Each summer RSAA offer a number of Summer Research Scholarships, which enable suitably qualified undergraduates to spend 8 to 11 weeks at Mount Stromlo working on a research project under the supervision of an RSAA astronomer. The Scholarships provide a first-hand view of the work at a research observatory and scholars have access to state-of-the-art optical, infra-red, radio and computational facilities. Areas of research include star formation, stellar evolution, galactic dynamics, observational cosmology, active galactic nuclei, interstellar-medium physics, computational astrophysics and planetary science.

These scholarships are intended for currently enrolled undergraduate students in universities in Australia and New Zealand completing the third or fourth year of a full-time course leading to an honours degree. Outstanding second year students who are intending to complete an honours degree may also be considered.

This year we hope to be able to offer the 6 unit undergraduate subject, Astrophysics Research Topic - ASTR3005, in conjunction with our Summer Scholarship Program. This option would be available to currently enrolled ANU students and non-ANU students who are eligible for cross-institutional study at their home institution. All students must meet the course entry requirements. Our now renowned annual Summer Scholarship Research Program will continue to be available.

More available research projects will be linked in here in due course.

The project aims to carry out a study of the evolutionary history of our nearest galactic neighbour, the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). In particular we will determine the rate of star formation and chemical enrichment over the life of the LMC. We will also trace the timeline of the LMC's interactions withthe Milky Way and with the Small Magellanic Cloud. The data for the project will come from observations to be obtained at the Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Sprong Observatory.

Skills developed: Knowledge of stellar spectra, data reduction and analysis methods, as well as observing methods through participation in the preparations for and execution of at least one AAT observing run at SSO.

High redshift radio galaxies are beacons of star formation in the early universe. They have been discovered by virtue of their steep radio spectra and once upon a time it was thought that this was the result of redshifting a typical radio galaxy spectrum. However, recent research by Ekers and Feain gave shown that the steep spectra are a result of environment. In this project we shall construct a model for the evolution of a radio galaxy spectrum which involves the injection of freshly accelerated relativistic particles into an expanding bubble. The expansion of the bubble is determined by the local environment.

Are the exoplanet statistics from the Doppler technique and the transit tenchnique consistent?

Want to be part of refining a NEW telescope? RSAA's new telescope, SkyMapper, has never-before-seen commissioning data which needs analysing as soon as possible. Help optimise this new instrument and be part of a world-first project.

Ever wondered how solar-mass stars form? And why all the solar planets lie in a plane? In order for material to accrete onto a protostar it has to lose angular momentum, which leads to the formation of a circumstellar disk as the cloud collapses. Investigate how these processes occur.

The Magellanic Clouds have been monitored extensively by microlensing experiments such as MACHO and OGLE, allowing the detection of variable stars. They have also been examined in the mid-infrared by the Spitzer Space telescope. In this project, you will examine selected Magellanic Cloud clusters looking for variable stars in the MACHO and OGLE databases and you will also obtain near- and mid-infrared fluxes from the 2MASS and SAGE surveys. This will allow estimates of the luminosity and mass loss rate for stars whose initial mass
is known from cluster membership.

Using state-of the-art simulations, this project aims to examine the history and future of our very own star, the Sun. Starting from the Sun's birth, you will examine the change in brightness and temperature over the course of the Sun's life. You wil examine how the Sun's size (or radius, to be precise) changes with time, and determine if the Earth is to be swallowed at any point in the Sun's future. In articular you will examine some of the uncertainties that effect these predictions such as the treatment of convection, opacities, mass loss, and thermonuclear reaction rates in the simulations.

This project will process and analyze observations of galaxies that are known to contain black holes. The speed of stars as they orbit around their galactic center is connected to the size of the galaxy's supermassive black hole. The project's measurements of stellar velocities will increase the number of galaxies with which we can study this connection.

Active galactic nuclei belong to the most energetic sources in the universe. In the current model active galactic nuclei are composed of a supermassive black hole which is powered by the accretion of matter from the surrounding host galaxy. The interplay between active galactic nuclei and their host galaxies is a field of active research in the wider context of galaxy evolution. Of particular interest are the mechanisms involved in the fuelling of the active galactic nucleus with matter from the host galaxy and in the feedback of the active galactic nucleus on gas and stars in the host galaxies. This project will provide hands-on experience with the processing and analysis of observational data of active galactic nuclei and their host galaxies.