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CSIRO Media Release |
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| Ms Rosie Schmedding | (02) 6276-6520 | |||
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26 November 1998 |
Ref 98/274 |
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Astronomers will be able to probe deeper into the secrets of the universe with the upgrade of one of the world's most important radio telescopes, the CSIRO's Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) at Narrabri.
The Australia Telescope celebrates its tenth anniversary today with the opening of the first part of the upgrade that will allow it to receive higher frequencies and thus get finer details of observed objects such as our galaxy, stars being born, other galaxies and gas clouds.
"The Australia Telescope has been a vital part of astronomy in Australia, and in fact the world," says Professor Ron Ekers, Director of the Australia Telescope National Facility.
"We have two outstanding features in our favour — location in the Southern Hemisphere which means we can see the southern half of the sky, including the heart of our own galaxy, and the technology to be able to study what is going on there."
Professor Ekers says that the Australia Telescope is the only telescope of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.
"Over the past ten years it has achieved a great many things that Australia can be proud of and this upgrade will not only keep us on the leading edge, it will also open new areas for us to study," he says.
The Australia Telescope is a set of six 22m diameter dishes ('antennas') that collect radio waves from space. These radio waves give astronomers detailed information about objects that they are observing.
The telescope was opened on 2 September 1988 by the then Prime Minister of Australia, Mr Bob Hawke, initiating a decade of discoveries.
The Australia Telescope's achievements over the past ten years include: making the first 3D image of Jupiter's magnetic field; finding the smallest (and most theoretically challenging) quasar; gathering crucial radio data on Supernova1987A, the most important supernova of modern times; and, this year, studying what may be the first known case of a star imploding to form a black hole.
The upgrade will consist of several components — new receivers, resurfacing of existing telescopes to give better performance, a new piece of rail on which the antennas can be moved around, a fibre optic distribution network to handle the huge amounts of data it will collect and a system to compensate for the blurring effects of water vapour in the atmosphere.
The work is being funded by the Commonwealth Government's Major National Research Facilities Program and the CSIRO's Capital Investment Plan.
"The upgraded telescope will allow us to detect radio waves with much higher frequencies — we will be able to see radio waves ten times smaller than before. This means that for the first time we will be making highly detailed pictures of the sky from the Southern Hemisphere," says Dr Ray Norris, head of Astrophysics at the Australia Telescope National Facility.
"This actually opens up a new window in the radio spectrum which means we be able to get information we never could get before. So it will be a very exciting time for us."
Astronomers will use these higher frequencies to study such things as forming stars, material flowing out from young stars, and the disks of material around stars that may coalesce to form planets.
"Our work will also be a stepping stone both scientifically and technologically to a new generation of telescopes now in the planning stages, that will be built next century by international consortia. It will put us in the position to make a unique contribution to these telescopes," Dr Norris says.
The development of the Australia Telescope over the past ten years has also had spin-off benefits for non-astronomers.
The designs and techniques for making components of the antennas, such as the surface panels, were transferred to the telecommunications industry.
"The antenna story is a key one," says CSIRO Deputy Chief Executive Dr Bob Frater, who was responsible for the construction of the telescope in the 1980's. "It was our antennas that beamed the America's cup races in Fremantle to the world and our designs that took OTC to Vietnam."
"This established Australian telecommunications expertise in the Asian arena. The financial benefits flowing from all of this amount to many tens of millions of dollars," Dr Frater says.
As the Australia Telescope is the only telescope of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere it is in demand from overseas organisations. Over the past ten years the number of overseas organisations using the facility has grown from ten in 1988 to 83 from 19 countries today.
The Australia Telescope National Facility operates the telescopes
at Narrabri plus the
64-m telescope at Parkes and another 22-m telescope near Coonabarabran.
The telescope upgrade is being managed by the ATNF. Participating companies include Connell Wagner Pty Ltd, Barclay Mowlem Construction Ltd, and Evans Deakin Engineering Pty Ltd.
More information:
Helen Sim 014 624 819 (26/11 only) mobile 0419 635 905
or
(02) 9372 4251 (from 27/11) or
Rosie Schmedding (02) 6276 6520 or 0418 622 653
(Australia's largest scientific research organisation)
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