CONTACT ISSUE O1 SEPTEMBER 2019 THE MAKINGS OF AN INTERNATIONAL SCIENCE ORGANISATION SKA ON TOUR IN INDIA DRONES IN THE OUTBACK CONTENTS 04 16 20 08 14 FOREWORD FEATURED IMAGE 03 Prof. Philip Diamond, SKA Director-General 16 A modern take on the Flammarion engraving IN BRIEF INSIGHT 04 China hosts fifth SKA summer school in Shanghai 18 ICRAR tops the leaderboard in SKA’s 05 ASKAP counts down to full operations first Science Data Challenge 06 SKA hosts reach out to local communities 20 Drones in the outback: measuring the complex for National Science Week behaviour of SKA-Low antennas on site 07 Team SKA at Bluedot 2019 EVENTS FOCUS ON 22 The wow factor: explaining radio astronomy to all ages 08 The makings of an international science organisation 23 EWASS 2019 showcases SKA science in Lyon 10 Vigyan Samagam: The first ever mega science exhibition in India TEAM SKA 24 Dr Alkistis Pourtsidou HQ CORNER 12 “This is our mission control”: Global HQ of SKA opens NEWS 14 2 minutes with… Dr John Morgan 26 News Roundup 14 SKA Pride 27 SKA Jobs 27 Partner Publications 2 CONTACT | SEPTEMBER 2019 Aerial view of the SKA Global Headquarters at Jodrell Bank at sunrise. Credit: SKAO / Dragons Eye Filming Dear colleagues, Welcome to the first issue of the new, 9-12 December. Success in this review aptly named SKA publication, Contact. will enable us to prepare the SKA1 Contact is obviously a movie reference Construction Proposal and Operations but the name also reflects our desire Plan which we intend to submit to to connect the SKA community. As we the SKA Observatory Council, upon emerge from the detailed design phase, its establishment. When the Council move towards the establishment of the approves the proposal and commits SKA Observatory and see construction the agreed funding, SKA will move into on the near horizon, we decided to move the construction phase of the project. away from our two previous newsletters So, the next 15 months or so will be an (one internal to the project, the other exciting period and we will endeavour to aimed externally) to deliver a single share progress and milestones to make magazine which will cover the growing sure you keep up-to-date on the most range of SKA activities around the world. relevant happenings within the project. In this more ambitious format we will I hope you enjoy this new SKA seek articles from across the community, publication. I’d like to thank all the from scientists in SKA science working authors who contributed to the groups, from engineering, design and first issue and I’m sure that our construction teams, from precursor and communications team will welcome pathfinder telescopes and occasionally feedback, suggestions for improvement from our government partners. and of course contributions to this This first issue of Contact is published publication, which is very much yours! at a period of heavy activity as the design teams prepare for the System Prof. Philip Diamond, SKA Critical Design Review, scheduled for Director-General 3 IN BRIEF CHINA HOSTS FIFTH SKA SUMMER SCHOOL IN SHANGHAI BY DR TAO AN (SHANGHAI ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORY) & YANG JIE (SKA CHINA OFFICE) A week-long training session involving “We had lectures on hot topics like Supported by China’s Ministry of more than 70 students and young gravitational waves, gamma-ray bursts, Science and Technology, the SKA China scholars in SKA-related fields was fast radio bursts and supernovae, Office, and the Chinese Academy held in Shanghai, China in August. and SKAO Project Scientist Dr Evan of Sciences, the summer school is Using data obtained from the SKA Keane set the students a practical part of China’s consistent efforts precursor and pathfinder telescopes, challenge to search for FRBs,” explains to nurture future talents to work in the summer school focused on the Dr Tao An of Shanghai Astronomical SKA-related fields, and has been search for and study of radio transients. Observatory, which hosted the event. organised five times since 2013. Leading researchers from China, “They processed this using a prototype “As a long-term project, the SKA SKA Organisation, and the University SKA data centre, making them some requires continuous contributions of Sydney were invited to give of the first users of the prototype, from the community, and knowledge lectures and share their experience and giving them an insight into the propagation and education of in practical data processing, offering future processing of SKA data. young SKA scientists is a vital an opportunity for the trainees to Within the dataset, which was part of that,” adds Dr Tao An. acquire a basic understanding of hundreds of gigabytes in size, the China is also due to host the 2019 SKA transient sciences, and to ready students found radio transient SKA Shanghai Meeting during themselves for the future research on ‘FRB010724’ which has a duration of the last week of November. transients with the flood of SKA data. only a few tens of milliseconds.” Above: The fifth Chinese SKA Summer School brought together researchers with a broad range of research interests. Credit: Shanghai Astronomical Observatory. 4 CONTACT | SEPTEMBER 2019 Feedback will be used to prioritise any improvements required ASKAP COUNTS before embarking on multi- year survey campaigns. DOWN TO FULL In preparation for the pilot surveys, our science teams have been working on OPERATIONS individual test observations of typically 10 hours duration. These single-field tests are used to check the end-to-end BY DR AIDAN HOTAN (CSIRO) operation of the telescope and develop a survey strategy, with the final stage Some amazing early science has already been delivered with CSIRO’s being a public data release containing Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope, including the recent all the products that would be required localisation of a one-off fast radio burst. for survey analysis. This staggered The paper is available in Science, to make the transition from construction approach makes the transition from with a fantastic image of ASKAP to operations a smooth one! construction to full operations much on the cover. We also made a short ASKAP is conducting a series of “pilot more manageable, by providing video about the discovery. surveys” to test the instrument and regular checks and opportunities for ASKAP is now transitioning to full our scheduling, data processing and feedback from the science teams. operations and this transition will quality control frameworks and our Data from the EMU GAMA23 provide the SKA community with a communication channels with the continuum test field are already wealth of experience as we encounter science teams. The first round of pilot available on the public archive, many of the issues that will be faced surveys consists of 100 hours observing CASDA. The next test field data by the SKA in a few years. ASKAP time for each of the eight teams. release will be from the WALLABY was designed to operate as a survey Each pilot will use observing modes science team, consisting of neutral telescope, conducting large-scale and processing strategies devised hydrogen maps of the Eridanus cluster. projects for international science teams for full-scale surveys. This means we and providing image products as its expect to see interesting scientific primary output (instead of raw data). outcomes, while maintaining a focus This operations model is new for many on deep analysis of data quality. radio astronomers and we have a plan Right: Small cut-out from a recent continuum test observation covering the Large Magellanic Cloud at a frequency of 888 MHz. The star-forming region 30-Doradus is clearly visible, along with many other objects and filamentary structures. The full image is available on CASDA. 5 IN BRIEF SKA HOSTS REACH OUT TO LOCAL COMMUNITIES FOR NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK BY VIVIENNE ROWLAND (SARAO) BY ANNABELLE YOUNG (CSIRO) The South African Radio Astronomy Hot on the heels of the big 50th Observatory (SARAO) participated in the Anniversary of Apollo 11 in Australia South African National Science Week 2019 was National Science Week, launch, which was held in Kimberley in the themed The Moon, of course! Northern Cape province at the end of July. At CSIRO, we teamed up with Curtin University The launch was graced by the This year it took place from 29 and ICRAR to celebrate science in Geraldton, the Minister of Higher Education, July to 3 August 2019. It is an closest town to the Murchison Radio-astronomy Science and Technology, initiative of the Department of Observatory (MRO). Our team started with a chat Dr Blade Nzimande, along Science and Technology (DST), to the students who attend Meekathara School of with other government a countrywide celebration the Air (MSOTA). These students live in the outback stakeholders and dignitaries. of science involving various and attend school via the airwaves, and they are plugged in and switched on to science, keeping us SARAO was represented by stakeholders and/or role players busy with questions about the MRO and our precursor colleagues Simphiwe Madlanga, conducting science-based telescopes. CSIRO’s Outreach and Education Tshegofatso Monama, Chantel activities during the week. Specialist, Rob Hollow has been visiting MSOTA Mabeleng and Isaac Magolego NSW is run across the country since 2006 and has built a great relationship there. educating school learners and simultaneously at multiple educators on the SKA and sites, with this year’s theme The team visited a range of schools around Geraldton science and technology-related “facing the harsh realities and held some fun activities – noise levels with career options at SARAO. of climate change.” 300 young people modelling the Solar System were substantial! Students are so curious about the National Science Week You can watch Prof.