The first image from the international SKA Observatory’s telescope in Australia, SKA-Low, has been released today – a significant milestone in its quest to reveal an unparalleled view of our Universe.
It is the first image from an early working version of the SKA-Low telescope, using just 1,000 of the planned 131,000 antennas, and an exciting indication of the scientific revelations that will be possible with the world’s most powerful radio observatory. SKA-Low is one of two telescopes under construction by the SKA Observatory (SKAO), co-hosted in Australia and South Africa on behalf of its member states and the global community.
The image shows an area of sky of about 25 square degrees – equivalent to approximately 100 full Moons. In it we see around 85 of the brightest known galaxies in that region, all of which contain supermassive black holes. When complete, the same area of sky will reveal much more – scientists calculate the telescope will be sensitive enough to eventually show more than 600,000 galaxies in the same frame.
The image was produced using data collected from the first four connected SKA-Low stations, which together comprise the first 1,000 of SKA-Low’s two-metre-tall metal antennas. They were installed over the past year at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory on Wajarri Yamaji Country, and account for less than one percent of the full telescope.
SKA-Low Lead Commissioning Scientist Dr George Heald said he was delighted to see how well the first four stations were working together.
“The quality of this image was even beyond what we hoped for using such an early version of the telescope,” Dr Heald said.
“The bright galaxies we can see in this image are just the tip of iceberg. With the full telescope we will have the sensitivity to reveal the faintest and most distant galaxies, back to the early Universe when the first stars and galaxies started to form. This is technically difficult work and the first step to unlocking the awesome science that will be possible.”
SKA-Low Telescope Director Dr Sarah Pearce said the team had achieved stellar results.
“This is the culmination of effort from many talented and committed people across teams, organisations and continents,” Dr Pearce said.
“Getting to this point has taken engineers, astronomers and computer scientists from all over the world, working for decades. It’s amazing to see all this work come together to give our first glimpse of the brilliant images that will come from SKA-Low, promising us a view of the Universe we’ve never seen before.”
The SKA telescopes – SKA-Low in remote Western Australia and its counterpart SKA-Mid in South Africa’s Northern Cape – are arrays that combine the data captured by individual antennas spread over large distances, working together as one big telescope.
SKAO Director-General Prof. Philip Diamond said the image illustrated the dawn of the Observatory as a science facility.
“With this image we see the promise of the SKA Observatory as it opens its eyes to the Universe,” Prof. Diamond said.
“This first image is a critical step for the Observatory, and for the astronomy community; we are demonstrating that the system as a whole is working. As the telescopes grow, and more stations and dishes come online, we’ll see the images improve in leaps and bounds and start to realise the full power of the SKAO.”
The SKA telescopes are being constructed in stages, with components coming from SKAO member countries around the world.
In Australia, SKA-Low is being built in collaboration with Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO. It will scale significantly to become the world’s largest low-frequency radio telescope within the next two years, part way through construction.
These scientific works use data obtained from Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. The SKAO and CSIRO acknowledge the Wajarri Yamaji as the Traditional Owners and Native Title Holders of the observatory site.
The observatory site has been established with the support of the Australian and Western Australian governments.
Additional quotes
Dr George Heald, SKA-Low Lead Commissioning Scientist, SKAO
“The process of making this image was also important for telescope ‘commissioning’ – a critical process for ensuring the telescope was working as intended.”
“In producing this image we also confirmed that the stations are ‘hooked up‘ properly, the timing systems are lined up, we can calibrate the data correctly and that the details of the system are understood at a high level. This is technically difficult work and the first step to unlocking the awesome science that will be possible with this telescope.”
Supporting statements
Jamie Strickland, CEO, Wajarri Yamaji Aboriginal Corporation:
“Wajarri Yamaji People have been studying the sky and stars across Wajarri barna (land) for countless generations. It is fantastic to see the next leap in astronomy knowledge starting to take shape from our barna, and we’re proud to be partnering with the SKAO, the Australian Government and CSIRO to help make this a reality. Using today’s technology to help tell the stories of the past and also help understand the stories of the future.”
Originally published by SKA Observatory.
Images
Background information
Full image caption
The first image from an early working version of the SKA Observatory’s SKA-Low telescope, which is currently under construction on Wajarri Yamaji Country in Western Australia.
It was produced using data collected from the first four connected SKA-Low stations, which together comprise 1,024 of the eventual 131,072 antennas of SKA-Low, spread over a distance of just under 6 km.
The image shows around 85 galaxies in an area of the sky of about 25 square degrees – approximately equivalent to 100 full Moons. For comparison, it would be roughly the area of sky that a small apple would cover if you held it at arm’s length.
The dots in the image look like stars but are in fact some of the brightest galaxies in the Universe, seen in radio light. These galaxies are billions of light years away and each contains a supermassive black hole. Gas orbiting around black holes is very hot and moves quickly, emitting energy in X-rays and radio waves. SKA-Low can detect these radio waves that have travelled billions of light years across the Universe to reach Earth. At the centre of the image is one of only a handful of galaxies known to expel jets of matter that are visible in both optical and radio light.
When complete, the SKA-Low telescope will be sensitive enough to reveal up to 600,000 galaxies in the same region of sky.
The SKAO recognises and acknowledges the Indigenous peoples and cultures that have traditionally lived on the lands on which our facilities are located. The data were obtained at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. The SKAO and CSIRO acknowledge the Wajarri Yamaji as the Traditional Owners and Native Title Holders of the observatory site.
Credit: SKAO.
Additional image information
The image was produced on a server located in the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre in Perth. Details of the image were confirmed by comparing the data with reference observations of the same area done with the Murchison Widefield Array, an SKA precursor telescope located near SKA-Low.
The imaged area spans about 5 x 5 degrees centred on the bright galaxy PKS 0521-36, with a known integrated flux density at this frequency of ~56 Jy. The observations were made with a bandwidth of 25 MHz from 150-175 MHz with an integration time of 7 hours, station field of view of ~3 degrees full width at half maximum and image noise of 5-6 mJy per beam. The native resolution of the observations is ~66” x 36” with a final resolution of 70” for presentation.
About the SKAO
The SKAO is an intergovernmental organisation composed of Member States and partner organisations from five continents, headquartered in the UK. Its mission is to build and operate cutting-edge radio telescopes to transform our understanding of the Universe and deliver benefits to society through global collaboration and innovation.
Its two telescopes, under construction in Australia and South Africa, will be the two most advanced radio telescopes on Earth. Together with other state-of-the-art research facilities, the SKAO’s telescopes will explore the unknown frontiers of science and deepen our understanding of key processes, including the formation and evolution of galaxies, fundamental physics in extreme environments and the origins of life.
Through the development of innovative technologies and its contribution to addressing societal challenges, the SKAO will play its part to address the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and deliver significant benefits across its membership and beyond. The SKAO recognises and acknowledges the Indigenous peoples and cultures that have traditionally lived on the lands on which the SKAO facilities are located.
SKA collaborators in Australia
Australian Government and the SKA project
- The Australian Government’s investment in the SKA project and its role as a Host Country is coordinated through the Australian Department of Industry, Science and Resources.
- The Australian Government is partnering with the Wajarri Yamaji and CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, to ensure preservation of cultural heritage during construction and operation of the SKA-Low telescope. The Wajarri Yamaji are the Traditional Owners and Native Title Holders of the SKA-Low telescope site and their ongoing consent to the project enables the construction and operation of the SKA-Low telescope on their Country.
- Wajarri Yamaji are playing an important role in SKA project delivery and their partnership in the project is creating ongoing, intergenerational benefits in areas such as enterprise and training, education and culture for the Wajarri Yamaji community.
WA Government and the SKA project
- The Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation coordinates the Western Australian Government’s involvement in the SKA project, along with aiming to maximise benefits to Western Australia. The Western Australian Science and Innovation Framework specifically outlines supporting WA’s involvement in the SKA.
CSIRO
- Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, brings over 70 years’ experience in radio astronomy and research facility leadership to the SKA project. The SKA-Low telescope is under construction on Wajarri Yamaji Country at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory.
- The SKAO is partnering with CSIRO to build and operate the SKA-Low telescope, and CSIRO is also working with further industry and tertiary partners on multiple aspects of SKA-Low construction.
- CSIRO construction work includes managing the infrastructure construction process, designing software and computing for the powerful supercomputers behind the telescope, and managing the assembly integration and verification process that brings together all the individual telescope pieces and ensures they work correctly together as one instrument.
Wajarri Yamaji
- The Wajarri Yamaji are Traditional Owners and Native Title Holders of Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory site, where the SKA-Low telescope is under construction.
- Wajarri Yamaji have signed an Indigenous Land Use Agreement (ILUA) with the Australian and Western Australian governments and CSIRO, enabling construction of the SKA-Low telescope and ensuring the preservation of Wajarri heritage and culture at the observatory site. The ILUA includes multi-generational benefits for Wajarri People, including education, infrastructure and contracting.
Australian SKA Regional Centre (AusSRC)
- The Australian SKA Regional Centre (AusSRC) is part of the international network of SKA Regional Centres that will support the global flow of data and post-processing needed for the SKA telescopes. Researchers around the world will need to readily access and analyse vast amounts of data coming from the SKA telescopes. SKA Regional Centres like the AusSRC will make this possible by creating new frameworks, tools, and methodologies to produce scientific results from these large data sets.
- The AusSRC currently supports Australian SKA precursor projects that utilise the ASKAP and MWA telescopes. The AusSRC is a collaboration between CSIRO – Australia’s national science agency, Curtin University, the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, and The University of Western Australia.
International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR)
- The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) was founded in 2009 to support Australia’s bid to host the world’s largest radio telescopes, the SKA, representing one of the largest scientific endeavours in history.
- Constituting a joint venture between Curtin University and the University of Western Australia, and proudly supported by the Government of Western Australia, ICRAR has grown into an internationally renowned, multi-disciplinary research centre for science, engineering, and data intensive astronomy, and is one of the top 5 astronomy centres in the world.
- Our Community Outreach team visits dozens of communities and schools across Western Australia each year, delivering targeted programs to students in astronomy and related fields, designed to inspire the next generation to consider science as a career pathway.
- Meanwhile, our Translation and Impact team works closely with industry, government, and communities to share our wealth of expertise and to help business grow.
- ICRAR will continue to work on the SKA into the future, having secured key contracts to support the ongoing success of this international mega project.
Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre
- The Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre is a world-class high-performance computing facility accelerating scientific discoveries for Australia's researchers. Named for Australian scientist Joseph Pawsey, known as one of the pioneers of Australian radio astronomy, the Centre is home to Australia’s greenest and most powerful Tier 1 research supercomputer facility, Setonix.
- An unincorporated joint venture of CSIRO – Australia’s national science agency, Curtin University, Edith Cowan University, Murdoch University and The University of Western Australia, the Pawsey Centre supports science of national and international importance, such as the SKA project, including via its precursor telescopes, ASKAP and the Murchison Widefield Array.
- Pawsey is supported by the Australian Government, the Western Australia Government, and its partners.