The Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) is a new radio telescope that will provide an important testbed for SKA technology as well as being a world-leading telescope in its own right.
The telescope will be designed and built by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in collaboration with leading overseas astronomers and engineers.
The Australian Government has committed funding of A$111 million to the Australian SKA Pathfinder.
To help meet the scientific, technical and budgetary goals of the international SKA, the ASKAP telescope will develop and trial highly innovative new technologies on timescales consistent with the overall international SKA plan. ASKAP will comprise up to 36 12-metre antennas, each with a multi-element receiver, to enable unprecedented surveys of the sky.
The ASKAP project is currently in an intense phase of technology development. All areas are at the cutting-edge of technology and scientists and engineers from the CSIRO are achieving significant breakthroughs in the design and construction of revolutionary new radio feeds.
Pathfinder Science
The Pathfinder telescope will be able to detect hundreds of times more galaxies than previous radio telescopes, helping us to understand how galaxies have formed and evolved. It will help us to understand how our own Galaxy has developed, and its current structure.
It will also be a world leader in studies of pulsars, transient radio sources, and magnetic fields in space, helping to cast light on fundamental physics and processes at work in the universe today. The first scientific results are expected to begin flowing through in mid-2011, with the full telescope to be in use in 2013.
For further information about the Pathfinder telescope and associated scientific activities, please refer to the ASKAP website.
The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research
The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) is a joint venture between the University of Western Australia (UWA) and the Curtin University of Technology supported with AUD$20 million funding from the Government of Western Australia.
ICRAR aims to make a significant contribution to scientific and technical programs supporting the Australian SKA Pathfinder and SKA by participating in:
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key science programs involving large scale surveys, time-domain astronomy and data intensive research
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systems design and prototyping efforts
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research training, general education and public outreach.
ICRAR has a strong focus on developing collaborative partnerships with both science and industry partners and building critical mass in key areas that will support the SKA.
Current Activity at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory
The Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) is already open for business with a number of key experiments taking place on the site.
Murchison Widefield Array (MWA)
The largest of the current MRO experiments is the MWA, a large-scale, low-frequency interferometer being constructed by an international consortium of institutions.
The MWA is comprised of a number of "tiles" (each comprising 16 crossed-dipole antennas) whose signals are combined to track celestial radio sources. It will operate at frequencies between 80 and 300 MHz, with an instantaneous bandwidth of 32 MHz.
In November 2008, a prototype system of 32 tiles was deployed at the MRO. Initial data indicates that the system is working well. Deployment of the full system will commence in late 2009 with the final configuration expected to be completed by 2010.
The MWA's core partners include:
The science goals for the MWA are ambitious and include:
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the search for the Epoch of Reionisation, the period in the history of the Universe during which the predominantly neutral intergalactic medium was ionised by the emergence of the first stars or galaxies
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the study of transient radio sources
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solar and heliospheric research
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the investigation of galactic radio emission
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magnetic fields and pulsars
For more information, please refer to the MWA website.
Experiment to Detect the Global EoR Signature (EDGES)
The EDGES project is a collaboration between Caltech and MIT/Haystack Observatory, funded by the US National Science Foundation. A single low-frequency dipole antenna was deployed at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO), for a three-month automated observing campaign.
For more information, please refer to the EDGES website.