Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation

ICG welcomes new staff member

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The ICG welcomes a new staff member this week – Daniel Whalen.

Dan joins us from Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics at Heidelberg, and is currently working on using detections of primordial supernovae with Euclid, WFIRST and JWST to constrain the properties of the first stars. He is also modeling the evolution of supermassive primordial stars and the birth and formation of the earliest supermassive black holes at z > 6 to determine their observational signatures at 21 cm, the NIR and Lyman-alpha.

Dan is also studying early chemical enrichment by the first supernovae and their elemental imprint on second-generation stars and dwarf galaxies. He is also exploring how strong lensing can be used to reveal primitive galaxies and the first cosmic explosions in future wide field NIR surveys and dedicated surveys of cluster lenses.

Daniel Whalen

Dark Energy Survey releases first data catalogs

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The Dark Energy Survey (DES) has released its first catalogs of data. The survey uses the Blanco 4-meter telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, with a specially built 570-Megapixel digital camera known as DECam. DES has been running since August 2013, but the first data which was taken before the official start between November 2012 and February 2013 has been released in the ‘Science Verification’ catalogs.

As the news announcing this details, these catalogs are just 3% of the final survey area and contain 25 million objects. The data has already been used in research published by the collaboration, including ICG members.

The data is available for download here.


ICG member Marco Bruni in front of the Blanco telescope, used by DES.

One foot in the Extremely Large Telescope

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The European Southern Observatory has approved the proposal for the MOSAIC instrument to pass into Phase A. MOSAIC is a multi-object spectro-graph to be mounted on the European Extremely Large Telescope, which will be the largest telescope on Earth for decades to come. MOSAIC has several scientific motivations ranging on all fields of contemporary astrophysics and cosmology, ranging from the earliest ‘first-light’ structures in the partially-reionised Universe to extra-solar planets. Claudia Maraston from the ICG is part of the MOSAIC scientific consortium and has contributed to the white paper by modelling the energy emission of primordial galaxies to define the optimal wavelength range and sensitivity for the instrument.

Euclid mission passes next major hurdle

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ESA’s Euclid mission to study the dark universe has passed Mission Preliminary Design Review (M-PDR); a major step towards launch at the end of 2020. ICG astronomers are playing important roles in the preparations for this mission, including studies of galaxy clustering and management structure.

“This is a major hurdle we have got over. Interestingly we are now closer to launch than the start of the original euclid concept last decade” notes Bob Nichol, part of the ICG Euclid team.

 

ICG researchers in a ceremony of the Bestowal of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star on Lord Martin Rees by the Government of Japan

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ICG researchers, David Matravers and Kazuya Koyama, were invited to attend a ceremony at the Embassy of Japan to celebrate the Bestowal of the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star on Lord Martin Rees by the Government of Japan in recognition of his significant contribution to strengthening and developing relations between Japan and the United Kingdom for many years.

http://www.uk.emb-japan.go.jp/en/japanUK/decoration/1511.html

Lord Rees inaugurated the Dennis Sciama Building in 2009.

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One Small Step for Doll Kind…

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Lottie Stargazer, a doll designed with help from ICG member, Dr. Karen Masters is on her way to space with astronaut, and UoP alumnus Tim Peake.

Masters-Lottie

Dr. Masters and Lottie Stargazer

Read more about this exciting adventure in the UoP News Item: Stargazing Doll travels to space, or in this article for UTV Ireland: Astronaut Brings Irish Doll with him to Space (the company which makes Lottie is based in Ireland).

Five Years of Supercomputing

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The SCIAMA supercomputer based at the University of Portsmouth is approaching its fifth birthday. Up to now, around two hundred and fifty researchers have used the environment, including ICG members, the wider University of Portsmouth, and SEPnet. Many of the researchers collaborate with the ICG from institutions around the globe, logging in and using the facilities remotely.

The many users have enjoyed an uptime of better than 99%, any short outages mainly having been for upgrades. From an initial 960 cores there have been two further upgrades bringing the compute core count to over 3,700, and with the storage now approaching 1 petabyte. Over 30 million hours (nearly 3,500 years) of processor time have been recorded so far, with that number continuing to grow rapidly following the latest upgrades.


Visualising Large Cosmological Simulations from the SCIAMA Supercomputer.
Credits: Simulation by Gong-Bo Zhao, ICG, Visualisation using Splotch by Tim Dykes, CCI

SCIAMA processor usage over time

SCIAMA processor usage over time

ICG members recognised at SEPnet Public Engagement Awards

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Two members of the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation were highly commended at the second SEPnet Public Engagement Awards last week. The awards recognise physicists across the South East region for their exceptional contribution to engaging the public with their research.

Dr Karen Masters, Reader in Astronomy and Astrophysics and ICG Outreach Coordinator, was highly commended in the Communication category. The Communication award recognises an individual’s ability to communicate their own research through different channels including broadcast media, writing for print or online journalism and public speaking. Dr Masters was nominated in recognition of the wide range of communication activities she participates in annually. Recent highlights have included interviews on BBC Radio 4 and the BBC World Service, invited public talks for the Institute of Physics and the York Festival of Ideas, and numerous contributions to the ICG schools programme.

 

Dr Karen Masters and Professor Sir Bill Wakeham at the SEPnet Public Engagement Awards.

Dr Karen Masters and Professor Sir Bill Wakeham at the SEPnet Public Engagement Awards.

Third year PhD student Jimmy (Michael) Tarr was highly commended in the Newcomer category. This award recognises an individual who is new to engagement and have made an impact that could include any type of engagement activity or project linked to their research. Jimmy was nominated for his active contributions to the ICG outreach and public engagement programme, and his work on a strategic level as the PhD Student Outreach Rep in 2014/15. In particular, it was noted that one of Jimmy’s strengths has been in supporting ICG PhD students and postdocs to contribute to activities; he is particularly effective at encouraging people to participate in outreach and public engagement for the first time.

Jimmy (Michael) Tarr and Professor Sir Bill Wakeham at the SEPnet Public Engagement Awards.

Jimmy (Michael) Tarr and Professor Sir Bill Wakeham at the SEPnet Public Engagement Awards.

More details on the second SEPnet public engagement awards, including a full list of winners and photographs from the awards ceremony, can be found on the SEPnet website.

Good luck, bonne chance, boa sorte Tim Peake!

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From the University Press Office (original story):

To mark astronaut and alumnus Tim Peake’s launch into space on 15 December, University of Portsmouth cosmologists have recorded good luck messages for Tim in 15 different languages.

Major Tim Peake, Britain’s first official astronaut, has spent three years preparing for his Principia mission to the International Space Station (ISS), which orbits some 250 miles from earth.

On 15 December he will leave Kazakhstan on a Soyuz rocket and will not return to earth for six months.

Tim studied flight dynamics and evaluation at the University and graduated in 2006. Last year he called in from Russia via video to the largest conference in the UK for professional astronomers, which was hosted at the University.

Director of the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, Professor Bob Nichol, said: “We’re proud that Tim is one of our graduates and very excited about his mission to space. To mark his launch date on the 15th and also 15 years of human habitation on the ISS we thought it would be fitting to record messages to Tim in 15 languages, including Hindi, Slovenian, Greek, French and Japanese.

“We have a real mix of nationalities in our department so it was easy to rustle up 15 languages but it was a pity we couldn’t find anyone to wish Tim well in Russian – the language he’s been learning for the last few years!

“Our cosmologists and astronomers will be keeping a close eye on Tim’s mission, which will see him become Britain’s first European Space Agency astronaut.”

Tim will spend 170 days in orbit, carrying out scientific experiments and maintenance work on the ISS – a microgravity laboratory in which he and other crew members will live and work while travelling at a speed of five miles per second, orbiting Earth every 90 minutes.

To find out what languages are featured in the video click here for the extended version.

ICG astronomer in award-winning TV documentary

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Earlier this year, ICG astronomer Bob Nichol was featured as part of the BBC Horizon show entitled “Dancing in the Dark: The End of Physics?”  The programme examined the search for dark matter and included Nichol’s trip to both the Dark Energy Survey at CTIO and the Very Large Telescope (VLT) at ESO.

The show won the “Best TV Science Documentary” at the 2015 European Science TV & New Media Festival and Awards in Lisbon on November 25th 2015. The award was accepted by the director Peter Leonard who tweeted “Our Horizon on dark matter wins best tv doc at Euro science awards. Thanks team!”. The award is shown below.

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See main news item on the University of Portsmouth webpage

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