South African MeerKAT discovery of two Giant Radio Galaxies

We are thrilled to promote the new discovery led by Dr Jacinta Delhaize, a Research Fellow at the University of Cape Town, Dr Matthew Prescott, a Research Fellow at the University of the Western Cape (UWC), and Dr Ian Heywood, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford. Together with UWC professors Lerothodi Leeuw, Russ …

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Star Formation — the Tai Chi between Gravity, Turbulence and Magnetic Fields (Webinar, Friday 11th September @ 11:30)

Li Hua-bai (Chinese University of Hong Kong) Since 1980’s, astronomers realized that gravity, turbulence and magnetic fields may all take part in the process of star formation. But how exactly these three forces interact with each other and result in the observed, e.g., star formation rate, efficiency, and stellar mass distribution remains as one of …

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RADIOSKY2020 Italy-South Africa Research Programme (ISARP) Virtual Workshop (18 June 2020)

The University of the Western Cape (UWC)/Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA), Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF-IRA), and the Italian Embassy hosted the RADIOSKY2020 Workshop virtually on 18 June 2020. Find here a summary about the event https://www.idia.ac.za/radiosky2020-italy-south-africa-research-programme-isarp-virtual-workshop and here most presentations https://www.idia.ac.za/radiosky-2020-workshop/ Image Credit: Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, generated by …

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Importance of WN stars on the ionisation and chemical evolution of galaxies (Webinar, Friday 22nd May @ 11:30)

Arpita Roy (Australian National University) Massive stars are primary sources of chemical yields and mechanical and ionization luminosity budgets. Therefore, understanding massive stars’ evolution is crucial to have a complete understanding of the chemical and ionization evolution of galaxies. Moreover, with the advent of instruments like MUSE, JWST (upcoming), HST, etc., we have (/are going …

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UWC Astro sponsors Molo Mhlaba visit to SAAO

Girls from Grades 1 & 2 from the Molo Mhlaba School (www.molomhlaba.org) in Khayelitsha visited the South African Astronomical Observatory today to celebrate International Women’s Day. The trip was made possible by the Astro UWC department, which covered the costs of the visit. The school, in partnership with Astro UWC and the Office of Astronomy …

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On the origin of Lithium

Paolo Molaro (Astronomical Observatory of Trieste) Abstract: Li is the element with the largest number of astrophysical nucleosynthetic processes. Although a primordial element, it is also produced by spallation processes in the interstellar medium, in a slow process lasting billions of years. The Li abundance in the old halo population of the Galaxy, however, is …

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Tensions in cosmological data: impact of non standard models and systematic effects

Matteo Martinelli (Instituto de Fisica Teorica UAM/CSIC) Abstract: In recent years, measurements of cosmological parameters coming from different observables have shown tensions between each other, the most striking the approximately 4.5 sigma tension on the Hubble constant between CMB and local measurements. In this talk I will briefly review the status of these tensions and …

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