As part of the preparation for the 2029 REF, the Astronomy group requested ongoing support from the SRSG for developing impact case studies. Astronomy generates a vast amount of data, but much is not conveyed to the public. The SRSG has helped the Astronomy & Astrophysics group explore sonifying astronomy data.
One project has tested how the Galaxy Zoo citizen science platform could help with the identification of periodic signals in sonifications of noisy data. Another has developed an outreach website based on surveys from the European Space Agency’s GAIA mission. The site sonifies the satellite’s measurements of the distance and motion of billions of stars in our galaxy, and is aimed to be the basis of a grant application for further funding.
The SRSG has also helped train the department in tooling and techniques to help maximise their impact.