Australia tests telescope devoted to exploring origins of the universe

[Judi Lynn]

Australia tests telescope devoted to exploring origins of the universe
By Agence France-Presse
Tuesday, July 9, 2013 15:09 EDT

Australia said it had taken a major step towards the ambitious Square Kilometre Array (SKA) astronomy project with the switching on Tuesday of a test telescope to explore the origins of the universe.

Innovation Minister Kim Carr said the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), a low-frequency radio telescope operating at the remote Outback site that will host the SKA, began collecting its first data from Southern Hemisphere skies on Tuesday.

“This is an incredibly proud moment for Australia. The MWA is the first SKA precursor telescope to be completed and to become fully operational,” said Carr.

“In addition to helping us see back to the origins of the universe, the array will also help us to understand the interaction between the earth and the sun, give early warning of destructive solar flares and study our galaxy and other galaxies.”

More:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/09/australia-tests-telescope-devoted-to-exploring-origins-of-the-universe/

[center]

Murchison Widefield Array's radio telescope

http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/24/ibm-cluster-powers-murchison-widefield-array-radio-telescope/



Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder and Murchison Widefield Array projects

http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/460614/online_storage_supports_askap_mwa_projects_/



Radio-telescope kickstarts $2.51b project

http://www.3news.co.nz/Radio-telescope-kickstarts-251b-project/tabid/1160/articleID/278750/Default.aspx[/center]

[jakeXT]

1. Enough time to protect your electronics ?

A solar flare could wipe out the communications and electrical grids while frying a wide variety of electronics, quickly sending us back to the 19th Century.


So this week the news is consumed with the Supreme Court, the immigration bill, Edward Snowden and the NSA scandals, and the IRS scandal and the lingering Benghazi scandal. But behind the scenes there are things going on that may be much more important. Earth-shakingly important, even.

No, I'm not talking about the threat from asteroid strikes. This time, though, I'm talking about a different kind of civilizational threat: A solar flare that could wipe out the communications and electrical grids while frying a wide variety of electronics, quickly sending us back to the 19th Century.

That's happened before. In fact, it happened in the 19th Century, with the "Carrington Event" of 1859. A massive solar flare sent a cloud of charged particles that struck the Earth squarely, creating massive currents in the Earth's magnetic field and sending brilliant auroras south as far as Cuba and Hawaii. About the only thing electrical back then was the telegraph network, and the Carrington event had a literally shocking impact -- causing some operators to be shocked, and inducing strong enough currents in the telegraph wires that operators could disconnect the batteries and operate the telegraph off of the flare-induced electrical flow.

Modern electronics are a lot more sensitive, of course, and a similar event today would fry computers, cell phones, new cars and more. More worryingly, it would probably melt major transformers in the power net, transformers that take months or years to replace and that are expensive enough that few spares are kept. Big chunks of the planet -- all of North America, for example -- might be without electricity for a year or longer.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/06/26/solar-flare-electrical-threat-column/2461313/