![[Sunset on Mauna Kea]](sunset.jpg)
| Welcome to my homepage! I'm a lecturer in the Astrophysics Group here at the University of Bristol. My work involves using the recently launched Chandra and XMM-Newton satellites to study the X-rays emitted by high redshift (very distant) galaxy clusters. A cluster of galaxies contains hundreds or thousands of galaxies (many very much like our own) and a similar mass of hot, ionised gas which emits strongly in the X-rays, but a cluster is dominated by invisible 'dark matter', the nature of which is unknown, but the subject of intense study!
Galaxy clusters are the most massive gravitationally bound objects in the universe, and as such their properties are predicted by cosmological models (models describing the way the universe began and evolved). We can investigate these properties by observing the galaxies and the hot gas in clusters, and when compared with cosmological predictions, this gives us a very useful method with which to test cosmological models - a method which is particularly powerful when applied to high redshift clusters. The picture above shows the sunset over the telescopes of Mauna Kea (Hawaii) during an observing trip in April 2001. To find out more about me and my work, follow these links... |
As Superman correctly notes using his X-ray vision, galaxy clusters are extremely massive! |