In the blink of an eye astronomers win prestigious American science prize
An ASKAP team led by CSIRO astronomer, Dr Keith Bannister has received the 2020 Newcomb Cleveland Prize, presented by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Each year since 1923, the Newcomb Cleveland Prize honours the most impactful research paper published in the journal Science.
The international team of 54 astronomers, based at 21 institutions was the first to pinpoint the location of a fast radio burst.
“Fast radio bursts are extremely short extragalactic events — that is, they originate in a galaxy far, far away — and identifying the exact signal source of one is like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack,” said Holden Thorp, editor-in-chief of Science and chair of the Newcomb Cleveland Prize Selection Committee.
Watch the AAAS video about the award:
The origins of FRBs were a mystery because radio telescopes lacked the precision to identify where they came from. It wasn't clear if they came from nearby stars or distant galaxies.
To resolve the mystery, the team used CSIRO’s Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope, an array of 36 antennas in Western Australia.
ASKAP is equipped with unique CSIRO-designed phase array feed receivers which widen its field of view by a factor of 30, enabling it to find bursts more rapidly.
ASKAP was used to detect the burst and, crucially, pinpoint its location using a novel ‘live action replay’ system to pinpoint the location of the burst.
Dr Bannister, who designed ASKAP’s live action replay system said it was a great honour to receive the award which was the result of a massive team effort.
"It's thrilling to be part of cutting-edge science and technology in Australia, and to have it recognised internationally," Dr Bannister said.
The annual award recognises a paper for its quality, innovation, and wide significance. The winning paper, A single fast radio burst localized to a massive galaxy at cosmological distance, was published in Science on 9 August 2019, featuring an image of ASKAP on the front cover.
Swinburne University of Technology PhD student and fellow award recipient, Cherie Day, said it was exciting for the team to receive this recognition.
What’s next for this FRB-finding team and telescope? Find out in this Conversation article, by Dr Bannister and Swinburne University’s Associate Professor Ryan Shannon.
Dr Keith Bannister
ASKAP is located at CSIRO’s Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO). We acknowledge the Wajarri Yamaji as the traditional owners of the MRO site.
The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility which is managed by CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency. ASKAP uses the resources of the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre. Establishment of ASKAP, the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory and the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre are initiatives of the Australian Government, with support from the Government of Western Australia and the Science and Industry Endowment Fund.