Canberra, Mar 19 (UNI) Australia's array telescope, the Square Kilometer Array telescope, known as SKA-Low, has captured the first glimpse of the Universe.
The first image from SKA-Low, Australia's groundbreaking telescope, was released by the international SKA Observatory (SKAO) on Tuesday, marking "a significant milestone in its quest to reveal an unparalleled view of our Universe," according to a press release issued by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency, on Tuesday.
Captured using just 1,000 of the planned 131,000 antennas from the first four connected SKA-Low stations in western Australia, this early image showcased an area of sky spanning 25 square degrees, equivalent to 100 full Moons, and revealed 85 of the brightest known galaxies, all containing supermassive black holes, the press release said.
Once fully operational, SKA-Low is expected to detect over 600,000 galaxies in the same field of view, according to the CSIRO. The Australian government is partnering with the local community and the CSIRO to ensure the construction and operation of the SKA-Low telescope in the country's west.
"The quality of this image was even beyond what we hoped for using such an early version of the telescope," the press release quoted SKA-Low Lead Commissioning Scientist George Heald as saying.
"The bright galaxies we can see in this image are just the tip of iceberg. With the full telescope we will have the sensitivity to reveal the faintest and most distant galaxies, back to the early Universe when the first stars and galaxies started to form," Heald said.
SKA-Low Telescope Director Sarah Pearce acknowledged the global effort behind the achievement, saying the result is the culmination of decades of work by engineers, astronomers, and computer scientists worldwide.
The SKA telescopes, which include SKA-Low in Western Australia and SKA-Mid in South Africa's Northern Cape, will be the most advanced radio observatories on Earth, playing a key role in studying galaxy formation, extreme physics, and the origins of life. They function as vast arrays, integrating data from thousands of antennas across large distances to operate as a single, powerful radio telescope.
While construction is ongoing in collaboration with the CSIRO, the SKA-Low is set to become the world's largest low-frequency radio telescope within two years, revolutionising the view of the Universe.
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