Master Of Science In Space Sciences And Astronomy in University of Malta, Malta

Master Of Science In Space Sciences And Astronomy in University of Malta

Space science is the study of natural phenomena beyond Earth bound experiments. This ranges from optimizing the design of telescopes to understanding the inner workings of gravitational waves from binary black holes. The primary topics of the course are astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology. Astronomy is principally the study of making observations of space. Given the large amount of data available to astronomers, the processing techniques must be very novel to handle all this in a timely fashion. This has led to many industrial applications in finance, gaming, and many other industries. Astrophysics aims to broaden our understanding of the various objects present in the Universe. These range from the average star such as our Sun, to black holes where the extremes of gravity can produce the most violent events ever observed. Finally, cosmology concerns itself with a larger view of the Universe where the goal is to understand the history of the Universe from the big bang to the present. This means understanding the role of dark energy and exploring the different competing theories of gravity.

The Master’s Programme will offer students the possibility to tackle some of the major problems plaguing space science ranging from designing new radio astronomy antennas to be implemented in new and upcoming radio astronomy project to how alternative theories of gravity would modify cosmological dynamics. These problems require different skillsets, which range from theoretical subjects to more programming based topics, such as modelling large scale structure growth and so on. Depending on the project, the skill set acquired in this course has applicability in industry.

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of this Master’s programme, graduates are expected to have attained the following knowledge and skills:

• Have knowledge of a broad range of mathematical skills to work with advanced geometry
• Have knowledge of the underlying physical laws that govern different space science regimes
• Depending on the particular problem, be able to complete a number of scientific computing problems such as numerical techniques and so on.

Course intended for

This course is intended for those students who have some background knowledge in one of the following subjects from a technical viewpoint: astronomy, astrophysics or cosmology.

Career opportunites and access to further studies

Primarily this programme serves as a feeder course for students intending to further their studies to PhD level in cosmology or astrophysics in general. However there are a number of other opportunities available for graduates of this course. These are very wide and vary depending on the particular nature of the problem the student chooses to tackle.