THE SCIENCE IN THE NIGHT SKY

The spectacular, unpolluted night skies of Takapo ˉ attract people from all over the world, including top astronomers and physicists, according to University of Canterbury astronomer and director of the University of Canterbury Mt John Observatory, associate professor Karen Pollard.

“The University of Canterbury's astronomical observatory on top of Mt John provides outstanding conditions for observations and discoveries of the southern sky and is New Zealand's premier optical astronomical research observatory,” she says in background material provided by Nga ˉ i Tahu Tourism.

“Experiencing a truly dark night sky can inspire a sense of awe and wonder about our place in the universe – this is what motivates us both as researchers and as human beings.

“Gravitational microlensing, stellar and planetary systems, asteroseismology, pulsating stars, astroparticle physics, dark matter, general relativity and cosmology – our scientists are looking at all these and more.

“University of Canterbury astronomers are involved in discovering how many Earth- like planets exist in our Milky Way galaxy and understanding the formation and evolution of stellar and planetary systems. They study the pulsations of stars to understand their structure and evolution.

“UC astrophysicists study the high energy universe through neutrinos, study the nature of dark matter and work on the theories of general relativity, black holes and dark energy,” the background material says.