Science at very high angular resolution with the square kilometre array

Godfrey, L.E.H. and Bignall, H. and Tingay, S. and Harvey-Smith, L. and Kramer, M. and Burke-Spolaor, S. and Miller-Jones, J.C.A. and Johnston-Hollitt, M. and Ekers, R. and Gulyaev, S. 2012. Science at very high angular resolution with the square kilometre array. Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia 29 (1): pp. 42-53.

Source Title

Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia

DOI

10.1071/AS11050

ISSN

1323-3580

School

Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/24454

Collection

Curtin Research Publications

Abstract

Preliminary specifications for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) call for 25% of the total collecting area of the dish array to be located at distances greater than 180 km from the core, with a maximum baseline of at least 3000 km. The array will provide angular resolution θ 40–2 mas at 0.5–10 GHz with image sensitivity reaching 50 nJy beam -1 in an 8-hour integration with 500-MHz bandwidth. Given these specifications, the high-angular-resolution component of the SKA will be capable of detecting brightness temperatures 200K with milliarcsecond-scale angular resolution. The aim of this article is to bring together in one place a discussion of the broad range of new and important high-angular-resolution science that will be enabled by the SKA, and in doing so, address the merits of long baselines as part of the SKA. We highlight the fact that high angular resolution requiring baselines greater than 1000 km provides a rich science case with projects from many areas of astrophysics, including important contributions to key SKA science.