{"id":17799,"date":"2011-09-07T02:05:06","date_gmt":"2011-09-06T18:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/top-scientists-head-for-wa-to-talk-ska\/"},"modified":"2024-09-13T15:54:43","modified_gmt":"2024-09-13T07:54:43","slug":"top-scientists-head-for-wa-to-talk-ska","status":"publish","type":"media-release","link":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/media-release\/top-scientists-head-for-wa-to-talk-ska\/","title":{"rendered":"Top scientists head for WA to talk SKA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Top astronomers and engineers from nine countries will meet in Perth this week to plan for pre-construction of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) at The Path to SKA-low workshop.<\/p>\n

Hosted by the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR), the workshop has attracted more than 75 researchers from Australia, India, Italy, Malta, New Zealand, The Netherlands, South Africa, the UK and the US.<\/p>\n

ICRAR Deputy Director and workshop organiser, Professor Peter Hall, said the agenda included the design and construction of antennas to allow the SKA to detect low-frequency radio waves from objects throughout the Universe (SKA-low).<\/p>\n

\u201cWith new technology and signal processing techniques, flashing radio sources, called pulsars, and other fast, \u2018transient\u2019 radio sources could be better detected using lower frequency radio telescopes,\u201d Professor Hall said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis makes SKA-low an even more essential part of the SKA as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven ICRAR\u2019s strong hands-on international collaborations and our leading role in low-frequency pathfinders for the SKA, such as the Aperture Array Verification Program and the Murchison Widefield Array, we are well-placed to host a meeting that will get the ball rolling on plans for this part of the telescope.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Hall said the low-frequency portion of the SKA would observe the Universe at longer wavelengths than more familiar dish antennas operating at higher frequencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cA major goal of SKA-low is to observe the first structures in the very distant Universe as they formed.\u00a0 ICRAR researchers have also recently shown the importance of SKA-low in observations of the changing, or dynamic, radio sky,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAustralia, together with New Zealand, is bidding to host the SKA, which requires an extremely radio-quiet location. SKA-low will be particularly sensitive to radio interference and a location like Australia\u2019s candidate core site, in WA\u2019s Murchison, will allow a high-performance, cost-effective SKA-low.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Hall said a number of engineers had also come to Perth armed with prototype SKA-low antennas to be tested alongside local designs in ICRAR’s laboratory at Curtin University.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we launched ICRAR two years ago, we\u2019ve been building expertise, not only in radio astronomy, but also engineering and ICT, all of which play an important role in the design, construction and eventual operation of the SKA,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis puts us in an excellent position to contribute significantly to the international effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

ICRAR Science and Technology Advisory Committee Chair, Professor Ron Ekers, said ICRAR\u2019s time-domain astronomy theme, which investigates rapidly changing radio sources, ties in very closely with the SKA-low developments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wide field of view of the SKA and its sensitivity to time-variable phenomena opens up a new and almost unexplored research area,\u201d Professor Ekers said.<\/p>\n

General Director of ASTRON in the Netherlands and Chairman of the SKA Science & Engineering Committee, Professor Michael Garrett, said he hoped ICRAR would play a leading role in the SKA-low pre-construction phase.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is essential that the knowledge and expertise built up via the Murchison Widefield Array finds its way back into the international SKA project,\u201d Professor Garrett said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSKA-low will address Nobel-prize winning science questions about the early Universe, and I\u2019m convinced it will emerge as one of the dominant areas of astrophysical research over the next few decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s great to see ICRAR, and indeed the Australian community as a whole, getting behind these efforts and becoming so heavily involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

Researchers at this week\u2019s meetings will discuss the next steps required as the SKA project heads towards its pre-construction phase.\u00a0 This phase will see finalisation of the telescope design and the development of technology to a point where the telescope is ready for production.<\/p>\n

For more information on the workshop see: www.icrar.org\/news\/ska-low<\/a><\/p>\n

Contacts:<\/p>\n

Andrea Barnard, Public Relations, Curtin University
\nTel: +61 (0)8 9266 4241, Email: andrea.barnard@curtin.edu.au<\/a><\/p>\n

Kirsten Gottschalk, Outreach Coordinator, ICRAR
\nTel: +61 (0)8 6488 7771, Mobile: +61 (0)438 361 876, Email: kirsten.gottschalk@icrar.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Professor Peter Hall
\nICRAR Deputy Director | Curtin University
\nTel:\u00a0 +61 (0)8 9266 7951, Mobile: +61 (0)400 801 531, Email: peter.hall@icrar.org<\/a><\/p>\n

Professor Ron Ekers
\nICRAR STAC Chair | CSIRO Astronomy & Space Science
\nTel:\u00a0 +61 (0)8 9266 9716, Mobile: +61 (0)419 146 313, Email: ron.ekers@csiro.au<\/a><\/p>\n

Professor Michael Garratt
\nASTRON General Director | SKA Science and Engineering Committee Chairman
\nMobile: +31 621 201 417, Email: garrett@astron.nl<\/a><\/p>\n

ICRAR is a joint venture between Curtin University and The University of Western Australia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Top astronomers and engineers from nine countries will meet in Perth this week to plan for pre-construction of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) at The Path to SKA-low workshop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4275,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"6941,7140,6928,4954,7384,5762","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_research-areas":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[],"research-areas":[],"class_list":["post-17799","media-release","type-media-release","status-publish","hentry","category-campus-and-global-community","category-research"],"acf":{"post_options":{"":null,"additional_content":{"title":"","content":"","image":false},"related_courses":[{"title":"","qualification":"","link":"","description":"","faculty":""}],"credits":{"author":"","photographer":"","media":false},"display_author":true,"banner":{"image":false}},"experts":false},"featured_image":false,"author_meta":{"first_name":"Curtin","last_name":"University","display_name":"Curtin University"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/17799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/media-release"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media-release\/17799\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17799"},{"taxonomy":"research-areas","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.curtin.edu.au\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-areas?post=17799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}