ATUC Meeting, 14 Oct 2010, Astro IssuesGeorge Hobbs

Introduction

• Note: This is based on a presentation prepared by Robert Braun. His original presentation will be made available.

• Overview of the astrophysics group• Science highlights from Parkes, Mopra, Narrabri and

ASKAP• Other highlights• Notes on the Parkes receiver systems

• See Simon’s talk for science highlights from ASKAP

• (Thanks to Kate, Rob, Jill and Baerbel for helping me prepare this talk)

CSIRO ATUC, Astro Issues

The astrophysics group

• Current staff: R. Braun, S. Breen, K. Brooks, S. Brown, J. Caswell, P. Diamond, R. Ekers, B. Emonts, I. Feain, J. Green, L. Harvey-Smith, G. Hobbs, S. Johnston, R. Jurek, M. Keith, B. Koribalski, E. Lenc, R. Manchester, N. McClure-Griffiths, R. Norris, S. O’Sullivan, J.

Rathborne, D. Schnitzeler & J. Urquhart (24)• Welcome to: S. Breen, L. Harvey-Smith and J.

Rathborne• 33 current students• Recent postdoc acceptance: R. Shannon (starting next

week), M. Keith, S. Burke-Spolaor, J. Grant …• 8 postdocs and permanent positions currently being

advertised on the AAS (closing 15th Nov)

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Summary of science highlights

• Detection of CO 2-1 emission at high red-shift• Observation of the Sunyaev-Zel’Dovich effect• Discovery of new pulsars and a magnetar

• Wide-area molecular mapping of NH3 and H2O masers

• Improved determination of the Jovian system mass• Bursting 'bubbles' the origin of galactic gas clouds• Observational limits on UHE neutrinos• Observational limits on gravitational wave sources • First science with an ASKAP antenna• …

• Apologies for all the work carried out by the astrophysics group on Australian and International telescopes that I’ve missed off …

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Science highlights from ATCA

• Detection of CO 2-1 emission (~ 40 GHz) in a z = 4.76 SMG Coppin et al. 2010, MNRAS

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Lunaska experiment observational limits on UHE neutrinos from Centaurus A and the Galactic Centre James et al. 2010, MNRAS

• High angular resolution of the Sunyaev-Zel’Dovich effect … Massardi et al. 2010

Science highlights from Parkes

• Measuring the Mass of Solar System Planets Using Pulsar Timing – Yardley et al. 2010, ApJ

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• Measuring the Mass of Solar System Planets Using Pulsar Timing - Champion et al. 2010, ApJ

• A radio loud magnetar in X-ray quiescence, Levin et al. 2010, MNRAS

• Bursting bubbles the origin of galactic gas clouds – press release

The “Nessie” Nebula:Cluster Formation in a filamentary Infrared Dark Cloud

• Very filamentary infrared dark cloud (aspect ratio 150:1)• Mapped with Mopra: OTF, zoom mode, 16 lines at 90 GHz, 0.11 km s-1

• HNC (1–0) emission • Excellent morphological match to the mid-IR extinction• Same radial velocity Nessie is a single, coherent cloud and not the

chance alignment of multiple unrelated clouds along the line of sight• Multiple dense, compact molecular cores every ~4.5pc • If turbulence pressure dominates, core spacing matches theory (cores can

form within a cylinder at regular intervals via the “sausage” fluid instability)

Jackson, Finn, Chambers, Rathborne, Simon, 2010, ApJL

1.2 degrees

0.2

degs

High-mass star formation arises from the fragmentation of filamentary IRDCs

Use of international facilities

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Astronomers find cause of "dicky tickers"

The astrophysics group and outreach activities

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http://www.globaljetwatch.net: I. Faein and R. Hollow

PULSE@Parkes: G. Hobbs, R. Hollow, J. Khoo, D. Yardley, M.

Mao …

Citizen science projects: R. Norris, R. Hollow …

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CASS Radio Astronomy School 2010

CASS RAS 2010 very successful• Excellent turn-out of 45 students• Very positive feed-back• RAS 2011 in Parkes

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Parkes 50th Anniversary Activities in 2011

• Parkes “Golden Anniversary” Booklet

• On sale at the Visitor Centre from 1 December 2010

• Open Weekend 8 & 9 October 2011

• Possible public concert, etc.

• Dignitary Event on 30 October 2011

• Commemorative monument “unveiling”

• Science Symposium 31 Oct – 3 Nov 2011

• 20% history, 80% science is planned mix

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Parkes FE & BE Systems Rationalisation

• Working group discussions  • Carretti, Edwards, Hobbs, Braun

• “Ideal” front-end Suite• Phase-array-feed-low: 700-1800 MHz x 30 beams BW=1GHz 

• Wide-band single-pixel feed options:

• 0.7-12 GHz, BW=8GHz

• 0.7-3 & 3-12 GHz, BW=8GHz

• Concentric (0.3-0.7 plus 1.8-5) & (0.7-1.8 plus 5-12 GHz), BW=8GHz

• MB(/PAF-)high: 5-12, 11-26 GHz x 30 beams, BW=8GHz.

• All FE in focus cabin, no more receiver changes

• Consider new FEs and upgrades in this framework

CSIRO ATUC, Astro Issues

Parkes FE & BE Systems Rationalisation

• “Ideal” BE • “Single Digital Back-end” fully configurable in software

• Unlikely to be viable in short term

• Short-term BE developments• Decommission BEs superseded by DFB3, DFB4, APSR, BPSR

• WBC, AFB, CPSR2, DFB2, DAS

• Enhanced multi-beam correlator possibilities to replace MBCORR

• BPSR-based (ARC request pending)

• ASKAP board based

Conclusion

• For the “official” slides see Robert’s presentation• ADS search for “Parkes”, “Australia Telescope Compact

Array”, “ATCA”, “Mopra” and “ASKAP” in abstract since April 2010

• Astrogroup members since April 2010: 145 papers with 279 citations: “The First Fermi Large Area Telescope Catalog of

Gamma-ray Pulsars”CSIRO ATUC, Astro Issues

Abstract search phrase Number of papers Total citations

Parkes 36 54

Australia Telescope National Facility

38 30

Mopra 11 9

ASKAP 9 1

(Jodrell Bank) 4 1

(Westerbork) 20 16

(Arecibo) 67 34