When Rami Alsaberi contacted the Penrith Observatory in western Sydney soon after arriving in Australia, all he wanted was to be able to fulfil his childhood dream of looking beyond the stars.
Three years on, the Iraqi refugee is a lead researcher at the facility and recently made an exciting new discovery, which has seen his research published in one of the world's most prestigious astronomy journals.
Mr Alsaberi led the discovery of the first moving pulsar in The Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy near the Milky Way, which is visible from Earth.
Mr Alsaberi tells SBS Arabic24: “This pulsing star is really unique in both the small and large Magellanic Cloud.”
“This is the only pulsar that moves in both galaxies, and our mission now is to find out what is the dynamic behind this movement,” he added.
Mr Alsaberi, 36, arrived in Australia as part of the UNHCR refugee resettlement scheme.
Source: SBS
He moved from the Iraqi capital Baghdad to Jordan in 2013, before being resettled in a third country, in his case, Australia.
But during his long journey, he never lost focus on his desire for a career in astronomy.
He studied astronomy at the University of Baghdad, where he completed his Masters, but it wasn't until his third month in Australia that he started to look for observatories.
“I live in Liverpool, so the closest one for me was Western Sydney University’s observatory in Penrith.”
He reached out to Professor Miroslav Filipovic, from the university’s School of Computing, Engineering and Mathematics and the director of the observatory.
Source: SBS
“[Prof Filipovic] welcomed me and offered to meet with me, now he is my PhD supervisor,” Mr Alsaberi says.
“He was the one who suggested that I do PhD because my degree from Baghdad University is recognised in Australia, and I don’t need further study to start the PhD.”
His degree took him through the door of the observatory, but no further, as the study of astronomy in Iraq is all theoretical because there are limited tools for observation.
However, Mr Alsaberi was excited to take what he read in the books into the field.
“Everything was new, I hold a degree in astronomy but here the study is very practical, you use the telescopes and collect data and analyse it, it was all new to me.”
A unique discovery
Mr Alsaberi recalls that his professor had asked him to explore an area in the Small Magellanic Cloud, where he believed there may have been a pulsar, but couldn’t confirm.
The data was from 2008 and the equipment used back then is now outdated.
Mr Alsaberi remembered his excitement at cementing the discovery.
“We worked on the telescopes, gathered the data and we came out with a new image that confirms there is a pulsar there,” he says.
Pulsars are a type of neutron star, which results from the death of a star with a mass much heavier than our sun.
The death of the star results in a massive explosion called a supernova, and pulsars can be found in supernova remnants.
Pulsars are used as tools to study the universe, they are called the lighthouses of the universe and the universe's most accurate clocks.
Mr Alsaberi's discovery is unique because the pulsar he spotted moves, and doesn’t just rotate around itself while stationary. The team is now determined to understand the dynamics behind it.
“We already have another proposal to use a very advanced x-ray device in order to understand more this pulsar's dynamic.”
He and his team published a paper about their discovery in the , one of the leading peer-reviewed astronomy journals.
One of the fastest moving pulsars traveling through space. Source: Western Sydney University
“It's an unbelievable feeling, so far I had three dreams that came true - I came to Australia, I started my PhD and I visited some of the best radio telescopes in Australia, I can’t describe my feelings.”
Despite his successes, he says there is still a "long way to go".
“I am still at my first step, I don’t know what the future might bring me.”
But his conservative assessment of the future cannot hide his excitement about astronomy.
“When I was a child I always looked at the sky, I would see all these stars and ask many questions about them,” he says.
“I still can’t answer all my childhood questions, but I got answers for at least my basic simple questions.”
When he chose to study astronomy in Iraq he was warned that he wouldn't be able to find a job through this degree. But it didn’t deter him away from his passion.
“I told them I love astronomy.
“I am not interested in work opportunities as much as I am interested in developing myself and learning more about astronomy."
