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07-04-2020
ERC Advanced Grant for Erwin de Blok
| Submitter: | Erwin de Blok |
| Description: | Prof. Dr. Erwin de Blok from the Astronomy Group has been awarded a 2.5 MEuro European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant for his "MeerGas" project. The aim of this research project is to use the SKA precursor telescope MeerKAT in South Africa to make extremely deep observations of the neutral hydrogen in 30 nearby galaxies. Neutral hydrogen is the gas from which the stars are formed in galaxies. Most galaxies, however, contain only enough gas to form stars for just a fraction of their life. This means they have to get gas from somewhere else. Computer simulations suggest that this gas is located in the space between the galaxies and is slowly captured by the galaxies. The radio emission from this gas is very faint and has therefore never been unambiguously observed. MeerGas will also use and develop new techniques with which the large data volumes that MeerKAT will produce can be efficiently analysed. The research program will help prepare for the even larger amount of data that the SKA will produce. The ERC Advanced Grant is awarded on the basis of both the applicant's scientific excellence and the research proposal and is the largest personal grant that the ERC awards. |
| Copyright: | credit: South African Radio Astronomical Observatory |
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