Recent content by matt.o

If you want to combine python and iraf, you may find pyraf useful: http://www.stsci.edu/institute/software_hardware/pyraf

I have to guess at which paper you are referring to here. Initial claims of the incompatibility of the Bullet cluster with LCDM inferred the velocity of the Bullet subcluster from the shock properties. The velocity of the Bullet has been reduced for two reasons: 1) The newest Chandra...

That's science for you!

Really? What happens when you need to come up with your own ideas or set your own goals?

Caroline Foster did some work in finding and characterising voids in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. I am sure there is a trail of references to follow from her paper: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2009ApJ...699.1252F

3 seems most interesting to me since it involves observations plus some astrophysics to determine the age.

To determine the acceleration due to gravity at the periphery of a galaxy, you need to know three numbers. The first is the distance from the galaxy centre where your acceleration is to be calculated (the radius). The second is the total mass of the galaxy contained with that radius. The third...

Athena, but I am biased toward X-ray astronomy!

You might be best to aim for something like astrobiology, for example the Australian centre for astrobiology at UNSW (http://www.aca.absociety.org/aca/ ). You might also contact groups that are interested in molecular astronomy (e.g...

So you would class ApJ as a vanity publisher that has no credibility because they have page charges?

I am not sure if these questions are directed at me, but I'll answer anyway. The wavelength calibration looks okay to me. The Calcium H & K lines appear to be located at their expected positions (393.4 and 396.9nm), as do the Sodium D line (~589nm) and the hydrogen alpha (656.3nm), to name just...

The features seen at ~690, 720 and 760nm are due to absorption of the sunlight by molecules (water, I think) in the Earth's atmosphere. They are otherwise known as telluric absorption features.

Microlensing searches for such objects (otherwise known as MACHOs - Massive Compact Halo Objects) come up well short of the amount of matter needed to explain the missing mass. There is more info on the wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_compact_halo_object"

I think you need to go back and check the other links before you level any more accusations at those professors. To the OP: you will almost certainly require a Phd in order to obtain a career in astronomy research. Note, however, that even with a Phd it is not guaranteed you will have that...

Err, no. Perhaps you should go and reread the entry requirements: http://www.jcu.edu.au/eps/disciplines/astronomy/JCU_080272.html"