CRACO, a powerful new telescope technology from Australia, is helping astronomers detect mysterious cosmic signals faster than ever.
It has already led to several major discoveries, including fast radio bursts and neutron stars, with the potential for even more groundbreaking findings.
Unlocking Cosmic Mysteries with CRACO
The first trial of an Australian-developed technology has successfully detected mysterious cosmic objects by analyzing space signals with remarkable precision, much like sifting through grains of sand on a beach.
Developed by astronomers and engineers at CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, the specialized system, known as CRACO, was designed for the ASKAP radio telescope to quickly identify fast radio bursts and other astronomical phenomena.
Researchers from the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Western Australia recently tested the new technology.
According to results published today (January 27) in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, CRACO has detected two fast radio bursts and two sporadically emitting neutron stars. The technology has also provided more precise location data for four known pulsars. Since the initial findings, the team has discovered more than twenty additional fast radio bursts.
Dr. Andy Wang explains the discoveries his team made while commissioning CSIRO’s CRACO instrument. Credit: ICRAR
Surpassing Expectations in Space Exploration
Dr. Andy Wang from ICRAR, who led the research and oversaw the testing of CRACO, said the team uncovered more astronomical objects than they had anticipated.
“We were focused on finding fast radio bursts, a mysterious phenomenon that has opened up a new field of research in astronomy.
“CRACO is enabling us to find these bursts better than ever before. We have been searching for bursts 100 times per second and in the future we expect this will increase to 1,000 times per second,” Dr. Wang said.
The Power Behind CRACO
CSIRO astronomer and engineer Dr. Keith Bannister who, along with his team, developed the instrument, says the scale of observation enabled by the new technology is enormous.
“CRACO taps into ASKAP’s ‘live’ view of the sky in search of fast radio bursts.
“To do this, it scans through huge volumes of data – processing 100 billion pixels per second – to detect and identify the location of bursts.
“That’s the equivalent of sifting through a whole beach of sand to look for a single five-cent coin every minute,” Dr. Bannister said.
How CRACO Operates
CRACO is made up of a cluster of computers and accelerators connected to the ASKAP radio telescope at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory on Wajarri Yamaji Country. Development of this technology reinforces Australia’s international reputation as a leader in radio astronomy engineering and research.
“Once at full capacity, CRACO will be a game changer for international astronomy,” Dr. Wang said.
CRACO has been engineered to sift through the trillions of pixels received by the telescope to find anomalies, alerting researchers the moment it spots something out of the ordinary, allowing them to quickly follow up to obtain more data and complete their own analysis.
Expanding Research Horizons
Dr. Wang and his team increasingly expanded CRACO’s research targets to find more exotic sources.
“We’re also detecting long-period transients, which remain mysterious objects within our galaxy. Both fast radio bursts and these transients were first discovered in Australia, so it is great that we’re continuing the path of discovery with this impressive technology,” Dr. Wang said.
CRACO will soon be made available to astronomers all over the world as part of CSIRO’s Australia Telescope National Facility, a suite of national research infrastructure that includes Murriyang, CSIRO’s Parkes radio telescope.
Reference: “The CRAFT coherent (CRACO) upgrade I: System description and results of the 110-ms radio transient pilot survey” by Z. Wang, K. W. Bannister, V. Gupta, X. Deng, M. Pilawa, J. Tuthill, J. D. Bunton, C. Flynn, M. Glowacki, A. Jaini, Y. W. J. Lee, E. Lenc, J. Lucero, A. Paek, R. Radhakrishnan, N. Thyagarajan, P. Uttarkar, Y. Wang, N. D. R. Bhat, C. W. James, V. A. Moss, Tara Murphy, J. E. Reynolds, R. M. Shannon, L. G. Spitler, A. Tzioumis, M. Caleb, A. T. Deller, A. C. Gordon, L. Marnoch, S. D. Ryder, S. Simha, C. S. Anderson, L. Ball, D. Brodrick, F. R. Cooray, N. Gupta, D. B. Hayman, A. Ng, S. E. Pearce, C. Phillips, M. A. Voronkov and T. Westmeier, 28 January 2025, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.
DOI: 10.1017/pasa.2024.107
The CRACO system was developed through collaboration between CSIRO and Australian and international researchers and was partially funded through an Australian Research Council grant.
The researchers acknowledge the Wajarri Yamaji as the Traditional Owners and Native Title Holders of Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory site, where CRACO is located.
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