Universe’s Wayback machine Astronomers have discovered a star on the other side of the Milky Way that helps provide answers about the very first stars in the Universe. Located 35,000 lights years from Earth, this is the most iron-deficient star ever detected. Dr Thomas Nordlander, from The...

NCI hosts the globally recognised SkyMapper data collection, a unique set of images of the Southern Sky, recently used to discover the fastest growing black hole in the last 9 billion years of cosmic history. Researchers from The Australian National University looking through the SkyMapper...

Astronomy has been a collaborative activity for a long time: ever since Indigenous Australians first started looking up at the sky. Until recently, we were collaborating by observing the sky together, sharing telescopes and images. Now, astronomy has made it easier to collect and share large...

NCI supports some of the world’s most ambitious and successful astronomy research. From international experimental collaborations to ambitious theoretical modelling, Australian astronomy projects have a breadth and depth requiring robust and reliable research infrastructure. Requirements include...

Researchers from ANU have discovered the oldest known star in the universe, with a little help from NCI. The discovery gives us clues to what the universe was like in its infancy, 13.7 billion years ago. The star was discovered using the ANU SkyMapper telescope, which is producing the first digital...

It will be a feat of cartography to rival the achievements of Captain James Cook, the most detailed map of the heavens ever compiled, charting a vast dome of stars extending from the equator to the South Pole. The Southern Sky Survey is a deep, digital map of all that can be viewed through the most...