Blog icon

Issue 22: Autumn 2026

Welcome to the latest edition of The News for Autumn 2026!

We hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and happy New Year. Last year was another busy one at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, our Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. We’ve included our 2025 highlights below, plus some looking forward into 2026.

Highlights include the observatory expanding to formally include Kalli Station, upgrades to the Boolardy Homestead Airstrip (soon to have a Wajarri name) and new sights added to our online virtual tour.

Two major science highlights enabled by the site were the first image from the SKA Observatory’s SKA-Low telescope and the largest low-frequency radio colour image of the Milky Way ever assembled, using data from the Curtin University-led MWA telescope, more on these below.

Coming up soon, we’re looking forward to further progress with AARNet on the fibre link bringing connectivity to the Pia Wadjarri Community and Murchison Settlement thanks to Australian Government funding. Half-day refresher cultural awareness sessions will also start, facilitated by the Wajarri Yamaji Aboriginal Corporation. The training ensures those working at the observatory maintain and grow their knowledge of Wajarri Yamaji People, Country and culture.

Until next time,

Bec

Bec's blog

Bec updates us on another full year at the observatory, from expansion to upgrading our airstrip, and progress on bringing fibre connectivity to the Murchison.

SKA-Low update

Ant shares achievements from another big year for SKA-Low telescope construction, as well as a look forward to 2026’s key milestones.

Read more

Science from the Murchison

CSIRO’s ASKAP and the Curtin University-led Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) are sharing the Murchison’s brilliant skies to the world – while the SKA Observatory’s SKA-Low telescope has had its first glimpse of the Universe.

ASKAP: Quite the tail

This distant galaxy puts on quite a show with this long corkscrew-shaped tail visible to our ASKAP radio telescope. The tail is caused by the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy.

MWA: Radio sky in technicolour

The MWA-eye view of our galaxy in spectacular ‘colours’ of radio light, part of the GLEAM-X sky survey by astronomers from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR). It's even been printed on a scarf!

SKA-Low’s first image

An early working version of the SKA Observatory’s SKA-Low telescope caught its first glimpse of the Universe in 2025, giving a preview of what’s to come. The dots aren’t stars but are some of the brightest galaxies in the Universe seen in radio light.

Pawsey: Don’t BLINK

Or do, as long as it’s Pawsey’s new software. BLINK is enabling super-fast image processing of data from the MWA telescope harnessing the power of Pawsey’s Setonix supercomputer. BLINK is around 3,700 times faster than other methods with much better energy efficiency.

Take a trip to the observatory…

…without leaving your device. Our virtual tour showcases many sights across our observatory on Wajarri Country, including this stunning view of the Emu (Yalibirri) in the sky above our ASKAP radio telescope. It’s the next best thing to visiting in person!

Tour the observatory

We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamaji as the Traditional Owners and Native Title Holders of Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, our Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory site.