Welcome! I am an astronomer in the School of Science at the University of New South Wales Canberra.
My research interests are focused on identifying and characterising some of the youngest stars in the Solar neighbourhood. These young, nearby star systems are ideal laboratories for understanding early stellar evolution and probing the diverse conditions under which stars and, importantly, planets form.
To accomplish this I use observations from a variety of telescopes and satellites, including the latest all-sky surveys here in Australia. I am also interested in the international Virtual Observatory effort, which is developing standards for the discovery, exchange and analysis of astronomical data by computers and astronomers alike.
From 2016 to 2020 I was a Vice Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellow at UNSW Canberra, following a two year Gliese Fellowship at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. I completed my Ph.D. at the Australian National University's Mount Stromlo Observatory in 2012.
…for a more technical description of my work, see my research page.
Latest Publications
Yong, D. et al., including Murphy, S. J., 2021, Accepted for publication in MNRAS.
arXiv: 2107.06430
Yong, D. et al., including Murphy, S. J., 2021, Nature, 595, 223.
arXiv: 2107.03010
Cordoni, G. et al., including Murphy, S. J., 2021, MNRAS, 503(2), 2539.
arXiv: 2011.01189
Murphy, S. J., Lawson, W. A., Onken, C. A., Yong, D., Da Costa, G. S., Zhou, G., Mamajek, E. E., Bell, C. P. M., Bessell, M. S. & Feinstein, A. D., 2020, MNRAS, 491(4), 4902.
arXiv: 1911.05925
Nguyen-Thanh, D., Phan-Bao, N., Murphy, S. J. & Bessell, M. S., 2020, A&A, 634, A128.
arXiv: 2001.08890
Lee, J., Song, I. & Murphy, S. J., 2020, MNRAS, 494(1), 62.
arXiv: 2002.12600
…more on my publications page.
School of Science
University of NSW Canberra
Northcott Drive, ACT 2600
Australia
(Map)
Ngunnawal Country
☆Recent work
Credit: J. Pinfield/Uni. of Hertfordshire.
My co-authors and I recently published the first detailed examination of the 24 million year-old M-dwarf eclipsing binary THOR 42.
To better measure the masses, radii, temperatures and ages of the two stars, we obtained observations from the ANU 2.3-m telescope, the Magellan 6.5-m in Chile and the TESS satellite, among other facilities. THOR 42 is now one of the most precisely characterised pre-main sequence eclipsing binaries known, and a vital touchstone object against which to test theoretical models of stellar evolution.
You can read more on the arXiv or in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
Background image credit: Akira Fujii.
I acknowledge that I live and work on the land of the Ngunnawal people, and pay my respects to their Elders, both past and present.