Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory
The Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) is Australia's premier radio observatory location. It will host the core of the Australian-New Zealand component of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope. The MRO hosts other "pathfinder" telescopes, built to develop technology for the SKA.
Australian SKA Pathfinder telescope
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The Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope is CSIRO's innovative new radio telescope nearing completion at the MRO. It is made of 36 identical 12-metre wide dish antennas and will form the basis of a 100-dish survey telescope to be built in SKA's first phase. Learn more about ASKAP at CSIRO's ASKAP page.
ASKAP is equipped with innovative Phased Array Feed (PAF) receivers designed and built by CSIRO. PAF receivers provide multi-pixel images of the sky, allowing it to survey large areas of the sky quickly. This 'radio camera' is a vast improvement on existing radio telescopes, helping to more easily identify changing items of interest, as well as map large scale structures in the universe. Technologies developed for ASKAP will be used in the further 64 dish antennas to be built at the MRO in the SKA's first phase. |
Murchison Widefield Array
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The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) is a revolutionary low-frequency telescope with no moving parts. By computing the received signals with a supercomputer, radiowaves from sections of the sky are isolated. It is possible for the telescope to be shared between observers studying different parts of the sky at once. Knowledge gained from the MWA will contribute to the development of the low-frequency component of the SKA to be built at the MRO with remote stations across Australia. Learn more about the MWA at the MWA telescope homepage. |