2014/12/18 by R. P. Norris, Ray P. Norris, Norris, Ray P. +19 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Antenna Design and Optimization #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #astro-ph.IM
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1412.6076
to appear as part of 'Continuum Science' in Proceedings 'Advancing Astrophysics with the SKA (AASKA14)'
arxiv created 2014/12/18 · openalex publication_date 2014/12/18 · arxiv updated 2014/12/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We show that, in addition to specific science goals, there is a strong case for conducting an all-sky (i.e. the visible 3-pi steradians) SKA continuum survey which does not fit neatly into conventional science cases. History shows that the greatest scientific impact of most major telescopes (e.g., HST, VLA) lies beyond the original goals used to justify the telescope. The design of the telescope therefore needs to maximise the ultimate scientific productivity, in addition to achieving the specific science goals. In this chapter, we show that an all-sky continuum survey is likely to achieve transformational science in two specific respects: (1) Discovering the unexpected (2) Transforming radio-astronomy from niche to mainstream