Understanding the universe on a whole new frequency.

The MWA enables some of the world’s most advanced astronomy.

The Murchison Widefield Array is a radio telescope, made of 4,096 spider-like antennas tuned to receive signals from the sky between 70 and 300MHz. Since its launch in 2013, the MWA has collected tens of petabytes of data which are sent over dedicated fibre and the National Broadband Network to the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre in Perth. From there, the data are accessed and analysed by hundreds of researchers from around the world using the All-Sky Virtual Observatory.

Key Areas of Science

The MWA is special for its very wide field of view, high angular resolution, nanosecond time resolution, and digital pointing agility. This makes the instrument invaluable for quickly mapping the sky and studying rare and faint events as they happen. Explore some of our key science drivers here.

From the outer reaches of the Universe, to the outback

The MWA is located at Inyarrimanha Ilgari Bundara, the CSIRO Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory. The observatory is 300 kilometres inland from the coastal town of Geraldton, Western Australia, on Wajarri country. The MWA’s unprecedented capabilities underpin its critical role as the first fully operational precursor instrument of the A1ドル billion Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project. Soon to be constructed on the same site, the SKA will be the world’s largest radio telescope, designed to solve the deepest mysteries of the Universe.

An International Collaboration

The MWA is an international Collaboration, comprised of 259 astronomers and 28 partner institutions from Australia, Japan, China, Canada, the United States and Switzerland.

Findings worth tuning into

MWA astronomers are leading the way at low frequencies – read up on the latest news.