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The Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope creates a new atlas of the Universe. Credit: CSIRO
A world-leading CSIRO radio telescope conducted its first survey of the entire southern sky with record speed and detail, creating a new atlas of the Universe.
The Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), developed and operated by the Australian national science agency CSIRO, has mapped around three million galaxies in just 300 hours.
The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey is like a Google map of the Universe where most of the millions of star-like points on the map are distant galaxies, about a million of which we have never seen before.
CSIRO’s CEO, Dr. Larry Marshall, said ASKAP has combined world-class infrastructure with scientific and engineering expertise to uncover the Universe’s deepest secrets.
“ASKAP is applying the latest in science and technology to age-old questions about the mysteries of the Universe and is providing astronomers around the world with new discoveries to solve their challenges,” said Dr. Marshall.
“It is all enabled by innovative CSIRO-developed receivers that feature phased array power technology, which sees ASKAP generate more raw data at a faster rate than all of Australia’s Internet traffic.
“At a time when we have access to more data than ever before, ASKAP and the supercomputers that support it are providing unprecedented insights and using the tools that will support our data-driven future to make life better for all.”
Australian SKA Pathfinder Radio Telescope in the day. Credit: CSIRO
Minister of Industry, Science and Technology Karen Andrews said ASKAP is another outstanding example of Australia’s leading radio astronomy capabilities.
“ASKAP is a major technological development that puts our scientists, engineers and industry in the driver’s seat to lead deep space discovery for the next generation. This new survey shows that we are ready to make a huge leap forward in the field of radio astronomy, ”said Minister Andrews.
The key feature of the telescope is its wide field of view, generated by the new receivers designed by CSIRO, which allow ASKAP to take panoramic photos of the sky in amazing detail.
Using ASKAP at CSIRO’s Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in the outback of Western Australia, the research team observed 83% of the entire sky.
The first results were published on November 30, 2020 in Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.
This record-breaking result demonstrates that a full-sky survey can be done in weeks rather than years, opening up new opportunities for discovery.
The new data will allow astronomers to undertake statistical analyzes of large populations of galaxies, in the same way that social researchers use information from a national census.
Australian SKA Pathfinder Radio Telescope at night. Credit: CSIRO
“This census of the Universe will be used by astronomers around the world to explore the unknown and study everything from star formation to how galaxies and their supermassive black holes evolve and interact,” the lead author said. CSIRO astronomer, Dr. David McConnell.
With ASKAP’s advanced receivers, the RACS team only needed to combine 903 images to form the complete sky map, significantly fewer than the tens of thousands of images required for previous all-sky radio surveys conducted by the world’s leading telescopes.
“For the first time, ASKAP flexed all its muscles, building a map of the Universe in more detail than ever and at record speed. We expect to find tens of millions of new galaxies in future investigations, ”said Dr. McConnell.
The 13.5 exabytes of raw data generated by ASKAP was processed using custom hardware and software from CSIRO.
The Pawsey Supercomputing Center’s “Galaxy” supercomputer converted the data into 2D radio images containing a total of 70 billion pixels.
The final 903 images and supporting information amount to 26 terabytes of data.
Pawsey Executive Director Mark Stickells said supercomputing capability was a key part of ASKAP’s design.
“The Pawsey Supercomputing Center has worked closely with CSIRO and the ASKAP team since the beginning and we are proud to provide an essential infrastructure that supports science with great impact,” said Stickells.
Survey images and catalogs will be made publicly available through the CSIRO Data Access Portal and hosted at Pawsey.
ASKAP’s advanced technologies are providing insights for the development of Square Kilometer Array (SKA), an international mega-science project to build the world’s largest radio telescopes.
CSIRO will host the low frequency SKA telescope at the MRO.
CSIRO recognizes the Wajarri Yamaji as the traditional owners of the MRO site.
Reference: “The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey I: Design and first results” by D. McConnell, CL Hale, E. Lenc, JK Banfield, George Heald, AW Hotan, James K. Leung, Vanessa A. Moss, Tara Murphy, Andrew O’Brien [Opens in a new window]Joshua Pritchard, Wasim Raja, Elaine M. Sadler, Adam Stewart, Alec JM Thomson, M. Whiting, James R. Allison, SW Amy, C. Anderson, Lewis Ball, Keith W. Bannister, Martin Bell, Douglas C.- J . Bock, Russ Bolton, JD Bunton, AP Chippendale, JD Collier, FR Cooray, TJ Cornwell, PJ Diamond, PG Edwards, N. Gupta, Douglas B. Hayman, Ian Heywood, CA Jackson, Bärbel S. Koribalski, Karen Lee- Waddell and NM McClure-Griffiths, November 30, 2020, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.
DOI: 10.1017 / pasa.2020.41
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