Astronomy and Astrophysics

Meeting: Deep Surveys of the Radio Universe with SKA Pathfinders

Date

31 March - 4 April 2008

Location

The University of Western Australia

Outline

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) and its associated pathfinder facilities will be premier astronomical facilities in the next decade and beyond, working alongside facilities such as ALMA, JWST and the next generation of giant optical telescopes. The SKA will be capable of peering into the distant past, studying the origin of the first stars and galaxies, studying the clustering and evolution of galaxies, making precise measurements of dark energy at different epochs, making exquisitely precise measurements of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity, and studying the formation of planets around stars.

Building these expensive instruments (the SKA budget is likely to be A$1.8 billion) requires the development of new technologies including new electromagnetic array designs, digital signal processing and photonics, as well as new imaging and calibration techniques. Furthermore, telescope design and optimisation requires deep insights into the science requirements of key astrophysical observations.

This conference is timely due to the extensive development and planning now occurring for a number of major SKA pathfinder projects such as ASKAP, MWA, MeerKAT, Apertif, LOFAR and the ATA, and the importance of using the knowledge gained to assist the design and development of the SKA.

The primary topics to be addressed in this conference are:

  • The potential of international SKA pathfinders to address key questions in astrophysics using deep wide-field radio surveys of the Universe.
  • The state of theoretical models and predictions and the ability of pathfinder radio surveys to provide suitable observational discriminants.
  • Synergy of radio surveys with ground- and space-based surveys across a broad range of wavelengths.
  • The technological challenges related to imaging the Universe through the distorting effect of the telescope’s optics and the Earth’s atmosphere and ionosphere.

The meeting will be held alongside meetings of the International SKA Steering Committee and the Calibration and Imaging Task Force of the SKA Engineering Working Group.

More Details

Visit the conference web site at http://ska2008.ivec.org