Australia @ Astrophysics with the new CAASTRO

The all new CAASTRO (Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics) is launched today in Australia. The centre will deal with the major unsolved questions of Astronomy. Professor Bryan Gaensler from the School of Physics at the University of Sydney is the Director of the CAASTRO. Today, on the occasion of the launch of this new centre, Bryan answered to some of the questions posed by the media.

The whole system would revolve around the concept that many of the questions related to Astronomy can be solved only when we look at the sky as the whole. This is what they meant by that "All-sky Astrophysics". Bryan says that they will study on 3 main areas: Evolution, Dynamic Expansion and Dark Part of the Universe. When asked about the instruments they are going to use as a part of this new mission, he said, "You have to have telescopes that have very high quality, crisp, detailed images like Hubble but which have much wider fields of view". Regarding the budget, he announced that they have a seven year budget (of just over $4 million a year).The University of Sydney, the Australian National University, the University of Melbourne, the University of Western Australia, Curtin University and Swinburne University of Technology are the places from which the researchers are going to take part in this Centre. Anyways , lets wait and see if the Australians are going to be the ones answering the prominent and ultimate questions of Astronomy.

Ref: The Conversation
September 12, 2011.

Pranu :-)