MWA News & Highlights

First Sky Images from the 32 Tile Prototype Array in Australia

J0519-4546 (Pictor A)
       26T  Image                             Sky simulation

Date: 2008/11/18
Reduced & imaged by: Randall Wayth (CfA)
Duration: 5m
Frequency: 158.72 +/- 1.28 MHz
Wide-field Mode: co-planar snapshot
Comments:
Radio galaxy Pictor A is a strong (about 450.0 Jy at 160 MHz) source that will be one of the primary ionospheric and wide-field instrumental gain calibrators for the MWA. The extended structure of Pic A will be partially resolved when observed with the MWA, with a hot spot at the front edge of the jet around 4 or 5 arcminutes away from the bright core. These two components are thought to be separated by more than 800 thousand light years.

Overall, agreement between the sky image and the simulation is quite good. Source fluxes in the sky simulation are based on extrapolations from much higher frequencies, so we don't anticipate every simulated source shown to appear in the sky image.

See
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/nph-imgdata?objname=PICTOR+A&hconst=73.0&omegam=0.27&omegav=0.73&corr_z=1&
and/or
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2000/pictor/

J0322-3714 (Fornax A)

Date: 2008/11/18
Reduced & Images: Lynn Matthews (Haystack)
Duration: 5m
Frequency: 158.72+/-0.96 MHz
Wide-field Mode: Multifaceted + widefield CLEAN
Comments:
Double-lobed radio galaxy Fornax A is thought to be emission for a galactic merger. The supermassive black hole at the center of the larger galaxy (NGC1316) is attracting material from the merger, and has formed jets that result the large about 600,000 light year wide lobes seen in the image, which has a dynamic range of about 1100. These lobes are some of the strongest radio sources in the southern sky, with a flux density of 259 Jy at 408 MHz.

See
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/nph-imgdata?objname=NGC+1316&hconst=73.0&omegam=0.27&omegav=0.73&corr_z=1
and/or
http://images.nrao.edu/501

J0824-4259 (Puppis A)

Date: 2008/11/18 17:55 UT (start)
Reduced & imaged by: Randall Wayth (CfA)
Duration: 5 minute
Frequency: 158.72+/-1.28 MHz
Wide-field Mode: co-planar snapshot
Comments:
Supernova remnant Puppis A has a flux density of 198 Jy at 408 Mz. It is thought to be formed from a supernova about occurred about 3700 years ago, which ejected neutron star RX J0822-4300.

See
http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/nph-imgdata?objname=PKS+0822-42&hconst=73.0&omegam=0.27&omegav=0.73&corr_z=1
and/or
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/puppis/

Pulsar PSR0630-2834

Date: 2008/11/18 17:31 UT (start)
Reduced & imaged by: Steve Ord (CfA)
Duration: 10 m
Frequency: 158.72+/-1.28 MHz
Pulse period: 1.24 sec
Comments:
PSR0630-2834 is a pulsar with a period of about 1.24 s and a pulse width of about 50 ms. During each pulse the flux density is several Jy, with strong a linearly polarized component (60% - 70%).

Solar Disk


Date: 2008/11/19 23:39 UT (start)
Reduced & imaged by: Vincent Fish (Haystack)
Duration: 5 m
Frequency: 158.72+/-1.28 MHz
Comments:
The elongation of the solar image is due to lower intensity emission in the polar regions at solar minimum, due to coronal structure.

 

Last update Greenhill & Mitchell  09 Mar 09