Virtual reality app showcases SKA site and multi-wavelength night sky

VIRTUAL REALITY APP SHOWCASES SKA SITE AND MULTI-WAVELENGTH NIGHT SKY

BY ICRAR

An app that allows users to explore Australia’s remote SKA site and view the Milky Way in different wavelengths has launched on the Apple and Google Play stores.

Credit: ICRAR

The GLEAMoscope VR app shows the Milky Way as seen from the Western Australia’s Murchison region, in wavelengths ranging from gamma ray to X-ray, visible light, farinfrared, microwave and radio waves.

The app features the Murchison Radioastronomy Observatory (MRO) site, including the recently deployed SKALA 4.1 antennas.

The radio observations on GLEAMoscope originate from the GaLactic and Extragalactic All-sky MWA (GLEAM) survey on the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), an SKA precursor telescope.

The survey has a resolution of two arcminutes (about the same as the human eye) and searches the sky for radio waves between 72 and 231MHz.

“We’re showing off what the SKA will look like and giving people an on-the-ground feeling of being there at the MRO,” said astrophysicist Dr Natasha HurleyWalker of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR).

“This virtual version is set in the outback at night time, showing the visible Universe as well as the sky at other wavelengths. Users can switch between the wavelengths, see interesting objects and then query those objects and find out more about them with explanatory audio contributed by real radio astronomers.”

GLEAMoscope VR recently added an Italian language option, and is available for both Android and Apple devices.

The app is available for download from the Google Play store and the Apple store, and a web-based version is available at gleamoscope.icrar.org