UCL Astrophysics Consolidated Grant 2015-2018

我们现在知道，我们的宇宙不仅在膨胀，而且还在以越来越快的速度膨胀。在一种叫做暗能量的神秘驱动力的推动下，星系，比如我们的银河系，在未来的几年里，UCL天体物理学小组的研究人员正在通过一项雄心勃勃的研究计划来测试这些发现。天文学家将利用黑暗星系绘制一张3亿个星系的地图，未来十年的能源调查将与普朗克卫星的宇宙微波背景的新图表相结合，以了解早期宇宙的条件，探测中微子粒子的微小质量，并在最大尺度上测试爱因斯坦的广义相对论。我们的天文学家将使用LOFAR射电望远镜来研究很久以前的时代，当时第一批恒星和星系在弥漫宇宙的气体中形成并塑造电离气泡。我们将通过研究我们自己的银河系、附近星系和遥远星系中的分子和尘埃，探索恒星如何从巨大的气体和尘埃云中形成，以及恒星之间发生的化学反应如何影响和控制这些关键过程，位于宇宙边缘的非常年轻的星系。我们将研究大质量恒星的生命及其在称为超新星的巨大爆炸中的死亡，以及这些大质量恒星如何用制造新恒星、新行星甚至生命所需的气体和尘埃来丰富银河系。除非天文学家不断改进他们进行天空研究的仪器，否则这一切都无法完成。伦敦大学学院的仪器制造商正致力于为未来的太空红外望远镜制造低成本的光学系统，并开发先进的新技术，使太空望远镜在红外波段的观测中具有难以置信的高角分辨率。天文学家需要用更复杂的数学技术来模拟他们所研究的宇宙。因此，伦敦大学学院的计算机专家将生成复杂的模型，在超级计算机上运行，这是理解大量观测数据所必需的。它们还将产生基本的原子和分子数据，用于模拟早期宇宙、演化中的星系以及居住在星系中的恒星和行星系统的条件。这些新数据将特别用于解释和理解系外行星在其所围绕的恒星前后经过时的大气观测结果。但是，如果我们的同胞不能分享我们小组工作的惊奇和兴奋，那么所有这些都将是浪费。因此，我们将确保我们的团队成员继续通过演讲和讲座，通过公共活动和媒体解释他们的工作，激励下一代科学家，帮助和挑战行业开发新技术，并确保我们对宇宙的理解变得更深更广。

We now know that not only is our Universe expanding, but that it is expanding at an ever-increasing rate. Fuelled by a mysterious drivercalled Dark Energy, galaxies, such as our Milky Way, are rushing away from each other at such enormous acceleration that not even the powerfulforce of gravity can hold the universe together.Researchers in UCL's Astrophysics Group are putting to the test these discoveries with an ambitious programme of research for the coming years.A map of 300 million galaxies that astronomers will put together using the Dark Energy Survey over the next decade will be combined with a new chart of the Cosmic Microwave Background from the Planck satellite to understand the conditions in the early universe, to detect the tiny mass of the Neutrino particle and to test Einstein's theory of general Relativity on the largest scales. Our astronomers will use the LOFAR radio telescope to study the era long ago when the first stars and galaxies formed and sculpted ionized bubbles within the gas that permeated the Universe.We will probe how stars form from vast gas and dust clouds and how the chemistry that goes on between the stars affects and controls thesecrucial processes, by studying molecules and dust in our own Galaxy, in nearby galaxies, and in distant, very young, galaxies located at the edgeof the Universe.We will study the lives of massive stars and their deaths in giant explosions called supernovae and how these massive stars enrich the Galaxywith the gas and dust required to make new stars, new planets and even life itself.None of this can be done unless astronomers continually improve the instruments with which they carry out their studies of the heavens. UCL'sinstrument makers are aiming to create lower cost optics for future infrared telescopes in space and to develop sophisticated new techniquesthat can be used to deliver incredibly high angular resolutions on space telescopes observing at infrared wavelengths.Astronomers need to model the universe that they study with ever more complex mathematical techniques. So UCL's computer experts will generate the sophisticated models, running on supercomputers, that are needed to understand the wealth of observations that are pouring in. They will also generate the basic atomic and molecular data with which to simulate the conditions in the early Universe, in evolving galaxies and in the stars and planetary systems that inhabit the galaxies. These new data will be used in particular to interpret and understand observations of the atmospheres of exoplanets as they pass in front of, and behind, the stars that they orbit.But all of this will be wasted unless our fellow citizens get to share in the wonder and excitement of our group's work. So we will ensure that our team members continue to explain their work through talks and lectures, through public events, and through the media, inspiring the nextgeneration of scientists, helping and challenging industry to develop new technologies, and ensuring that our understanding of the Universe becomes ever deeper and wider.