Welcome to The Australian SKA Pathfinder .

Navigating the virtual world:

To enter the 3D world requires a computer with a 3D graphics card and the (free to download) BS Contact 7 VRML/X3D browser plug-in. Please note, currently the Virtual Universe will only work under Windows. High speed broadband internet is also recommended. Once downloaded, place your mouse in the box on the left, and click once. The icon should change. Then with your cursor placed anywhere in the box, right click your mouse. Click on 'Viewpoints' then click 'Closer To Centre'. To switch on your avatar, right click, and click on 'View My Avatar'.

Some Background Information:

For the past ten years, astronomers from 19 countries have been contemplating the next big step forward in our understanding of the Universe. So far, our telescopes have probed back in time to a period when the Universe was about 1/10 of its current age. At that time, stars, planets and galaxies were already formed. To understand how these objects were formed, we need to look back to a time before there were stars and galaxies, when the Universe consisted of only a dark void of Hydrogen gas. In this cosmic Dark Age, the first stars formed and the first light shone in the Universe, the cosmic dawn. To capture this moment, wahae will need to build a telescope that can detect the weak signals coming from Hydrogen gas emitted at a time when the Universe was in the first 1% of its life. Such a telescope will have to work in the radio part of the spectrum and have a collecting area of around 1 million square metres, about 50 times larger than anything that exists today. This Square Kilometre Array (SKA) will also need receiving dishes spread out over distances of more than 3000 km to accurately capture the images of the first stars and galaxies.

The Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) is a new radio telescope that will provide an important test-bed for SKA technology as well as being a world-leading telescope in its own right. The telescope will be designed and built by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in collaboration with leading overseas astronomers and engineers.

The Australian Government has committed funding of A$100.9 million to the Australian SKA Pathfinder.

The main Pathfinder array will be in the same location in Western Australia as the proposed core site for the SKA. It will consist of up to 45 dishes, working together as a
single telescope. The dishes will use innovative radio-wave receivers that will give them an unparalleled view of the sky.

The Western Australian site will be linked to a smaller group of dishes in NSW by optical fibre.