New Atlas of the Universe Created – Includes a Million Galaxies We’ve Never Seen Before

Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey

Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope creates a new atlas of the Universe. Credit: CSIRO

A world-leading CSIRO radio telescope has conducted its first survey of the entire southern sky in record speed and detail, creating a new atlas of the Universe.

The Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), developed and operated by Australia’s national science agency, CSIRO, mapped approximately three million galaxies in just 300 hours.

The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey is like a Google map of the Universe where most of the millions of star-like points on the map are distant galaxies – about a million of which we’ve never seen before.

CSIRO Chief Executive Dr. Larry Marshall said ASKAP brought together world-class infrastructure with scientific and engineering expertise to unlock the deepest secrets of the Universe.

“ASKAP is applying the very latest in science and technology to age-old questions about the mysteries of the Universe and equipping astronomers around the world with new breakthroughs to solve their challenges,” Dr. Marshall said.

“It’s all enabled by innovative receivers developed by CSIRO that feature phased array feed technology, which see ASKAP generate more raw data at a faster rate than Australia’s entire internet traffic.

“In a time when we have access to more data than ever before, ASKAP and the supercomputers that support it are delivering unparalleled insights and wielding the tools that will underpin our data-driven future to make life better for everybody.”

Australian SKA Pathfinder Radio Telescope Day

Australian SKA Pathfinder Radio Telescope in the day. Credit: CSIRO

Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, Karen Andrews said ASKAP is another outstanding example of Australia’s world-leading radio astronomy capability.

“ASKAP is a major technological development that puts our scientists, engineers, and industry in the driver’s seat to lead deep space discovery for the next generation. This new survey proves that we are ready to make a giant leap forward in the field of radio astronomy,” Minister Andrews said.

The telescope’s key feature is its wide field of view, generated by new CSIRO-designed receivers, that enable ASKAP to take panoramic pictures of the sky in amazing detail.

Using ASKAP at CSIRO’s Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in outback Western Australia, the survey team observed 83 percent of the entire sky.

The initial results were published on November 30, 2020, in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.

This record-breaking result proves that an all-sky survey can be done in weeks rather than years, opening new opportunities for discovery.

The new data will enable astronomers to undertake statistical analyses of large populations of galaxies, in the same way social researchers use information from a national census.

Australian SKA Pathfinder Radio Telescope Night

Australian SKA Pathfinder Radio Telescope at night. Credit: CSIRO

“This census of the Universe will be used by astronomers around the world to explore the unknown and study everything from star formation to how galaxies and their supermassive black holes evolve and interact,” lead author and CSIRO astronomer Dr. David McConnell said.

With ASKAP’s advanced receivers the RACS team only needed to combine 903 images to form the full map of the sky, significantly less than the tens of thousands of images needed for earlier all-sky radio surveys conducted by major world telescopes.

“For the first time ASKAP has flexed its full muscles, building a map of the Universe in greater detail than ever before, and at record speed. We expect to find tens of millions of new galaxies in future surveys,” Dr. McConnell said.

The 13.5 exabytes of raw data generated by ASKAP were processed using hardware and software custom-built by CSIRO.

The Pawsey Supercomputing Center’s ‘Galaxy’ supercomputer converted the data into 2D radio images containing a total of 70 billion pixels.

The final 903 images and supporting information amount to 26 terabytes of data.

Pawsey Executive Director Mark Stickells said the supercomputing capability was a key part of ASKAP’s design.

“The Pawsey Supercomputing Center has worked closely with CSIRO and the ASKAP team since our inception and we are proud to provide essential infrastructure that is supporting science delivering great impact,” Mr. Stickells said.

The images and catalogs from the survey will be made publicly available through the CSIRO Data Access Portal and hosted at Pawsey.

ASKAP’s advanced technologies are providing insights for the development of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), an international mega-science project to build the world’s largest radio telescopes.

CSIRO will host the low-frequency SKA telescope at the MRO.

CSIRO acknowledges the Wajarri Yamaji as the traditional owners of the MRO site.

Reference: “The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey I: Design and first results” by D. McConnell, C. L. Hale, E. Lenc, J. K. Banfield, George Heald, A. W. Hotan, James K. Leung, Vanessa A. Moss, Tara Murphy, Andrew O’Brien [Opens in a new window], Joshua Pritchard, Wasim Raja, Elaine M. Sadler, Adam Stewart, Alec J. M. Thomson, M. Whiting, James R. Allison, S. W. Amy, C. Anderson, Lewis Ball, Keith W. Bannister, Martin Bell, Douglas C.-J. Bock, Russ Bolton, J. D. Bunton, A. P. Chippendale, J. D. Collier, F. R. Cooray, T. J. Cornwell, P. J. Diamond, P. G. Edwards, N. Gupta, Douglas B. Hayman, Ian Heywood, C. A. Jackson, Bärbel S. Koribalski, Karen Lee-Waddell and N. M. McClure-Griffiths, 30 November 2020, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.
DOI: 10.1017/pasa.2020.41

13 Comments on "New Atlas of the Universe Created – Includes a Million Galaxies We’ve Never Seen Before"

  1. what if the builders of the pyramids on earth colonized the earth … erected..pyramids.found..that their technology does not work because the earth has a liquid core not iron..and the power plants did not work..or..a unstable planet for this technology .. earthquakes and eruptions … and consequently returned..oz..rejected..the colonization of the earth..because if you think about it .. the location of the pyramids .. if it worked it would be our Planet like Jupiter..I think that Mr. .tesla pursued..pyramids and Jupiter .. if this is it the neighbors are very close.my theory ….. with respect …

  2. Sekar Vedaraman | December 1, 2020 at 3:36 pm | Reply

    Interesting.

    Galaxy Spotting. Star Mapping in Galaxy. Planet Mapping revovling around Stars.

    Proto-Planets which may have escaped Planetary Gravitational Pull and Become Comets travelling in Space in the Galaxy.

    Proto Planets which gets captured by Other Stars either in their Own Galaxy or in Other Galxies and orbit their New Found Stars and Gather Material from Planet Crashes with eccentric Elliptical Orbits and become Planets with their own orbits.!

    Some immediate Thoughts Shared.

    We need quantum Computing and Genetic Storage Technology to store this kind of Vast Information database and use algorithms to spot possible habitable planets —where life may exist. Life can be either buit around Species like us or Species far more advanced “Not Built around Hydrogen and Water” and Gentics and Amino Acids — somethings we do not we we do not even Understand and cant even imagine. We are still reinventing the Periodic Table. ( See Russian Paper).

    However, Good start.

    Congrats on Clobbering the Indian Team in the ODIs. Looks like the Aussie Powerhouse in Cricket has started coming back!

    • Torbjörn Larsson | December 2, 2020 at 6:10 pm | Reply

      Yes, it is a galaxy survey. It won’t resolve planets or – even harder – resolve drifting planets.

      The current project works with traditional computers and storage. But it was pushing the technology, so future systems may have use for future hardware (and soiftware) improvements.

      Evolution is a process within populations of hydrocarbon cell based organisms, most likely. Carbon chemistry is the largest, and carbon (as well as the other non-metal H,N,O,P,S) are the most common elements – C is even part of the dominant CNO cycle in large, shortlived stars that seed the universe with “metals”.

      The elements and their properties are the same regardless of representation. The most recent scheme is one variant among many others that weighs one (or a few) properties more than others and ease studying that. But the common element table is such because it has the most usefulness.

      Ha, sports! I don’t follow other sports than the ones I do myself, which during the pandemic is confined to training (and specifically cycling while a knee injury heals). The society here do football (“soccer”), ice hockey, athletics [which I do some of, combined with dancing], table tennis, and skiing among other things – but little polo, rugby or cricket. “Nothing happens in cricket, ever. Even the highlights resemble a freeze frame.” – Charlie Brooker, author, lives with a cricket culture. Good luck with crickets in the future!

      • Torbjörn Larsson | December 2, 2020 at 6:19 pm | Reply

        “are the most common elements” = is (are) among the most common elements.

        • Babu G. Ranganathan | December 3, 2020 at 10:06 am | Reply

          THE NATURAL LIMITS TO EVOLUTION

          Babu G. Ranganathan*
          (B.A. Bible/Biology)

          ONLY LIMITED EVOLUTION (micro-evolution or evolution within biological “kinds”) is genetically possible (such as the varieties of dogs, cats, horses, cows, etc.), but not macro-evolution, or evolution across biological “kinds,” (such as from sea sponge to human). All real evolution in nature is simply the expression, over time, of already existing genes or variations of already existing genes. For example, we have breeds of dogs today that we didn’t have a few hundred years ago. The genes for these breeds had always existed in the dog population but never had opportunity before to be expressed. Only limited evolution, variations of already existing genes and traits, is possible.

          The genes (chemical instructions or code) for a trait must first exist or otherwise the trait cannot come into existence. Genes instruct the body to build our tissues and organs. Nature is mindless and has no ability to design and program entirely new genes for entirely new traits.

          Evolutionists believe that, if given millions of years, accidents in the genetic code of species caused by the environment will generate entirely new code making evolution possible from one type of life to another. It’s much like believing that by randomly changing the sequence of letters in a romance novel, over millions of years, can turn the novel into a book on astronomy! Not to worry. We’ll address the issue of “Junk DNA” in a moment.

          WHAT ABOUT NATURAL SELECTION? Natural selection doesn’t produce biological traits or variations. It can only “select” from biological variations that are possible and which have survival value.

          HOW COULD SPECIES HAVE SURVIVED if their vital tissues, organs, reproductive systems, etc. were still evolving? A partially evolved trait or organ that is not complete and fully integrated and functioning from the start would be a liability to a species, not a survival asset. Plants and animals in the process of macro-evolution would be unfit for survival. For example, “if a leg of a reptile were to evolve (over supposedly millions of years) into a wing of a bird, it would become a bad leg long before it became a good wing” (Dr. Walt Brown, scientist and creationist). Survival of the fittest actually would have prevented evolution across biological kinds!

          NEW SPECIES BUT NOT NEW DNA: Although it’s been observed that new species have come into existence, they don’t carry any new genes. They’ve become new species only because they can’t be crossed back with the original parent stock for various biological reasons. A biological “kind” allows for new species but not new genes. Nature has no ability to invent new genes for new traits. Only limited variations and adaptations are possible in nature, and all strictly within a biological “kind” (i.e. varieties of dogs, cats, etc.).

          Dr. Randy J. Guliuzza’s extensive research points to a better explanation than natural selection for variation and adaptation in nature. Dr. Guliuzza explains that species have pre-engineered mechanisms that enable organisms to continuously track and respond to environmental changes with system elements that correspond to human-designed tracking systems. This model is called CET (continuous environmental tracking). His research strongly indicates that living things have been pre-engineered to produce the right adaptations and changes required to live in changing environments. It’s much like a car that’s been pre-engineered so that the head lights turn on automatically when day changes to night.

          What about genetic and biological similarities between species? Genetic information, like other forms of information, cannot happen by chance, so it is more logical to believe that genetic and biological similarities between all forms of life are due to a common Designer who designed similar functions for similar purposes. It doesn’t mean all forms of life are biologically related! Only genetic similarities within a natural species proves relationship because it’s only within a natural species that members can interbreed and reproduce.

          Many people have wrong ideas of how evolution is supposed to work. Physical traits and characteristics are determined and passed on by genes – not by what happens to our body parts. For example, if a woman were to lose her finger this wouldn’t affect how many fingers her baby will have. Changing the color and texture of your hair will not affect the color and texture of your children’s hair. So, even if an ape or ape-like creature’s muscles and bones changed so that it could walk upright it still would not be able to pass on this trait to its offspring. Only changes or mutations that occur in the genetic code of reproductive cells (i.e. sperm and egg) can be passed on to offspring.

          What about the new science of epigenetics? Epigenetics involves inheritable factors which can turn already-existing genes on, but epigenetics doesn’t create new genes.

          Most biological variations are from new combinations of already existing genes, not mutations. Mutations are accidents in the genetic code caused by nature (i.e. environmental radiation), are mostly harmful, and have no capability of producing greater complexity in the code. Even if a good accident occurred, for every good one there would be hundreds of harmful ones with the net result, over time, being harmful, even lethal, to the species. Even if a single mutation is not immediately harmful, the accumulation of mutations over time will be harmful to the species resulting in extinction. At very best, mutations only produce further variations within a natural species.

          All species of plants and animals in the fossil record are found complete, fully formed, and fully functional. This is powerful evidence that all species came into existence as complete and fully formed from the beginning. This is only possible by creation.

          God began with a perfect and harmonious creation. Even all the animals were vegetarian (Genesis 1:30) in the beginning and did not struggle for survival nor kill and devour each other. Macro-evolutionary theory does not begin with a perfect and harmonious creation as the Bible states. The Bible and macro-evolutionary theory cannot both be true.

          All the fossils that have been used to support human evolution have been found to be either hoaxes, non-human, or human, but not non-human and human (i.e. Neanderthal Man was discovered later to be fully human).

          There has never been unanimous agreement among evolutionary scientists on ANY fossil evidence that has been used to support human evolution over the many years, Including LUCY.

          The actual similarity between ape and human DNA is between 70-87% not 99.8% as commonly believed. The original research stating 99.8% similarity was based on ignoring contradicting evidence. Only a certain segment of DNA between apes and humans was compared, not the entire DNA genome.

          Also, so-called “Junk DNA” isn’t junk. Although these “non-coding” segments of DNA don’t code for proteins, they have recently been found to be vital in regulating gene expression (i.e. when, where, and how genes are expressed, so they’re not “junk”). Also, there is evidence that, in certain situations, they can code for protein.

          ARE FOSSILS REALLY MILLIONS OF YEARS OLD? (Internet article by author)

          Visit my latest Internet site: THE SCIENCE SUPPORTING CREATION (This site answers many arguments, both old and new, that have been used by evolutionists to support their theory)

          Author of popular Internet article, TRADITIONAL DOCTRINE OF HELL EVOLVED FROM GREEK ROOTS

          *I have given successful lectures (with question and answer period afterwards) defending creation before evolutionist science faculty and students at various colleges and universities. I’ve been privileged to be recognized in the 24th edition of Marquis “Who’s Who in The East” for my writings on religion and science.

          • Torbjörn Larsson | December 3, 2020 at 8:11 pm |

            This superstition again?! What would be the general relevance and specific connection to the nice conversation between Sekar and me you are intruding in?

            It could be that you respond to my earlier response to your erroneous and anti-scientific comments on matter of nature. Creationism was rejected two centuries ago.

            And as I already explained, since 2018 we now know a constraint on naturalness of the universe – space is flat over sufficiently large volumes, meaning total energy and total work each must sum to zero – and we see that there are no ‘all powerful gods’ of modern superstition. There isn’t even ‘milligods’ and by fine partitioning there could at best be a few ‘microgods or clumps of ‘nanogods’. As a popular movie recently stated: “Puny god!”

            Religion is today – based on observation – shown to place among the already known snake oil businesses such as astrology and homeopathy. And in any case this isn’t the place to evangelize for your personal opinions. I know religion has no morals – religiosity correlates with unsafe, dysfunctional societies – but mind that your readers have what you have don’t display.

          • Torbjörn Larsson | December 3, 2020 at 8:19 pm |

            I should add that I know biology and have studied bioinformatics, so your lies about it towards me is absolutely meaningless.

            It is easy to go to a free site today and test that evolution is nothing like you say by making a phylogenetic tree – a good site like NCBI has tutorials (and I recommend the free and fast RAxML web interface for the tree after you have the sequence alignment FASTA file: just C&P) – in about 30 minutes.

            So either you take a few hours to study the natural phenomena, or you should stop lying on account of your own ignorance of the subject.

  3. Torbjörn Larsson | December 2, 2020 at 6:16 pm | Reply

    ASAKAP didn’t go to so high z (distance) as eBOSS galaxy survey which covered 11 out of 14 Gyrs of universe history. But in one week they surveyed as many galaxies as eBOSS did in 20 years!

    “No need to Mind the Gap: Astrophysicists fill in 11 billion years of our universe’s expansion history

    July 19, 2020

    The Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) released today a comprehensive analysis of the largest three-dimensional map of the Universe ever created, filling in the most significant gaps in our possible exploration of its history.

    The new results come from the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS), an international collaboration of more than 100 astrophysicists that is one of the SDSS’s component surveys. At the heart of the new results are detailed measurements of more than two million galaxies and quasars covering 11 billion years of cosmic time.”

    [SDSS press release]

  4. Babu G. Ranganathan | December 3, 2020 at 10:02 am | Reply

    Babu G. Ranganathan*
    (B.A. Bible/Biology)

    JUST BECAUSE SCIENCE CAN EXPLAIN how an airplane works doesn’t mean that no one designed or made the airplane. And just because science can explain how life or the universe works doesn’t mean there was no Designer and Maker behind them.

    Natural laws may explain how the order in the universe works and operates, but mere undirected natural laws cannot explain the origin of that order. Once you have a complete and living cell then the genetic code and biological machinery exist to direct the formation of more cells from raw materials such as amino acids and other chemicals, but how could life or the cell have naturally originated when no directing code and mechanisms existed in nature? Read my Internet article: HOW FORENSIC SCIENCE REFUTES ATHEISM.

    WHAT IS SCIENCE? Science simply is knowledge based on observation. No human observed the universe coming by chance or by design, by creation or by evolution. These are positions of faith. The issue is which faith the scientific evidence best supports.

    SCIENCE SHOWS THAT THE UNIVERSE CANNOT BE ETERNAL because it could not have sustained itself eternally due to the law of entropy (increasing and irreversible net energy decay, even in an open system). Even a hypothetical oscillating universe could not continue to oscillate eternally! Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity shows that space, matter, and time all are physical and all had a beginning. Space even produces particles because it’s actually something, not nothing. What about the Higgs boson (the so-called “God Particle”)? The Higgs boson, even if it existed, would not have created mass from nothing, but rather it would have converted energy into mass. Einstein showed that all matter is some form of energy. Even time had a beginning! Time is not eternal.

    The law of entropy doesn’t allow the universe to be eternal. If the universe were eternal, everything, including time (which modern science has shown is as physical as mass and space), would have become totally entropied by now and the entire universe would have ended in a uniform heat death a long, long time ago. The fact that this hasn’t happened already is powerful evidence for a beginning to the universe.

    Popular atheistic scientist Stephen Hawking admits that the universe had a beginning and came from nothing but he believes that nothing became something by a natural process yet to be discovered. That’s not rational thinking at all, and it also would be making the effect greater than its cause to say that nothing created something. The beginning had to be of supernatural origin because science teaches us from the First Law of Thermodynamics that natural laws and processes do not have the ability to bring something into existence from nothing.

    The supernatural origin of the universe cannot be proved by science but science points to a supernatural intelligence and power for the origin and order of the universe. Where did God come from? Obviously, unlike the universe, God’s nature doesn’t require a beginning.

    The disorder in the universe can be explained because of chance and random processes, but the order can be explained only because of intelligence and design.

    Gravity may explain how the order found in the precise and orderly courses of thousands of billions of stars is maintained, but gravity cannot explain the origin of that order.

    Some evolutionary astronomers believe that trillions of stars crashed into each other leaving surviving stars to find precise orderly orbits in space. Not only is this irrational, but if there was such a mass collision of stars then there would be a super mass residue of gas clouds in space to support this hypothesis. The present level of residue of gas clouds in space doesn’t support the magnitude of star deaths required for such a hypothesis. And, as already stated, the origin of stars cannot be explained by the Big Bang because of the reasons mentioned above. It’s one thing to say that stars may decay and die into random gas clouds, but it is totally different to say that gas clouds form into stars.

    Even the father of Chaos theory admitted that the “mechanisms” existing in the non-living world allow for only very rudimentary levels of order to arise spontaneously (by chance), but not the kind or level of order we find in the structures of DNA, RNA, and proteins. Yes, individual amino acids have been shown to come into existence by chance but not protein molecules which require that the various amino acids be in a precise sequence just like the letters found in a sentence.

    Some things don’t need experiment or scientific proof. In law there is a dictum called prima facie evidence. It means “evidence that speaks for itself.”

    An example of a true prima facie would be if you discovered an elaborate sand castle on the beach. You don’t have to experiment to know that it came by design and not by the chance forces of wind and water.

    If you discovered a romantic letter or message written in the sand, you don’t have to experiment to know that it was by design and not because a stick randomly carried by wind put it there. You naturally assume that an intelligent and rational being was responsible.

    It’s interesting that Carl Sagan would have acknowledged sequential radio signals in space as evidence of intelligent life sending them, but he wouldn’t acknowledge the sequential structure of molecules in DNA (the genetic code) as evidence of an intelligent Cause. Read my popular Internet article, HOW DID MY DNA MAKE ME.

    I encourage all to read my popular Internet articles:

    NATURAL LIMITS TO EVOLUTION
    HOW FORENSIC SCIENCE REFUTES ATHEISM

    Visit my latest Internet site: THE SCIENCE SUPPORTING CREATION (This site answers many arguments, both old and new, that have been used by evolutionists to support their theory)

    Author of popular Internet article, TRADITIONAL DOCTRINE OF HELL EVOLVED FROM GREEK ROOTS

    *I have given successful lectures (with question and answer period afterwards) defending creation before evolutionist science faculty and students at various colleges and universities. I’ve been privileged to be recognized in the 24th edition of Marquis “Who’s Who in The East” for my writings on religion and science.

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