
The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder, comprising 36 dishes in remote Murchison, 315 kilometres north-east of Geraldton, Western Australia, was officially opened today.
Fast Facts
- Project commencement: 2007
- Project budget: A$160 million
- Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory size: 126 square kilometres
- The full ASKAP array (36 antennas) will each day generate data equivalent to 124 million Blu-ray disks—a pile 62 kilometres tall
So what is the ASKAP?
From the publication - "The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) is a next-generation radio telescope being constructed by CSIRO in the Mid West region of Western Australia. It will be made up of 36 antennas, each 12 metres in diameter ..."
Keep also in mind that "New Zealand was a founding member of the SKA Organisation, and is currently represented on the Governing Board. The Australia – New Zealand (A-NZ) bid to host SKA infrastructure offered a ‘motivated alternative’ design, describing how SKA science outcomes could largely be achieved for a significantly lower cost than the prescribed design. It also included one or more mid-frequency array stations in New Zealand, which increased the observation baseline to over 5,000km, significantly increasing instrument resolution. Although no SKA infrastructure is planned for New Zealand under the ‘dual site solution’, New Zealand remains a member of the project and an active participant in the Pre-construction Phase."
What does ASKAP look like right now? Here are the latest webcam images of ASKAP from the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory.
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