Speaker
Description
The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) is an open-access radio interferometric telescope based in the world’s quietest radio astronomy zone: the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in rural Western Australia. In its role as the designated Precursor to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) Low telescope, the MWA has revolutionised our understanding of the low-frequency (80–300 MHz) radio sky since the commencement of operations in mid-2013.
Four key themes drive the scientific impact of the MWA: (i) observing the 21cm signal from the Epoch of Reionisation (EoR), (ii) Galactic and extragalactic surveys, (iii) exploring the time-domain radio Universe, and (iv) studying Solar, heliospheric, and ionospheric phenomena.
In 21cm cosmology, the MWA has allowed astronomers to achieve the tightest limits to-date on the elusive signals of EoR and Cosmic Dawn across a vast redshift range. In the time domain, new rapid-response capabilities, along with the MWA’s unparalleled low-frequency bandwidth and rich archive, have enabled new understanding of a plethora of explosive transient events and characterising hundreds of pulsars, but also raised new challenges to our understanding of the radio sky with the discovery of unusual exotic phenomena such as a new ultra-long period transients. In the Solar, heliospheric and ionospheric regime, the MWA has ushered in a new era of precision broad-band and high time resolution studies of complex emission modes and physical processes at work on the surface of the Sun.
Finally, across the rest of the Universe, Galactic and extragalactic surveys have heralded a paradigm shift in our understanding of both the static and variable low-frequency sky, in both radio continuum and full polarisation. New insights have been unlocked into star formation in our own Galaxy and other galaxies; feeding and feedback mechanisms in some of the most spectacular radio sources across the sky; detections of intergalactic magnetic fields in the Universe’s large-scale structure; detailed studies of novel non-thermal phenomena in complex cluster environments, and more besides.
In this talk, I will present selected highlights from across the depth and breadth of scientific outcomes brought about by the MWA during the last decade of science operations. Alongside the science, I will emphasise the key technical and operational capabilities that made these results possible, and conclude with a look forward to what we can expect in the SKA era, as well as the lessons that we as a community must carry forward with us to the next generation.
| What is your career stage? | Non-tenured scientist (post PhD) |
|---|---|
| Which telescopes do you use / are you affiliated with? | MWA, ASKAP, LOFAR, MeerKAT |
