Astrophysics at Keele: planets, stars and galaxies

为了了解我们在宇宙中的位置，我们想了解行星、恒星和星系。我们想知道行星是如何形成的，它们是什么样的，以及在太阳系中有多少像我们自己的行星。行星在恒星周围形成，这与恒星的形成和演化有关，这与星系如何形成恒星有关，以及在宇宙历史中如何变化。我们可以使用最前沿的天文观测台来解决这些问题，例如欧洲南方天文台的甚大望远镜，并使用欧洲航天局发射的GAIA等卫星来绘制本地星系，以及即将到来的詹姆斯韦伯太空望远镜，期待已久的哈勃太空望远镜的继任者。特别是，该提案旨在找到最热的太阳系外行星，这些行星靠近非常热和大质量的恒星，以便了解它们的大气与较冷行星的大气有何不同。我们还将观察行星经过其星星时的情况，寻找分子的特征，这将告诉我们行星的大气是由什么组成的。我们还提出了一个计划，以绘制出氦的丰度，宇宙中第二丰富的元素，在我们的银河系的恒星。这对于理解恒星及其演化至关重要。我们将联合收割机结合年轻星团中恒星的分布和运动信息，以测试星星形成的模型。我们将使用詹姆斯·韦伯太空望远镜观察附近的星系，看看星星的形成是如何与整个星系的演化相互作用的。我们将使用观测高能X射线的卫星来观测遥远的类星体，寻找从这些星系中心的超大质量黑洞流出的高能“风”的迹象。然后，我们将模拟这如何影响这些星系的星星形成和演化，这些星系被认为是宇宙历史上更早的星系。

In understanding our place in the universe we want to know about planets, about stars and about galaxies. We'd like to know how planets form, what they are like, and how many are in Solar Systems like our own. Planets form around stars, so this is related to how stars form and evolve, and that is related to how galaxies form stars, and how that changes over the history of the universe. We can address these questions using forefront astronomical observatories, such as the Very Large Telescope at the European Southern Observatory, and using satellites such as GAIA, launched by the European Space Agency to map out local galaxy, and the forthcoming James Webb Space Telescope, the long-awaited successor to the Hubble Space Telescope. In particular, this proposal aims to find the very hottest extra-solar planets, those which orbit closely to very hot and massive stars, in order to see how their atmospheres differ from those of cooler planets. We will also observe planets as they transit their star, looking for signatures of molecules that will tell us what the planets' atmospheres are made of. We also propose a programme to map out the abundance of helium, the second most abundant element in the universe, in the stars of our galaxy. This is crucial for understanding stars and how they evolve. We will combine information on the distribution and motions of stars in young clusters of stars, to test models of how star formation works. We will use the James Webb Space Telescope to look at nearby galaxies to see how star formation interacts with the evolution of the overall galaxy. We will use satellites that observe energetic X-rays to peer at distant quasars, looking for signs of energetic "winds" flowing out of the super-massive black holes at the centre of such galaxies. We will then model how this affects the star formation and evolution of such galaxies, which are seen as they were much earlier in the universe's history.