Jets generated by supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies can transport huge amounts of energy across great distances.
REUTERS/X-ray: NASA/CXC/Tokyo Institute of Technology/J.Kataoka et al
It’s difficult to get jets - powerful, lightning fast particles - to give up their secrets. The new Square Kilometre Array radio telescope could hold the key to solving jets’ mysteries.
What’s particularly exciting about “first light” images from South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope is that they prove Africa is a rising star in the world of astronomy.
You can’t just buy a radio telescope receiver off the shelf. So CSIRO has been hard at work building receivers for the world’s largest telescopes using the very latest technology.
The new discovery: The C-shaped “wide angle tail galaxy” (pink) surrounded by the galaxies of the Matorny-Terentev cluster (white).
Julie Banfield
The find by citizen scientists of at least 40 galaxies in a cluster more than a billion light years away is the astronomical equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack.
An artist’s impression of the galaxies found in the ‘Zone of Avoidance’ behind our Milky Way.
International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research
Something mysterious is pulling our Milky Way through space at a much faster rate than expected. So what could it be?
Artist’s impressiong of the Square Kilometre Array, which will revolutionise our ability to detect fast radio bursts.
SKA Project Development Office and Swinburne Astronomy Productions - Swinburne Astronomy Productions for SKA Project Development Office
A technological revolution in astronomical observations could be the key to understanding the perplexing phenonenon known as ‘fast radio bursts’ from outer space.
The vast expanse of Western Australia is perfect for radio astronomy.
Pete Wheeler, ICRAR
The Murchison Widefield Array sits in remote Western Australia far from noisy civilisation so it can help us understand the universe by tuning into radio waves from the distant cosmos.
CSIRO’s Compact Array telescope under the Milky Way.
Alex Cherney
Darkness is precious to astronomers, but it’s also good for everybody. We should ensure we preserve the dark by using the latest technologies responsibly.
The edge of the Horsehead nebula, where it touches the empty space outside it, is rich in carbon.
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Astronomers have built a new observatory in the cold dry air of a high plateau in Antarctica to peer through our atmosphere and observe carbon in our galaxy.
Simple mathematics suggests that if there are aliens out there, they should have reached us by now. So is it really worthwhile trying to communicate with them?
Green Bank telescope is one of the observatories that will eavesdrop on aliens.
NRAO/AUI
The Parkes radio telescope is part of the US$100 million search for life elsewhere in the universe, but the investment will also benefit other space research at The Dish.
A 3D visualisation of the plasma tubes conforming to the Earth’s magnetic field.
CAASTRO
Astronomers used to probing the universe always knew that strange signals detected by the Parkes radio telescope were coming from somewhere closer to home. But finding the source was the tricky bit.
A fast radio burst was detected live at Parkes in May 2014.
Flickr/Wayne England
Astronomers are trying to improve their hunt for rapid bursts of radio emission in the universe called Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) so they can better observe these mysterious events, which are thought to…
The many colours of visible light just part of what James Clerk Maxwell’s theory was to explain.
Flickr/laura peta
It’s hard to imagine life without mobile phones, radio and television. Yet the discovery of the electromagnetic waves that underpin such technologies grew out of an abstract theory that’s 150 years old…
ARC Laureate Fellow and Winthrop Research Professor at the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, UWA., The University of Western Australia