Sunday, October 7, 2012

Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder Goes Live

Don't be afraid. There's nothing harmful to click on on the internet! Oh, right. CSIRO.au links are generally going to be safe, though I'm sure someone somewhere will find something objectionably. Call it Rule negative-34: someone on the Internet will find *anything* offensively pornographic!

Short answer: The SKA is (as the name suggests) a whole heap of radio telescopes spread out over 1 square kilometre. By using interferometry you can treat them as a giant dish about 1km across, which lets you detect much fainter signals and also increases the resolution, or ability to see detail.

This pathfinder is a proof of concept that may be rolled into the full thing. At the moment it looks like the main SKA will be in South Africa, while a similar array with fewer dishes will be in Australia. The Australia version just had its official opening, which is what the story is about. But three paragraphs is too long for a submission, so there were links to sites with further info.

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/UuSteEHtQOw/square-kilometre-array-pathfinder-goes-live

cesar chavez day raspberry ketone ron burgundy millennial media nit championship transcendentalism bells palsy

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.