ZONAUTARA.com – Countless celestial bodies ranging from stars, satellites, comets, and others. However, astronomers have mapped about a million galaxy previously undiscovered beyond the Milky Way, in the most detailed survey of the Southern sky ever conducted using radio waves.
The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS) has placed CSIRO’s SKA Pathfinder Australia (ASKAP) radio telescope on the international astronomical map.
While previous surveys took years to complete, the ASKAP RACS survey was conducted in less than two weeks. This short time certainly broke the previous speed record. The data collected has resulted in an image five times more sensitive and twice as detailed as the previous one.
Most objects in universe (including humans) emit radiation in a broad spectrum, the so-called electromagnetic spectrum including visible and invisible light such as X-ray, ultraviolet light, infrared light and radio waves.
To understand the universe, we need to observe the entire electromagnetic spectrum because each wavelength carries different information.
Radio waves have the longest wavelengths of all forms of light. They allow us to study the most extreme environments in the universe, from cold gas clouds to black holes (black hole) supermasif.
Quote from The Conversation, Aidan Hotan, ASKAP’s chief researcher, CSIRO said that the CSIRO Division of Astronomy and Space Science team had broken the record by surveying 83% sky in just ten days.
With the RACS survey, they generated 903 images, each taking 15 minutes of exposure. They then combined them into one map covering the entire area.
Astronomers have identified about three million galaxies outside the Milky Way galaxy. Very much isn’t it?
We know how important maps are in Earth. They provide important navigational aids and offer useful terrain information for land management.
Similarly, sky maps give astronomers important knowledge for research. They can tell us how certain galaxies behave.
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