Astrophysics at Keele: the formation and evolution of galaxies, stars and planets

为了了解我们在宇宙中的位置，我们需要知道有多少行星，行星系统是如何形成和演化的，其中有多少像我们的太阳系一样，可能有生命存在。研究行星的最好方法是找到那些从恒星前面经过的行星。通过寻找由凌日行星引起的恒星光线的微小下降，Keele的WASP-South调查发现了比南半球其他任何人都多的凌日行星，并利用它们来回答有关行星系统如何形成的问题。行星在年轻的恒星周围形成，恒星和行星的形成是密切相关的。Keele将利用ESO的甚大望远镜获得的光谱，处理来自对年轻恒星和星团的大规模调查的数据，并将其与ESA盖亚任务即将获得的前所未有的天体测量相结合。这一组合将提供迄今为止对恒星和星团如何形成和演化的最大调查。两个麦哲伦星云是离我们最近的两个星系，它们如此近以至于与我们的星系相互作用，为研究星系如何相互影响提供了一个极好的机会，碰撞和合并被认为是解释今天星系的重要因素。Keele在GASKAP项目提供的新一代麦哲伦星云射电巡天中所扮演的角色，将提供迄今为止最详细的银河系与这两个卫星星系之间动力学和相互作用的图像。在星系的核心，超大质量黑洞可以通过吸收周围的物质来成长。现在人们认识到，黑洞周围的漩涡产生的强风既可以调节黑洞的生长，也可以影响整个星系的未来演化。基尔领导的一个项目利用最新的x射线卫星研究由黑洞极端重力产生的x射线辐射，以研究黑洞风及其对环境的影响。

In understanding our place in the universe we need to know how many planets there are, how planetary systems form and evolve, and how many of them are like our Solar System, possibly harbouring life. The best way of studying planets is to find the ones that pass in front of ("transit") their star. By looking for the tiny dips in a star's light caused by a transiting planet, Keele's WASP-South survey has found more transiting planets than anyone else in the Southern hemisphere, and is using them to answer questions about how planetary systems form. Planets form around young stars, and star and planet formation are intimately connected. Keele will process the data from a very large survey of young stars and clusters of stars, using spectra obtained by ESO's Very Large Telescope, to combine with the unprecedented astrometry soon to be obtained by ESA's Gaia mission. The combination will provide the biggest survey yet of how stars and stellar clusters form and evolve. The two Magellanic Clouds are the two galaxies closest to our own, so close that they interact with our galaxy, providing an excellent opportunity to study how galaxies affect each other, with collisions and mergers thought to be important factors in explaining galaxies today. Keele's role in the new-generation radio survey of the Magellanic Clouds provided by the GASKAP project will provide the most detailed yet picture of the dynamics and interactions of our Milky way with these two satellite galaxies. At the cores of galaxies, supermassive black holes can grow by sucking in material from their surroundings. It is now realised that powerful winds generated by the swirling around a black hole can both regulate the growth of the black hole and affect the future evolution of the whole galaxy. A Keele-led program using the latest X-ray satellites studies the X-ray emission generated by the extreme gravity of the black hole to study the black-hole winds and their affect on their environment.