We have used 3D surveys that give us spectra for each pixel of light on surveys using optical and radio telescopes, to understand the accumulation of matter in the Universe over time. SAMI has been a game changer for studying why the stars in some galaxies rotate together in a nice, ordered manner, whilst the stars in other galaxies seem to have been thrown together in a jumbled mess. AGEL spectroscopy allowed us to map a 3D picture of the gravitational lenses to show they are genuine, and not merely chance, superposition, revealing the underlying dark and atomic matter.

ASTRO 3D’s periodic table is a powerful tool that summarises the origin of the chemical elements, showing the processes by which each element is synthesised and its abundance over time (from the Big Bang to the present). We used theoretical models, observations of ancient gas clouds in the early Universe, and chemical tagging of present-day stars in the Milky Way to develop both the roadmap and the atlas of atomic elements. Among our discoveries is the most iron-poor star in the Milky Way, and the finding that the amount of warm Carbon rapidly increased a billion years after the Big Bang.

Neutral atoms in the universe became ionised (lost their electrons) due to the intense radiation from the first stars and galaxies. The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) is getting closer to detecting the elusive radio wave signal from the early Universe that will reveal when the fog of neutral hydrogen gas was lifted. The observations provide critical input to theoretical simulations that predict the nature of the early Universe. Utilising JWST, our researchers have compiled the largest survey of galaxy properties during the peak of the reionisation period to establish that these galaxies started ionising the Universe at very early times.