GASKAP -- A Galactic Spectral Line Survey with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder

Understand

One of the Survey Science Projects that the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope will do in its first few years of operation is a study of the 21-cm line of HI and the 18-cm lines of OH in the Galactic Plane and the Magellanic Clouds and Stream.

• The wide-field ASKAP can survey a large area with very high sensitivity much faster than a conventional telescope because of its focal plane array of receiver elements.
• The brightness sensitivity for the widespread spectral line emission of the interstellar medium depends on the beam size and the survey speed.
• In the GASKAP survey, maps with different resolutions will be synthesized simultaneously; these will be matched to different scientific applications such as diffuse HI and OH emission, OH masers, and HI absorption toward background continuum sources.