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The challenge

Speeding up radio astronomy

Radio telescopes use specialised cameras, called receivers, to detect and amplify faint radio waves from space. Most of these cameras only see a small part of the sky at once, which makes surveying large parts of the sky a time-consuming process.

For more than a decade we've been developing receivers with a larger field-of-view, and these have been used on Murriyang, our Parkes radio telescope, as well as other world-leading instruments.

Our response

Phased array feeds – a radical new approach to radio astronomy

For our newest radio telescope, ASKAP, we've developed innovative 'phased array feed' receivers with a wide field-of-view.

CSIRO's ASKAP radio telescope under the Milky Way ©  CSIRO/A. Cherney

Each phased array feed is made up of 188 individual receivers, positioned in a chequerboard-like arrangement. Alongside the receivers are low-noise amplifiers, which greatly enhance the weak radio wave signals received. These components are housed in a water-tight case mounted at the focal point above each of ASKAP's antennas. Together with specialised digital systems developed for ASKAP, the phased array feeds create 36 separate (simultaneous) beams to give a field-of-view of 30 square degrees on the sky.

Phased array feeds have been fitted to ASKAP's 36 antennas and commissioning results have been outstanding. This pioneering technology makes ASKAP the fastest radio telescope in the world for surveying the sky, taking panoramic snapshots over 100 times the size of the full Moon.

ASKAP is also able to detect extremely distant objects, including a recently-discovered galaxy 5 billion light years away. It's also produced the best radio image yet of the Small Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy that is slowly merging with the Milky Way.

Along with colleagues in The Netherlands, Canada and the USA we're also developing phased array feeds as rapid-imaging devices for potential use by the much larger Square Kilometre Array telescope, and for wider use throughout the world's leading radio-astronomy observatories.

Phased array feed technology also has enormous potential outside astronomy. Much like our fast wireless LAN technology (which was developed from our expertise in radio astronomy and led to 'fast Wi-Fi', the way most of us now access the internet without wires), phased array feeds could make a positive impact in a variety of alternative applications including satellite communications.

Our phased array feed technology won Engineers Australia's national Engineering Excellence Award in 2013, and was overall winner in The Australian Innovation Challenge in 2014.

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