Tara Murphy
{{short description|Australian astrophysicist and researcher}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
Prof. Tara Murphy is an Australian Astrophysicist and CAASTRO (the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics) chief investigator working in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney.{{Cite news|last=Slezak|first=Michael|date=2017-10-16|title=Neutron stars collision: Australian science reacts – as it happened|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/live/2017/oct/17/neutron-stars-collision-australian-science-reacts-live|access-date=2020-07-02|issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web|title=2014 Australian Frontiers of Science - participants {{!}} Australian Academy of Science|url=https://www.science.org.au/news-and-events/events/edges-astronomy/2014-australian-frontiers-science-participants|access-date=2020-07-02|website=www.science.org.au|language=en}} Murphy led a group that first confirmed radio emissions from the 2017 Neutron Star Merger event which provided evidence for a global scientific announcement in the field of gravitational waves.{{Cite web|title=Gravitational waves: Australian scientists first to confirm radio signals from two colliding stars|url=https://www.sbs.com.au/news/gravitational-waves-australian-scientists-first-to-confirm-radio-signals-from-two-colliding-stars|access-date=2020-07-02|website=SBS News|language=en}}
Education
Murphy completed a Bachelor of Science at the University of Sydney and a PhD (Astrophysics) at the University of Edinburgh.{{Cite web|title=Women in Astronomy: The Contemporary Women in Astronomy|url=https://maas.museum/observations/2018/03/23/women-in-astronomy-the-contemporary-women-in-astronomy/|access-date=2020-07-02|website=Observations|language=en-US}}
Career
In 2013, Murphy co-founded a start-up company called Grok Learning with James Curran, Nicky Ringland and Tim Dawborn which is an online learning platform that teaches computing to school students.{{cite web|url=https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2016/10/19/uni-initiative-programs-students-for-careers-in-coding.html |access-date=2024-12-29 |date=2016-10-19 |publisher=The University of Sydney |title=Uni initiative programs students for careers in coding}}
During the global effort to record the 2017 Neutron Star Merger,{{Cite news|first=Hannah |last= Devlin Science|date=2017-10-16|title=New frontier for science as astronomers witness neutron stars colliding|language=en-GB|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/oct/16/astronomers-witness-neutron-stars-collide-global-rapid-response-event-ligo|access-date=2020-07-02|issn=0261-3077}}{{Cite web|last=October 2017|first=Steve Spaleta 16|title=When Neutron Stars Collide! What the Hubble Telescope and Others Saw (Videos)|url=https://www.space.com/38473-neutron-star-collision-videos-by-hubble-telescope-others.html|access-date=2020-07-02|website=Space.com|language=en}} Murphy led a group at the University of Sydney that confirmed the first radio signals of gravitational waves that were caused by two neutron stars colliding in a galaxy 130 million light-years from Earth. This discovery was made 15 days after these gravitational waves were first reported by an international team of scientists and astronomers.
In 2019, Murphy and their PhD student gathered data using the CSIRO's Australia Telescope Compact Array at Narrabri in New South Wales to observe radio emissions created by a shockwave from a mysterious cosmic 'cow' explosion, and potential birth of a black hole. Their findings suggested that there was a magnetar at the core of the supernova, and that this event was different from the typical supernova as there was energy that continued to power the explosion allowing the 'cow' to inexplicably become brighter with time.{{Cite web|date=2019-01-10|title=Astronomers may have seen the birth of a black hole for the first time|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2019-01-11/cow-cosmic-blast-supernova-black-hole-magnetar/10703320|access-date=2020-07-02|website=www.abc.net.au|language=en-AU}}
Honours and recognition
- 2019 ARC Discovery Project: "Radio follow-up of gravitational wave events"
- 2016 ARC Future Fellow: "The radio transient sky in real time"
- 2012 Young Tall Poppy Award
- 2011 ARC Discovery Project: "Extreme Events: Mining the Radio Sky for Gamma-ray Bursts with Intelligent Algorithms"
- 2010 ARC Super Science: "New Dimensions in Radio Astronomy: Mining Sparse Datasets with the Australian SKA Pathfinder"{{Cite web|title=Tara Murphy|url=https://theconversation.com/profiles/tara-murphy-1082|access-date=2020-07-02|website=The Conversation|language=en}}