaia. Another NZ astrophysicist at Cambridge, Bob Carswell, co-discovered the first gravitational lens in 1979, finding a quasar that was multiply imaged by a massive foreground cluster galaxy.

Particle astrophysicist Jenni Adams leads the Canterbury team participating in the Radio Ice Cerenkov Experiment (RICE) and IceCube projects which aim to detect ultrahigh-energy neutrinos from space through their interactions with the Antarctic ice cap.

Research Areas


Facilitated by RASNZ The Royal Astronomical Society of New Zealand (RASNZ)

Supported by RSNZ The Royal Society of New Zealand



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