Australian Scientists Are Massive Nerds (In The Best Possible Way)

“We turned the telescope into the Sauron of space – the all-seeing eye,” says CSIRO’s Dr Keith Bannister, gleefully referring to the dark overlord in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.

What he’s describing (in gloriously geeky fashion) is how the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) on Wajarri Yamatji country near Geraldton in Western Australia has found its first “fast radio burst” from space – after less than four days of searching.

Read more at https://www.gizmodo.com.au/2017/05/australian-scientists-are-massive-nerds-in-the-best-possible-way/#Gu6McgpVEtRPWE8C.99

> Usually ASKAP’s dishes all point at the one part of sky. But they can be made to point in slightly different directions, like the segments of a fly’s eye. This multiplies the amount of sky the telescope can see. Eight ASKAP dishes can see 240 square degrees at once – about a thousand times the area of the full Moon.

I wish I’d thought of that. Darn useful for finding transient events.

CSIRO’s ASKAP telescope detects fast radio burst in just four days of operation

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci-tech/csiros-askap-telescope-detects-fast-radio-burst-in-just-four-days-of-operation-20170522-gwa5m2.html