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Purple Glow

STARS, GALAXIES, AND STATISTICS

PADDY ALTON

I'm a PhD student at Durham University's Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy. I study the stellar populations of nearby massive galaxies. We're figuring out how and when galaxies were formed and what links the large-scale physics of galaxy formation to the small-scale physics of star formation.

ABOUT

I'm interested in how data and statistics can be used to learn about the world around us, whether that's understanding how galaxies and stars form, or what people think (and why they think it). Expect astrophysics, politics, and sport.

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Bouncing Light Balls
The Stars
Star Cluster

ASTRONOMY WORK

Some of what I've been doing during my PhD: integral field spectroscopy (comes in both optical and infrared flavours), Bayesian statistics, early-type galaxies and their stellar populations.

KINETYS: CONSTRAINING SPATIAL VARIATIONS OF THE STELLAR INITIAL MASS FUNCTION IN EARLY-TYPE GALAXIES

February 23, 2017

In which I use spatially-resolved infrared spectroscopy of nearby massive galaxies to test whether turbulent, rapid star formation in the cores of massive galaxies leads to unusual stellar populations there.

KINETYS II: CONSTRAINTS ON VARIATIONS OF THE STELLAR INITIAL MASS FUNCTION FROM K-BAND SPECTROSCOPY

Submitted for publication

The K-band is the last stop before you leave the near infrared. Observations here are tricky but it's a great place to look if you want to learn new things about the low temperature dwarf stars and giants contained in other galaxies.

OTHER PEOPLE'S PAPERS: MY ASTROBITES ARTICLES

2016-2017

Astrobites is a "reader's digest for astronomers". We write short articles pitched at an undergraduate level summarising the key science and findings from recently published papers.

EXTRAS

Labour_rising_share.jpg

POLLING ANALYSIS

Some thoughts on polls, parties, and public opinion

R&R photo.jpg

COACHING RESOURCES

My guide to coaching a collegiate rowing team

GET IN TOUCH

If you need to contact me, you can use the box or else the contact details below...

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