One million new galaxies found in the fastest radio detection of the sky so far

The more detailed and rapid survey of the southern sky has helped map around a million previously unknown galaxies. Using the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder radio telescope, scientists at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, have cut the time to complete such an intensive survey of space from years to less than two weeks.

In a study, published Monday in the journal Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, the first results of CSIRO’s Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey are reported. The agency describes the survey as a “Google map” of the universe, providing the most detailed atlas of the southern sky yet.

The key to the new atlas is ASKAP, which is not a single telescope but an array of 36 dish-shaped antennas stationed in the Western Australian desert. The array listens to radio waves from deep space and can see a region of the sky about 30 times larger than other contemporary radio arrays.

Taking over 900 images in around 300 hours, the team was able to put together a complete map of the southern sky at a higher resolution than in previous surveys. The images contain a total of 70 billion pixels, and 3 million galaxies are hidden in the data, a third of which are new to science.

The map will allow astronomers to study cosmic objects such as supernovae, pulsars and jets around supermassive black holes in distant galaxies.

“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,” Larry Marshall, chief executive officer of the CSIRO.

This is just the beginning of the journey for ASKAP. RACS was conceived almost as a test bed for what ASKAP will try to achieve. Over the next five years, the radio array will begin conducting ten major sky surveys, which will take approximately 1,500 hours to complete per project. Some of these projects will explore the most mysterious phenomena at the edge of the universe.

“We expect to find tens of millions of new galaxies in future investigations,” said David McConnell, CSIRO astronomer and lead author of the new study.

You can take a virtual tour of the impressive map on the CSIRO website.