Square Kilometre Array – Astronomy Now

Radio telescope spots 27 previously unknown supernova remnants

25 November 2019 Astronomy Now

A new look at the central regions of the Milky Way, captured by the Murchison Widefield Array in Australia, has revealed 27 previously unknown supernova remnants.

Supercomputer up to challenge of Square Kilometre Array

23 October 2019 Astronomy Now

Researchers use one of the world’s most powerful computers to make sure they will be able to process a “data deluge” from the Square Kilometre Array.

Dutch MeerLICHT telescope on the lookout for exploding stars

28 May 2018 Astronomy Now

A new optical telescope featuring a 100-megapixel camera will work in concert with a large radio telescope to precisely locate supernovas and other transient high-energy events that show up across multiple wavelenghts.

SKA: 2016 Square Kilometre Array science conference opens in Goa, India

7 November 2016 Astronomy Now

When constructed, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will be the world’s largest radio telescope. The SKA project’s 2016 science conference, “Science for the SKA Generation,” has kicked off in Goa, India. Some 200 astronomers from around the globe have travelled to attend the week-long conference.

Australian technology runs world’s largest single-dish radio telescope in China

26 September 2016 Astronomy Now

The world’s largest filled single-dish radio telescope launched at the weekend, and it relies on a piece of West Australian innovation. The 500-metre-wide telescope — known as FAST — uses a data system developed at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy in Perth and the European Southern Observatory to manage the huge amounts of data it generates.

What happened after the lights came on in the universe?

15 September 2016 Astronomy Now

The National Science Foundation has approved funding to expand the Hydrogen Epoch of Reionisation Array (HERA) in South Africa. Upgrading the number of antennas from 19 to 240 by the year 2018 will enable HERA to study more clearly the impact of cosmic dawn, the moment a few hundred million years after the Big Bang when the first stars and galaxies blazed awake.

World’s biggest telescope meets second-fastest supercomputer

23 August 2016 Astronomy Now

A prototype part of the software system to manage data from the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope has run on the world’s second-fastest supercomputer in China. The SKA is arguably the world’s largest science project, with the low-frequency part of the telescope alone set to have more than a quarter of a million antennas facing the sky.

Mysterious alignment of black holes discovered

12 April 2016 Astronomy Now

Deep radio imaging by researchers in the University of Cape Town and University of the Western Cape, in South Africa, has revealed that supermassive black holes in a region of the distant universe are all spinning out radio jets in the same direction — most likely a result of primordial mass fluctuations in the early universe.

Researchers find a new way to weigh pulsars

5 October 2015 Astronomy Now

Until now, scientists have determined the mass of stars, planets and moons by studying their motion in relation to others nearby, using the gravitational pull between the two as the basis for their calculations. However, in the case of young pulsars, mathematicians at the University of Southampton have now found a new way to measure their mass — even if a star exists on its own in space.

Black hole rethink after 11-year cosmic search fails to detect gravitational waves

25 September 2015 Astronomy Now

One hundred years since Einstein proposed gravitational waves as part of his general theory of relativity, an 11-year search performed with CSIRO’s Parkes telescope has shown that an expected background of waves is missing, casting doubt on our understanding of galaxies and black holes.