- In this issue:
- Introducing ICRAR
- National SKA News
- International SKA News
- Education Update
- Profile - Professor Peter Quinn
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The International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) is all about astronomy, specifically radio astronomy, and the engineering and computing that come hand in hand with it. We’re based in Western Australia, but employ scientists and engineers from around the world.
Australia is in a unique position on Earth. We have the perfect conditions for radio astronomy. From our Southern vantage point we can see right down to the core of our own galaxy – the Milky Way. It’s also an excellent time for radio astronomy, with the world’s most ambitious science project, the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), approaching the final stages of planning.
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Construction of CSIRO’s Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope has begun in Western Australia.
The first of 36 identical 12-metre antennas that will make up the ASKAP telescope is currently being assembled and will shortly undergo rigorous testing at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in the Mid West region of Western Australia.
With the antenna reaching 18 metres in height (about the size of a four-storey building), a large crane has been used to lift the antenna’s pedestal, reflector dish and feed support into place.
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SKA activity world-wide is gathering pace as the project moves towards funding and site decisions. Included is an overview of the progress of the International SKA Consortia over recent months including brief news updates from the SPDO, Canada, South Africa, the USA and Europe.
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December 2009 saw the launch of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) educational website www.ska.edu.au, a joint venture between Scitech, Questacon and the CSIRO.
Not only is www.ska.edu.au a great place to send students who are curious about the SKA, it’s also an excellent resource for educators. With downloadable photos, videos, lesson plans and even sounds from space, it’s designed to help make learning about radio astronomy and the universe more engaging, and there’s no time like the present to start inspiring tomorrow’s radio astronomers.
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Professor Peter Quinn was born in Australia and received his BSc (Hons) in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Wollongong. He conducted graduate studies in astronomy and astrophysics at the Australian National University (ANU) and received his PhD in 1982 with a thesis dissertation on dynamics of disk galaxy mergers.
Since then Peter has worked at the California Institute of Technology, the NASA Space Telescope Science Institute and the Data Management and Operations Division at the European Southern Observatory headquarters in Munich. In December 2005, Peter was awarded a Western Australian Premier's Fellowship and took up the position of Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Western Australia in August 2006. He was appointed Director of ICRAR in 2009.
Read or listen to the interview with Professor Quinn
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