AstroArray: CSIRO,SKAO and MWA

Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory, on Wajarri Yamaji

Country, is home to many international telescopes. All these telescopes are comprised of antennas,

which can be viewed in this app.

See each antenna from the observatory right in front of you! By placing your device horizontal to a flat

surface (so your camera can detect the ground to know it is safe to build an antenna) and tapping the

screen when prompted, one of the three telescope antennas from the observatory will appear in front

of you! Use the scale function to shrink the antenna, or expand it to its full size!

The three antennas each come from a different telescope:

CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, owns and operates the ASKAP radio telescope. ASKAP is

made up of 36 dish-antennas, that work together as one telescope. The antennas stand three storeys

tall, each with a 12-metre-wide dish, and they are dotted across the outback over an area of about six

square kilometres. Telescopes like ASKAP provide a big picture view of the Universe. Instead of

studying a few objects in detail, astronomers can catalogue millions of new galaxies and other

astronomical sources. ASKAP is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility, which includes radio

telescopes such as the Parkes radio telescope, Murriyang, and the Australia Telescope Compact Array.

The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) project is led by Curtin University on behalf of an international

Collaboration. The MWA is composed of 4,096 “spider” antennas arranged into tiles of 16, and is tuned

to receive radio signals from the sky at frequencies between 70 and 300MHz. Since its launch in 2013,

the MWA has collected tens of petabytes of data and supported astronomers who study everything

from our own ionosphere and solar emission, through to far-away pulsars and galaxies, and even

further back to the Big Bang. MWA’s unprecedented capabilities and discoveries underpin its critical

role as the first fully operational precursor instrument of the SKA project.

The SKA-Low telescope is part of the SKA Observatory (SKAO) – a global next-generation radio

observatory that will deliver half a century of transformational science. The Observatory will operate

two telescopes – SKA-Mid in South Africa and SKA-Low in Australia, with a global headquarters in the

UK. SKA-Low is being built in Australia, and will comprise 131,072 two-metre-tall Christmas tree-

shaped antennas, laid out in three spiral arms across 74km end-to-end. SKA-Mid will comprise 197 dish

antennas in the Karoo region of South Africa.

This app will allow you to walk around antennas from each of these internationally renowned

telescopes.

CSIRO acknowledges the Wajarri Yamaji as the Traditional Owners and native title holders of the

Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory.