ASKAP to discover 700,000 super-galaxies

5 Oct 2012, 6:07 pm   -   Source: AAP

The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) is expected to discover in its early stages - using just 36 dishes - more than 700,000 new super-galaxies, CSIRO says.

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The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) is expected to discover in its early stages - using just 36 dishes - more than 700,000 new super-galaxies, CSIRO says.

The ASKAP dishes in Western Australia's Murchison region, being commissioned as of Friday, will collectively form the world's fastest radio telescope and one of the most powerful radio-astronomy instruments on the planet.

They are the precursor to the international Square Kilometre Array project that Australia will host with South Africa and New Zealand.

CSIRO chief executive Megan Clark said ASKAP would pick up radio signals sent before the earth existed.

It will provide an insight into the very beginnings of the universe and help answer some of the most fundamental questions of 21st century astronomy and physics involving dark matter, dark energy, the nature of gravity, the origins of first stars and galaxies, and the generation of magnetic fields in space.

Ms Clark said the amount of data to be captured and moved was mind-boggling.

"In the first few weeks of this facility (being) up and running, the amount of data that will move from here through Geraldton and down to Perth, is more than currently exists in all of radioastronomy around the world," she told reporters on site.

"And very soon we will have enough data that will really be more than what we see on the internet today."

The project was built on Australia's strong track record of running radio observatories near the towns of Parkes, Coonabarabran and Narrabri in NSW, Ms Clark said.

"When Australia took a very bold move to invest in radioastronomy years ago and we saw that all play out with the Parkes dish, no one would have imagined that would have Australia leading the world in wireless LAN technology now used in four billion devices.

"And I think as we stand here today, we can't envisage the things that will come out of this project as we discover things we can't even imagine right now."

Ms Clark said CSIRO was already in talks with the medical industry about using the technology in medical scanning.

Science minister Chris Evans said the project would put Australia on the map as an important contributor to world-leading science, proving that the nation's capabilities went beyond mining.

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