Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) maps millions of galaxies
Part of: GS Prelims and GS-III – Space; Sci & Tech
In news
The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) has recently mapped over three million galaxies in a record 300 hours during its first all-sky survey.
ASKAP is a powerful telescope developed and operated by Australia’s science agency CSIRO.
Key takeaways
ASKAP is currently conducting pilot surveys of the sky before it can begin large-scale projects from 2021 onward.
ASKAP surveys are designed to map the structure and evolution of the Universe, which it does by observing galaxies and the hydrogen gas that they contain.
One of its most important features is its wide field of view.
It has been able to take panoramic pictures of the sky in great detail.
The telescope uses novel technology of a “radio camera” to achieve high survey speeds and consists of 36 dish antennas, which are each 12m in diameter.
The present Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS) taken by the ASKAP telescope is like a “Google map” of the Universe where most of the millions of star-like points are distant galaxies, about a million of which have not been seen before.
