From Outback Western Australia

We just finished a short video introduction to a new radio array being built in Western Australia called the Murchison Widefield Array. This new radio telescope array is sensitive to frequencies between 80 and 300 MHz (or, in wavelength terms, 1-4 meters), and one of its main science goals is to explore a time in cosmic history called the Epoch of Reionization. It occurred more than 13 billion years ago, when the first stars were beginning to shine out and the first shreds of galaxies were forming. The array will also probe solar and heliospheric events, as well as transient events that occur all over the sky in those wavelength ranges.

Most of the signals in the wavelength range the MWA is sensitive to are masked or covered up by broadcast and other signals that humans use for telecommunications. This makes it very difficult to catch the signals from distant events and objects in space.

In order to catch the signals they want to study, the MWA’s planners chose a location in one of the most radio-quiet places on Earth: Western Australia. The population density there is practically zero when compared to more populated areas, and there’s just not a lot of radio frequency interference to disturb the signals MWA is designed to get.

Scientists in the U.S., Australia, and India are already working with the array, even as it’s being built. The video, which is called MWA: From the Outback to the Cosmos, shows you where the array is and what they hope to do with it. You can also read more about the array at the link at the top of this story.