Research Research Themes Black hole phenomena toc About Black holes are among the most fascinating objects in astrophysics, and it is now thought that many of the most energetic processes in the universe are related, or attributable to, these enigmatic phenomena. Astrophysicists at RSAA study many aspects of the nature of black holes and the roles that they play in galaxies, including: supermassive black holes in galaxies and the formation of active galactic nuclei as material is accreted by the black hole feedback of mass and energy from the nucleus of galaxies as the black hole accretes matter, and how this affects the galaxies, their surroundings, and the way that they grow and develop radio galaxies and the nature of the relativistic jets that are formed in the active galactic nucleus constructing theoretical and computational models of accretion disks around black holes and jets and outflows associated with these phenomena making detailed observations of galaxies, to understand how the central black hole affects their structure and dynamics, and to measure the black hole mass. investigating the nature of the objects that produce highly energetic 'gamma ray bursts' in the distant universe. Our theoretical astrophysicists develop and run sophisticated computational models to simulate the physical processes at work in these complex systems. They use powerful high-performance computing systems, including the Computational Astrophysics Laboratory (COALA) at RSAA, the ANU Supercomputer Facility (ANUSF), and other supercomputers in Australia. Projects Computational Astrophysics Laboratory The Computational Astrophysics Laboratory, or COALA, is a high-performance computing (HPC) system that is available to theorists and astronomers at RSAA. It is used for data analysis, numerical simulations, visualisation for public outreach, and for research training at the school. Read more People Dr Ralph Sutherland Professor Geoff Bicknell Read more Cosmic Magnetism and the Universe’s Biggest ‘Dye Tracer’ Experiments: Deciphering The Impact and Lifecycles of Outflows from Supermassive Black Holes. In each project, students will utilise data from some of the world’s most powerful radio telescopes, including ASKAP, Parkes, and the Jansky VLA to study the magnetised gas in and around the radio lobes inflated by supermassive black holes. Read more Student intake Open for Bachelor, Honours, PhD students People Dr Craig Anderson Read more Data Archives Data archives Read more Read more Fyris Fyris Alpha is a high resolution, shock capturing, multi-phase, up-wind Godunov method hydrodynamics code, which includes a variable equation of state, and optional microphysics such as cooling, gravity and mutlitple tracer variables. Read more People Dr Ralph Sutherland Read more Investigating the interaction between supermassive black holes and their host spiral galaxies Using both the Wide-Field Spectrograph (WiFeS) on the ANU 2.3m telescope and the 1.4 GHz radio band on the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA), the student will address how the radio jets from the supermassive black hole interact with the Seyfert host galaxy to affect the evolution of the galaxy. Read more Read more Measuring the masses of black holes in distant galaxies With this project we will be using the newly automated ANU 2.3m telescope and the powerful WiFeS optical spectrograph to perform a time-series measurement of luminous active galaxies (AGN) using the technique of Quasar Reverberation Mapping. Read more Student intake Open for Bachelor, Honours, PhD students People Professor Robert Sharp Read more Load more Articles Higher Degree Research Information Days Read the article RSAA researchers riding big waves in accretion disks Aiming to find out if the turbulence in the large-scale disk was the same as that found in small-scale simulations, they performed demanding computations on National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) supercomputers at the ANU campus. Read the article 3-D relativistic galactic jet simulation This is a movie rendered in three dimensions of a supercomputer simulation of a powerful relativistic jet interacting with dense clouds surrounding an active galactic nucleus. Read the article Load More toc