The Laboratory for Experimental Astrophysics enables Cardiff scientists to develop new technologies for astronomy research. A major feature is the ability to create new instruments and to conduct experiments at the lowest possible temperatures - at just one-tenth of a degree above absolute zero, or minus 273 degrees Celsius.

Such capabilities, built into new ground-based telescopes, satellite and balloon-borne observatories, are vital to detect faint radiation signals in space, such as the Cosmic Microwave Background, a remnant of the Big Bang. As an example of the sensitivity and sophistication of the facilities, if the Sun was replaced by a single bar electric fire, instruments designed at Cardiff would be able to detect the heat from it from here on Earth!

At a launch event for the laboratories on Friday November 21st, Rhodri Morgan, the First Minister for Wales, described the facilities as "a major step forward in cosmology and astrophysics work at Cardiff." "The accumulation of global top level research, with its spin out and job creation capabilities is impressive to the funding world. It presses all the right buttons for me," he said.

The technology has applications in other fields, such as medical imaging and atmospheric studies. The laboratories are funded by grants totalling nearly 2 million [pounds sterling] from the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales and the Joint Infrastructure Fund (JIF) - an initiative of the Wellcome Trust and the Department for Trade and Industry's Office of Science and Technology, and administered by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council.

The new facilities are home to the Astronomy Instrumentation Group, part of the School of Physics and Astronomy. Since its creation some four years ago the Group has attracted research funds in excess of 10 million [pounds sterling] and has created 40 new high-tech posts in Cardiff.

QMC Instruments Ltd, a spin-out company marketing some of the technology developed in the lab, has also expanded with the group and now has an annual turnover of 1 million [pounds sterling] and employs five people. The Group also supports local industry by contracting out many tasks such as machining, electronic design and manufacturing.

The Group's experiments probe the very early Universe and answer questions about how stars, planets and galaxies have evolved from the tiny seeds created at the time of the Big Bang. Experiments also look at questions closer-to-home like how planetary systems form the atmospheres of planets and our own Earth.

The Group delivers training to undergraduate and postgraduate students and hosts visits from other world class institutions including the universities of Princeton, Stanford, Caltech and Pennsylvania and laboratories at NASA and the European Science Agency.

"Astronomy has always grabbed the imagination of the public, but at Cardiff we're demonstrating that skills in physics and mathematics can be vital for the economic future health of the nation," said head of the Group, Professor Walter Gear.

"The calibre of the work undertaken at Cardiff enhances the skills of those employed or trained within the Group, and enables our students and visitors to go out into the world spreading the name of Cardiff University and Wales as a major centre for technical and scientific excellence in astrophysics and space science," he said.

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