Introduction
Astronomy and astrophysics are concerned with the study of the nature and distribution of matter and radiation throughout all time and space in the Universe. Astronomers have always been keen to harness the latest technological advances in their quest for ever more precise and revealing observations. As a consequence, astronomy in recent years has been one of the most rapidly expanding of all physical sciences and many exciting and often quite unexpected discoveries continue to be made.
The Department
The Department of Physics and Astronomy has a vigorous and exciting programme of teaching and research often using state-of-the-art facilities as part of its core work. Field stations for meteor and atmospheric research are located at Birdlings Flat and at Scott Base, Antarctica. The Department operates an observatory at Mount John, Tekapo for astronomy projects including the search for extra-solar planets.
As well as these, the Department has many collaborations nationally and internationally that give access to some of the best facilities around the world. For example, we are a member of the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) group which operates an 11-metre telescope in South Africa. We also have a major collaboration with Nagoya University in Japan, who installed a 1.8-metre telescope at Mount John for finding planets orbiting distant Milky Way stars.