Radio Astronomy in the Australian Outback

Kirsten Gottschalk visits the Murchison Widefield Array in Western Australia
25 March 2013
Presented by Dominic Ford

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The Murchison Widefield Array is one of the precursors to the SKA

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The SKA will soon be the world's most sensitive radio telescope, able to view some of the most distant objects ever seen. In a special edition of Naked Astronomy this month, we follow Perth-based astronomer Kirsten Gottschalk on a visit to one of the two sites where it will be built, hundreds of kilometres from civilisation in the Western Australian outback. Kirsten also catches up with progress on the two precursor instruments - the Murchison Widefield Array and the Australian SKA Pathfinder - which are already being constructed on the site.

In this episode

The Murchison Widefield Array is one of the precursors to the SKA

Introduction
with Kirsten Gottschalk

Artist's impression of a 100m diameter low frequency Sparse Aperture Array.

Science with the SKA
with Kirsten Gottschalk

ASKAP antennas

Precursors to the SKA
with Kirsten Gottschalk

The Murchison Widefield Array is one of the precursors to the SKA

Radio astronomy with new detectors
with Kirsten Gottschalk

The Murchison Widefield Array is one of the precursors to the SKA

Processing the SKA's observations
with Kirsten Gottschalk

ASKAP antennas

Science with the precursor instruments
with Kirsten Gottschalk

Wideband radio scanner system. It was originally used to survey the radio frequency noise levels at the SKA candidate sites.

Hosting the SKA
with Kirsten Gottschalk

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