ALT Dr Belinda Nicholson Postdoctoral Research Assistant in Astrophysics

ALT My research is in hunting for exoplanets (planets that orbit other stars). Once focus of my work is on confirming planet candidates found by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite using radial velocity observations from ground based high-resolution spectrographs. I collaborate with astronomers in Australia to use the MINERVA Australis telescope facility for a lot of this work. Another focus of my work is looking at ways of measuring and analysing stellar behaviour using to improve our planet detection capabilities.

ALT Outside of my research I am passionate about public engagement - science should be for everyone to enjoy! Outside of work I like swim and run. I love watching and playing Australian Rules football, and I’m part of the Oxford University Australian Rules Football Club. I also really enjoy all sort of craft activities / baking / gardening: making something with your hands is a nice difference from sitting in front of a computer all day.

ALT Being an observational astronomer, I have had the privilege to travel to observatories in remote places to take data. One of my favourite places to visit is La Silla Observatory in the Chilean Andes. It is a wonderful site for astronomy and hosts one of the best radial velocity instruments in the world. The mountain itself is a great place to explore and spend time with its wildlife, including guanacos, viscachas (google them, they are adorable) and Andean condors, and ancient petroglyphs off the side of the mountain.

ALT Dr Rebecca Smethurst Junior Research Fellow in Astrophysics

ALT I’m currently trying to work out how do the supermassive black holes in the centres of galaxies grow? Surprisingly, it’s not actually that easy to grow a black hole; most material will happily orbit a black hole in the same way the Earth orbits the Sun. You have to have a process which drives material inwards. In the past people thought the merger of two galaxies would do this, but my recent research has shown the galaxy itself should be able to do this, perhaps with spiral arms acting like funnels to drive material in to the black hole in the centre. I’m still trying to work out how fast the galaxy can do this and if there are other processes involved too.

ALT I was a “why child” - constantly asking questions to anyone and everyone. I don’t think I ever lost that curiosity as a I got older and eventually I found myself asking questions that my parents and teachers and even the internet didn’t know. At that point I realised I was asking questions that no one knew the answer to and that if I wanted to know the answer then I was going to have to become a scientist. I’d always been fascinated by space the most (owning telescopes and a mountain of space books) so it just made perfect sense for me to go to university to study Physics with Astronomy. I absolutely loved my degree; every single part of it was fascinating and I think my professors and tutors met the “why child” in me as well!

ALT As an astrophysicist you get to use telescopes in some of the most far flung observatories in the world that area away from light pollution, in dry areas, high up above the clouds. My favourite I’ve been to so far is the observatory on top of Mauna Kea, Hawaii, USA. The rocks are red and the landscape so alien it feels like you could be on Mars. Plus, the night sky was incredible, I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Milky Way look so wonderfully detailed stretching out overhead. Plus, once the observations were done and the data was taken, I had a few more days in Hawaii to explore and go scuba diving: the perfect trip!