HET608 - Introductory Radio Astronomy and the SETI

Credit Points:
12.5

Duration & Workload:
One semester, equivalent to a 5 contact hour per week lecture course

Prerequisites:
Introductory tertiary-level mathematics and physics (or equivalent)

Aims:
This unit will provide an overview of both single- and multiple-dish radio astronomy and their applications, plus a study of the history, principles, techniques and societal issues of an area where which radio astronomy plays a key part - the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI)

Content:

  • The electromagnetic spectrum and radio waves; the sky at radio wavelengths; a brief history of radio astronomy
  • Radio emission: line emission & continuum emission; thermal and non-thermal emission: Blackbody radiation, synchrotron and maser emission
  • Sources of radio emission: radio sources in the Solar System and the Milky Way; radio emission in the local and distance Universe; radio surveys and case-study HIPASS, an HI all-sky survey
  • Single-dish radio astronomy: optical versus radio astronomy, properties of single-dish telescopes: beams, mounts, drives, receivers, amplifiers; sidelobes, flux density, bandwidth, sensitivity
  • Fourier transforms and digitising radio signals; backends, feeds, amplifiers, correlators
  • Multi-dish radio astronomy: interferometry, arrays and aperture synthesis; resolving power, signal-to-noise, array design, source visibility and the u-v plane; VLBI and space VLBI
  • Imaging and analysis: single-dish data & multi-dish analysis and image reconstruction; raw data, calibration, imaging, deconvolution, mosaicing
  • Radio astronomy case studies: VLBI and pulsar astronomy; interference; amateur radio astronomy
  • The future of radio astronomy: millimetre astronomy; SKA
  • Introduction to SETI: what is SETI? Are we alone and where to look? The Drake equation, habitable zones, intelligence versus technology, lifetimes, extrasolar planets
  • How to look: planning a SETI search: all-sky versus targeted searches; where to look and at what wavelength; examples of past, present and future SETI searches; technical aspects of SETI signals: differential Doppler, waterfall plots, interference and how to avoid it
Teaching Method:
This unit will be presented in online delivery mode, with course material available via Internet links, and contact via newsgroup and e-mail.

Assessment Method:
Assessable newsgroup contributions, assignments and project.

Textbook:
For information about the textbook, follow this link