Imperial College Astrophysics & Space Physics Consolidated Grant April 2013 - March 2016

伦敦帝国理工学院的天文学研究涵盖了从太阳及其行星的大气层到主导宇宙演化的暗能量等主题。这项研究利用了帝国理工学院在欧洲太空任务中的领先地位，包括欧洲航天局的罗塞塔任务，该任务将于2014年与67P/丘留莫夫-格拉西缅科彗星会合，并伴随它向太阳移动，并通过赫歇尔和普朗克卫星全面活跃起来，研究宇宙的形成和演化。详细的研究项目探索太阳对地球的影响，土星的磁场，星系和行星的形成，整个宇宙的几何和拓扑，以及对围绕遥远恒星运行的行星大气的理论理解。这种观测和理论工作的结合得到了世界一流的仪器的补充，这些仪器测量了星际空间中微小但关键的磁场，并进行了实验室研究，以确定原子和分子的性质，以便可以根据在这种偏远环境中发生的物理来准确地解释天文观测。我们的研究包括使用先进的统计技术来分析和组合复杂的数据集，并发现新的对象类别。

Astronomical research at Imperial College London covers topics from the atmosphere of the Sun and its planets to the Dark Energy that dominates the evolution of the Universe. The research exploits Imperial's leading roles in European space missions, including the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission which will rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014 and accompany it as it moves toward the Sun and becomes fully active through the Herschel and Planck satellites studying the formation and evolution of the Universe. Detailed research projects probe the Sun's influence on the Earth, the magnetic field of Saturn, the formation of galaxies and planets, the geometry and topology of the Universe as a whole, and the theoretical understanding of the atmospheres of planets orbiting distant stars. This combination of observational and theoretical work is complemented by world-beating instrumentation in measuring the tiny but critical magnetic fields in interplanetary space, and laboratory research to determine the properties of atoms and molecules so that astronomical observations may be accurately interpreted in terms of the physics occurring at such remote environments. Our research embraces use of advanced statistical techniques to analyse and combine complex datasets and find new classes of objects.