From CSIRO -Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU) via The University of Keele (UK) : “Scientists detect never-before-seen radio waves from stars and galaxies”
From CSIRO -Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
via
19 August 2021
An ASKAP’s-eye view of the Tarantula Nebula. Credit: The University of Keele (UK).
Scientists have measured thousands of nearby stars and far away galaxies that have never been identified before at radio wavelengths, while studying a galactic body that neighbours our own Milky Way galaxy – the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Large Magellanic Cloud. ESO’s VISTA telescope reveals a remarkable image of the Large Magellanic Cloud.
Part of ESO’s Paranal Observatory the VLT Survey Telescope (VISTA) observes the brilliantly clear skies above the Atacama Desert of Chile. It is the largest survey telescope in the world in visible light, with an elevation of 2,635 metres (8,645 ft) above sea level.
Led by Keele University PhD student Clara M. Pennock and Reader in Astrophysics, Dr Jacco van Loon, the international team of researchers used the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope [below] to “photograph” the Cloud at radio wavelengths and study the stellar structures within, taking some of the sharpest radio images of the Cloud ever recorded.
The Large Magellanic Cloud is a galaxy which borders our own, the Milky Way, and is known as a satellite dwarf spiral galaxy. It is around 158,200 light years away from Earth and is home to tens of millions of stars.
Due to its proximity to the Milky Way, it provides an excellent benchmark for researchers studying fundamental questions, such as how stars form and how galaxies are structured.
The researchers not only took the sharpest radio images of the Cloud ever recorded, but during their analysis they also studied the stars themselves which form the Cloud’s structure, including the Tarantula Nebula, the most active star-formation region in the Local Group. Furthermore, newly detected radio emission has also been studied from distant galaxies in the background as well as stars in the foreground from our own Milky Way.
30 Doradus the Tarantula Nebula or NGC 2070 resembles the legs of a tarantula 3 December 2009 Credit:R. Gendler, C. C. Thöne, C. Féron, and J.-E. Ovaldsen/ ESO IDA Danish 1.5 meter telescope.
ESO Danish 1.54 meter telescope at La Silla, 600 km north of Santiago de Chile at an altitude of 2400 metres.
This study, published in MNRAS, forms part of the Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) Early Science Project, which will observe the entire Southern sky and is predicted to detect around 40 million galaxies. The data will ultimately be used to give researchers a clearer picture of how galaxies, and their stars, have evolved throughout time.
Lead author Clara Pennock from The University of Keele (UK) said: “The sharp and sensitive new image reveals thousands of radio sources we’ve never seen before. Most of these are actually galaxies millions or even billions of light years beyond the Large Magellanic Cloud. We typically see them because of the supermassive black holes in their centres which can be detected at all wavelengths, especially radio. But we now also start finding many galaxies in which stars are forming at a tremendous rate. Combining this data with previous observations from X-ray, optical and infrared telescopes will allow us to explore these galaxies in extraordinary detail.”
Dr Jacco van Loon, Reader in Astrophysics at Keele University said: “With so many stars and nebulae packed together, the increased sharpness of the image has been instrumental in discovering radio emitting stars and compact nebulae in the LMC. We see all sorts of radio sources, from individual fledgling stars to planetary nebulae that result from the death of stars like the Sun.”
Co-author Professor Andrew Hopkins, from The Macquarie University (AU) and leader of the EMU survey, added: “It’s gratifying to see these exciting results coming from the early EMU observations. EMU is an incredibly ambitious project with scientific goals that range from understanding star and galaxy evolution to cosmological measurements of dark matter and dark energy, and much more. The discoveries from this early work demonstrate the power of the ASKAP telescope to deliver sensitive images over wide areas of sky, offering a tantalising glimpse of what the full EMU survey may reveal. This investigation has been critical in allowing us to design the main survey, which we expect will start in early 2022.”
ASKAP is owned by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). ASKAP is an array of 36 dish antennas with a largest separation of six kilometres, which when combined act like a telescope that is about 4000 square metres in size.
ASKAP employs a novel technique called phased array feeds (PAF), and each of the 36 antennas has a PAF that allow the telescope to look at the sky in 36 directions at once, increasing the amount of sky that can be observed at once to 30 square degrees on the sky and thus, increasing survey speed.
ASKAP is a precursor to the SKA [below], the world’s largest radio telescope, which is currently being built in South Africa and Australia, and is headquartered at The Jodrell Bank Observatory – University of Manchester (UK).
See the full article here .
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University of Keele (UK) is situated on an estate with extensive woods, lakes and parkland, formerly owned by the Sneyd family.
The Sneyds came into possession of the Keele estate in the mid-16th century. Before the Sneyds the area was owned by the Knights Templar, a medieval Military Order. The first Keele Hall was built in 1580 and it was rebuilt in 1860. The Hall is a major conference, wedding and banqueting venue and has Grade II listing from English Heritage for its architectural importance.
The University itself was founded as the University College of North Staffordshire in 1949 and received its Charter as the University of Keele in 1962.
CSIRO -Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU) , is Australia’s national science agency and one of the largest and most diverse research agencies in the world.
CSIRO works with leading organisations around the world. From its headquarters in Canberra, CSIRO maintains more than 50 sites across Australia and in France, Chile and the United States, employing about 5,500 people.
Federally funded scientific research began in Australia 104 years ago. The Advisory Council of Science and Industry was established in 1916 but was hampered by insufficient available finance. In 1926 the research effort was reinvigorated by establishment of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), which strengthened national science leadership and increased research funding. CSIR grew rapidly and achieved significant early successes. In 1949 further legislated changes included renaming the organisation as CSIRO.
Notable developments by CSIRO have included the invention of atomic absorption spectroscopy; essential components of Wi-Fi technology; development of the first commercially successful polymer banknote; the invention of the insect repellent in Aerogard and the introduction of a series of biological controls into Australia, such as the introduction of myxomatosis and rabbit calicivirus for the control of rabbit populations.
Research and focus areas
Research Business Units
As at 2019, CSIRO’s research areas are identified as “Impact science” and organised into the following Business Units:
Agriculture and Food
Health and Biosecurity
Data 61
Energy
Land and Water
Manufacturing
Mineral Resources
Oceans and Atmosphere
National Facilities
CSIRO manages national research facilities and scientific infrastructure on behalf of the nation to assist with the delivery of research. The national facilities and specialized laboratories are available to both international and Australian users from industry and research. As at 2019, the following National Facilities are listed:
Australian Animal Health Laboratory (AAHL)
Australia Telescope National Facility – radio telescopes included in the Facility include the Australia Telescope Compact Array, the Parkes Observatory, Mopra Observatory and the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder.
CSIRO Australia Compact Array (AU), six radio telescopes at the Paul Wild Observatory, is an array of six 22-m antennas located about twenty five kilometres (16 mi) west of the town of Narrabri in Australia.
CSIRO-Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU) Parkes Observatory, [ Murriyang, the traditional Indigenous name] , located 20 kilometres north of the town of Parkes, New South Wales, Australia, 414.80m above sea level.
CSIRO-Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU) Mopra radio telescope.
Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder.
NASA Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex, AU, Deep Space Network. Credit: The National Aeronautics and Space Agency(US).
ESA DSA 1, hosts a 35-metre deep-space antenna with transmission and reception in both S- and X-band and is located 140 kilometres north of Perth, Western Australia, near the town of New Norcia.
CSIRO-Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)CSIRO R/V Investigator.
UK Space NovaSAR-1 satellite (UK) synthetic aperture radar satellite.
CSIRO Pawsey Supercomputing Centre AU)
Magnus Cray XC40 supercomputer at Pawsey Supercomputer Centre Perth Australia.
Galaxy Cray XC30 Series Supercomputer at at Pawsey Supercomputer Centre Perth Australia.
Pausey Supercomputer CSIRO Zeus SGI Linux cluster.
Others not shown
SKA Square Kilometre Array low frequency at Murchison Widefield Array, Boolardy station in outback Western Australia on the traditional lands of the Wajarri peoples.
EDGES telescope in a radio quiet zone at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in Western Australia, on the traditional lands of the Wajarri peoples.
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