Focus on
ABOVE: Science synergies between the SKA and ngVLA telescopes were high on the agenda for New Eyes on the Universe.
SKA and ngVLA: radio astronomy’s new eyes on the Universe BY CASSANDRA CAVALLARO (SKAO)
Radio astronomy is heading into a bright future – that was the message that came loud and clear from the joint SKA-ngVLA meeting, New Eyes on the Universe, held in Vancouver, Canada in May. The city may not be renowned for its weather, but for almost the full five days of meeting there were clear skies overhead. A good omen, perhaps, for an astronomy conference (although radio astronomers would be quick to point out that clouds do not trouble their telescopes). Inside the venue, the Pan-Pacific Hotel on the city’s waterfront, around 300 attendees from 21 countries were treated to a five-day programme featuring 60 speakers. Together they represented the current and next generation of radio astronomers. Co-organised by the SKAO and US National Science Foundation’s National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), the meeting was designed to highlight the synergies and complementarities between two of the premier radio astronomy facilities of this century. Talks explored the science they will enable by covering a vast swathe of the radio spectrum, from 50 MHz at the lower end of the SKAO’s coverage, to 116 GHz at the upper limit of the ngVLA’s planned range. Canada was a fitting host for the meeting as a contributor to both the ngVLA and SKAO, and having recently announced its intention to become a full SKAO member [see page 28]. More than two dozen colleagues from Canada’s National Research 18
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Council (NRC) were present, including Dr Luc Simard, director general of the Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre and Canadian representative in the SKAO Council. He opened proceedings with an Indigenous land acknowledgement, noting that the city of Vancouver is located on the unceded, ancestral and traditional territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. Introductory remarks from SKAO Director-General Prof. Philip Diamond and NRAO Director Dr Tony Beasley highlighted the shared challenges and immense scientific promise of both endeavours. “The ngVLA and SKAO will together provide a global capability in the radio, with the ability to observe the entire sky. With our joint capabilities, we will be able to deliver a greater range of science than at any other waveband,” Prof. Diamond told the opening session. Then it was time for the packed science agenda to get under way: exploring the sub-surfaces of planets, detecting fast radio bursts, studying astrochemistry and the building blocks of life, characterising interstellar magnetic fields – and that was just day one.
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