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CX2SA > SPACE 20.01.10 05:04l 93 Lines 5003 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 34020_CX2SA
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Subj: Cosmic flashes of mystery...
Path: IZ3LSV<IK2XDE<DB0RES<ON0AR<HS1LMV<CX2SA
Sent: 100120/0301Z @:CX2SA.LAV.URY.SA #:34020 [Minas] FBB7.00e $:34020_CX2SA
From: CX2SA@CX2SA.LAV.URY.SA
To : SPACE@WW
Cosmic flashes of mystery and anticipation
From the depths of space, powerful yet enigmatic signals, lasting only
thousandths of a second and then vanishing, are tantalising radio
astronomers with the prospect there is an unseen and unsuspected face of the
universe.
In the quest to isolate and explain these mysterious phenomena, an alliance
of Indian and Australian astrophysicists is building a supercharged
observation system of the future, capable of interpreting an avalanche of
data from the stars, the moment it arrives at Earth.
The partnership between Swinburne University of Technology, Western
Australia's Curtin University of Technology, the Australia Telescope
National Facility and India's National Centre for Radio Astrophysics is also
laying technological foundations for the proposed Square Kilometre Array
(SKA), the gigantic international venture to build the largest and most
potent astronomical instrument yet - for which Australia is a candidate host
nation.
The alliance will link India's Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope with up to
six Australian instruments and Swinburne's supercomputer to form a virtual
radio telescope spanning half the Earth, says Swinburne astrophysicist Dr
Ramesh Bhat.
Dr Bhat says that the science and technology being developed to bring these
instruments together and handle the vast quantities of data they produce in
real time "will be totally radical. But it is also technology essential to
building the SKA."
One of the alliance's first assignments is to probe the mysterious and
transient radio bursts. These appear to be of two kinds, Dr Bhat says: one
sort that repeats at fairly long intervals, which may originate from an
exotic form of neutron star, and another that is simply a flash, unexpected
and, so far, not detected twice in the same place. "We simply don't know
what these are. They are very powerful but very short - a cosmic mystery,"
he admits.
"Taken together, these short bursts indicate to us that there may be another
aspect to the universe - the dynamic radio universe - which is so far very
poorly known and explored. The plan of our partnership is to explore it," he
says.
The use of India's powerful metre-wavelength instrument will enable
Australian observers to explore the heavens more fully in this less-familiar
band of the radio spectrum and at up to 10 times the resolution, promising
many fresh discoveries and insights. Another part of the magic in the
partnership lies in the use of the Swinburne supercomputer's powerful
resources to develop new software to fuse data from multiple telescopes of
this giant instrument into a single device capable of observing the universe
continually both in great breadth and extreme detail around the clock.
"Normally, a small radiotelescope can scan a large part of the sky at very
low resolution, while a large one can focus on a particular small region
with great precision. Ours will do both at once. You have the best of both
worlds," he says. "Futhermore, we will do it by piggybacking on this highly
versatile telescope while it is being used by other astronomers, without
interfering with their schedule, harvesting our data at the same time as
they gather theirs."
The supercomputer will use clever software to process data flowing from a
few actual instruments into the equivalent of several hundred
high-resolution radio telescopes, thus emulating a telescope that has many
eyes, a technique known as multibeaming. This will enable the team to both
continually scan the broad sweep of the heavens for rare events such as the
millisecond flashes and be instantly focused on any that occur with the
equivalent of hundreds of precision instruments. "With rare events like
these you have a real problem in knowing where and when to look," Dr Bhat
says. "The best we can do is to keep looking everywhere, and around the
clock, in unprecedented detail."
Professor Matthew Bailes, director of Swinburne's Centre for Astrophysics
and Supercomputing, says the challenge is that data flowing from the
telescopes is so immense it cannot be stored, as every second it would fill
about two CDs. "You just can't afford to store these data and process them
offline. You have to be able to analyse them as they are captured," he says.
The Swinburne team visited India in October and is impressed with the data
collected so far. "The new software backend is exceeding our expectations.
Observations of known pulsars are allowing the highest fidelity observations
ever undertaken at these frequencies and promise a treasure trove of
science. This collaboration will reveal the true power of the giant Indian
telescope".
"Every country has an interest in the SKA project and it is not something
that one country can do alone. This project will strengthen the ties between
India and Australia in astronomy, which is very important, as these two
countries are among the key partners in the SKA project," Professor Bailes
says.
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