When you think of astronomy, you might picture someone peering through the eyepiece of a small optical telescope. This is the way that astronomy has been done for centuries, but as our understanding of the Universe has evolved, and new technologies have emerged, we’ve discovered more ways to look at the sky. This is because the light that we see with our eyes, optical light, is just one small part of the greater electromagnetic spectrum. There are many different kinds of light, including x-rays, gamma rays, infrared, and radio. Many stars and objects in the Universe give off radio light, which we can see with our radio telescope, the MWA.
Explore the electromagnetic spectrum with GLEAMoscope below, and at this interactive page: spectrum.icrar.org
A bit of background...
Radio astronomy was pioneered in the 1930s, with engineers and physicists such as Karl Jansky and Grote Reber who measured the first radio signals from space.
Since then, many breakthroughs have been made in the field by astronomers seeing the Universe in a whole new light, such as the study of the Sun’s radio emissions by Ruby Payne-Scott in 1945, and the discovery of pulsars in 1967 by Jocelyn Bell Burnell.
Joseph Pawsey introduced interferometry to radio astronomy, and is attributed with the growth of the field in Australia, where it has since become one of the country’s scientific strengths. The Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, which houses the MWA data archive, was named after him.
Why do we do radio astronomy?
You might wonder why we bother with radio astronomy at all! It is very useful because it often tells us new information. For example, the images below are of the same galaxy, Centaurus A, but the first picture was taken by an optical telescope, and the picture below was taken by a radio telescope – the MWA!
Instead of all the dust in the disk of the galaxy, the radio image reveals huge jets of material that are being ejected from the supermassive black hole in the galaxy’s centre. We would never have known these jets existed if we continued to look at Centaurus A with only our eyes. For this reason, astronomers who are researching the nature of objects will often use multiple telescopes that see in different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum.
Radio light has a longer wavelength and can travel further without being hindered by dust and gas, meaning we can peer further into the history of the Universe than ever before with instruments like the MWA.
Why do we use antennas instead of a dish?
The MWA radio telescope is made up of thousands of antennas, all sitting out in the Murchison, like one big ear listening to the sky. Once we process the data from all the antennas, we can make images to view the sky at radio frequencies.
Traditionally, radio telescopes look like a big version of a satellite dish, which provide excellent sky coverage (such as the Parkes observatory!). If you’d like to increase your instrument’s performance even more, there are some physical limitations to how large you can make your dish.
Our work-around to this problem is using a technique called interferometry. Having many small antennas spread over the outback and working together brings us close to the equivalent of one massive antenna that is kilometres wide, which would otherwise be logistically impossible!
Why are the antennas spread out in patterns?
It’s not just the number of antennas that affects what you can see with your radio telescope, but also the way you arrange your antennas. This is why the MWA has different patterns, or configurations, of its antennas.
In short: having antennas close together, such as in our compact configuration, makes it easier for astronomers to view large-scale or diffuse structures, such as the EoR. Conversely, having antennas far apart from each other in our extended configuration increases the telescope’s ability to resolve small scale structures with more detail, such as galaxies.
The MWA can operate in either ‘compact’ or ‘extended’ configuration, offering the best of both worlds (deep surveys and detailed imaging).
This year’s MWA project meeting was held in Lausanne, Switzerland, from August 28th to 30th, hosted by the Swiss consortium through SCITAS-EPFL. The event brought together researchers, engineers, and experts from around the world, united in advancing radio astronomy and the MWA’s scientific objectives. The three-day meeting featured a range of presentations, discussions, and collaborative […]
Overview The Call for Proposals for MWA observing semester 2024B is now open. This is for the allocation of observing time in the Guaranteed Time and Open Access categories, nominally during the period October 28, 2024 to End-March 2025 (subject to availability of the array). The telescope will be in the extended configuration for the […]
We would like to congratulate our very own Professor Steven Tingay for winning the APM Professions Award category of the Western Australian of the Year Awards last night! The prestigious award-giving body recognises Steven’s outstanding contribution to the state, and his crucial role in securing half of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project for Western […]
This year, we’re thrilled to announce that our meeting will be hosted in Switzerland, marking the latest addition to the MWA Collaboration’s international network of collaborators. Radio astronomers are invited to join us from Wednesday, August 28th, to Friday, August 30th, 2024, at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in the picturesque city of […]
CSIRO’s incoming CEO, Prof. Doug Hilton, together with the Shadow Minister for Science, Hon. Paul Fletcher, embarked on a notable tour of the MWA as an integral part of their visit to the Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara Murchison Radio Astronomy Observatory. The said visit not only marked a collaborative effort to foster a deeper appreciation for […]
2023 September 27 – The MWA Collaboration has been selected as a finalist for the 2023 Engagement Australia Excellence Awards, in the category ‘Excellence in International Engagement’!
The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) project is celebrating a decade of operations this week. To mark the significant occasion, the global astronomy community has gathered in Perth for the milestone. 2023 July 26, Curtin University
Overview The Call for Proposals for MWA observing semester 2023B is now open. This is for the allocation of observing time in the Guaranteed Time and Open Access categories, nominally during the period September 29, 2023 to February 29, 2024 (subject to availability of the array). The telescope will be in the compact configuration for the duration […]
The technical description paper, “MWAX: A new correlator for the Murchison Widefield Array” by Morrison et al. has now been published in PASA. 2023 April 27
Finding the astronomical equivalent of a needle in a haystack, the ‘SMART’ way! A team led by ICRAR-Curtin researchers have published details in PASA of how they are using the MWA telescope to find new pulsars in our galaxy. 2023 April 27, Space Australia
Overview The MWA Semester 2023A Call for Proposals (CFP-2023-A) is now open, for observations during the period April 1, 2023 to August 15, 2023 (subject to availability of the array). 2023A Details This Call is for the allocation of telescope observing time in the Guaranteed Time and Open Access categories. The array will be in […]
Thirty years after the Square Kilometre Array radio telescope was proposed and a decade after WA was chosen to host the project, work is starting on the final stage of one of humanity’s greatest ever scientific endeavours. 2022 December 5, The West Australian
In 2022, Ernst and Young (EY) delivered an assessment of the Economic and Social Impact of the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). The report examines the strategic, financial, and scientific dimensions of the MWA, and finds that the MWA has had a significant impact.
MWA researcher Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker and MWA operations team member Mia Walker won Shining Star awards at the annual Women in Technology WA Awards, 2022 November 18.
Pulsars create repeating flashes of radio light, and are so regular that you can set your watch to them. In fact, that’s exactly what some astronomers want to do! 2022 June 28, ICRAR
PhD candidate Kathryn Ross has co-won the 2022 WA science student of the year award! Ross’s research using the MWA telescope has helped shed light on our understanding of galaxy evolution. 2022 August 30, ICRAR
A team mapping radio waves in the Universe has discovered something unusual that releases a giant burst of energy three times an hour. 2022 January 27, Nature
The early Universe was dark, filled with a hot soup of opaque particles. These condensed to form neutral hydrogen which coalesced to form the first stars in what astronomers call the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR). 2021 November 29, ASTRO3D
A new $1 million Federal Government grant to Curtin University will enable a major upgrade to the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). 2020 December 10, Curtin Media Release
Professor Steven Tingay (Curtin) was jointly named WA’s Scientist of the Year 2020, for his impactful research and early leadership of the MWA project. 2020 September 30, WA Government
Using the GLEAM surveym Dr Hurley-Walker and her colleagues discovered the remnants of 27 massive stars that exploded in supernovae at the end of their lives. 2019 November 20, ICRAR and ABC news
Researchers using the Murchison Widefield Array radio telescope have taken a new and significant step toward detecting a signal from the period in cosmic history when the first stars lit up the universe. 2019 November 26, Brown University
Astronomers are closing in on a signal that has been travelling across the Universe for 12 billion years, bringing them nearer to understanding the life and death of the very earliest stars. 2019 September 10, The Age, ASTRO3D, VICE, Phys.org,
What sounds like a stomach-turning ride at an amusement park might hold the key to unravelling the mysterious mechanism that causes beams of radio waves to shoot out from pulsars − super-magnetic rotating stars in our Galaxy. 2017 March 21, Curtin University Media Release
The recently launched Cisco Internet of Everything Innovation Centre at Curtin University is already generating dividends, with a successful trial last week of a 100Gb/s data link between the MWA and Curtin. 2016 March 16, Curtin
For the first time an international team of scientists, using a combination of radio and optical telescopes including the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), has managed to identify the precise location of a fast radio burst (FRB). 2016 February 25, Curtin University Media Release
Curtin University’s work with the Murchison Widefield Array was recognised at the Thomson Reuters Citation and Innovation awards. 2015 June 14, PerthNow
A combination of pop songs, talkback radio and cutting-edge science has enabled Australian astronomers to identify a way to prevent catastrophic, multi-billion dollar space junk collisions, a new study has revealed. November 29, 2013, CAASTRO, Science Daily and CNet, December 02 by Voice of America
In the remote outback of Western Australia, astronomers are tuning in on the universe in the hope of unravelling the secrets of the cosmic dark ages. 2013 February, Qantas In The Air
A little-known fact is that Australia, a land blessed with low light pollution, has more than its fair share of great observatories. 2012 November 23, Australian Geographic
IBM computing cluster to help Australia’s Murchison Widefield Array process massive amounts of data captured from epoch when galaxies first formed. 2012 July 24, Cision
Boolardy station near Mullewa in Western Australia has been chosen as a candidate for the $2 billion Square Kilometre Array radio telescope project. 2011 May 15, ABC Landline