Australian Collaboration with eROSITA_DEThe renewed partnership between the Australian astronomers, represented by the AAL (Australian Astronomy Limited) and the German eROSITA Consortium (eROSITA_DE) will provide exciting new opportunities for multi-wavelength astronomy projects across the southern sky.
Following on the footsteps of our cooperation with the CAASTRO Consortium, a new MoU between AAL and eROSITA_DE has been signed, an agreement that covers all astronomers at Australian Institutions. With the successful launch of eROSITA onboard the SRG satellite on July 13, 2019, we have now completed the first Calibration and Performance Verification observations, with the first eROSITA all-sky survey that started on Dec 8, 2019. Here we provide the list of current and planned Australian surveys on the national and international facilites that provide data, which can be used for multi-wavelength collaborative projects. Such projects will be formally proposed to, approved by and monitored by a joint AAL/eROSITA_DE Management Committee, appointed according to the MoU agreement. Current members of the AAL/eROSITA_DE Management Committee are: Kirpal Nandra (MPE), Thomas Reiprich (Bonn), Mara Salvato (MPE), Miroslav Filipovic (WSU), Duncan Galloway (Monash) and Matt Owers (Macquarie). Matt Owers is the Science Lead for Australian eROSITA activities. How to apply for a collaborative project with eROSITA_DE. The proposal template can be downloaded from here. eROSITA Project Updates
Approved eRosita_DE PV observations
eROSITA_DE Contacts
eROSITA_DE Science Working Group Chairs
Clusters and Cosmology: T. Reiprich (AIfA, Bonn) AGN, Blazars: K. Nandra (MPE) Normal Galaxies: F. Haberl (MPE) Compact objects: A. Schwope (AIP) Stars: J. Robrade (UH) Solar System: K. Dennerl (MPE) Diffuse Emission, SNR: W. Becker (MPE) Time Domain Astrophysics: J. Wilms (ECAP) Data Analysis, Source Extraction, Catalogs: H. Brunner (MPE) Multi-wavelength Follow-up: M. Salvato (MPE) Calibration: K. Dennerl (MPE) Background: M.Freyberg (MPE) Participating Australian Astronomical FacilitiesAnglo-Australian Telescope (AAT)
AAT is fully operational, 3.9m telescope located at Siding Spring Observatory in Australia, focus on wide-field multi-fibre and multi-IFU spectroscopy, 1"-2" angular resolution. Contact: Jenny Riding and Lucyna Chudczer SkyMapper is a 1.35m state-of-the-art automated wide-field survey telescope located under the dark skies of Siding Spring Observatory. The majority of SkyMapper time is taken by the SkyMapper Southern Sky Survey (see below), however, 5% of the overall observing time is available to Australian astronomers through regular Calls for Proposals. A further 20% is available to astronomers within ANU. Contact: Christian Wolf The 2.3m telescope is located at Siding Spring Observatory and has instruments available for imaging, echelle spectroscopy, and IFU spectroscopy (see Instruments). Contact: Paul Francis The UK Schmidt Telescope (UKST)
The UKST is a survey telescope with an aperture of 1.2 metres and a very wide-angle field of view. The UKST was recently refurbished to enable remote observations and will focus on two surveys (Taipan and FunnelWeb; see below) using the TAIPAN instrument. The TAIPAN instrument consists of a new spectrograph and the innovative 150-fibre “starbug” robotic positioning system. Contact: Matthew Colless ASKAP is an all-sky (decl < +30) survey radio telescope that operates with 288 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth that can be placed anywhere between 700 MHz and 1800 MHz. It consists of 36 antennas , each 12m in diameter. These antennas are fitted with phased array feeds that give the array a 30 square degree instantaneous field of view, with 15” spatial resolution. The Tsys/efficiency is roughly 75K. Most of ASKAP’s observing time is pre-allocated to large survey campaigns, but some (~25%) may be available for specific projects in conjunction with eROSITA. Contact: Aidan Hotan The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA)
MWA is fully operational; all-sky (decl < +30) radio imaging, 80-240 MHz, ~2.5' resolution, very large instantaneous field-of-view (30 degs), fast imaging cadence (timescale seconds) capable. Contact: Randall Wayth ATCA is fully operational, baselines of 30m to 6km; radio imaging (full synthesis) and spectroscopy, 1.3-105 GHz, ~8" to ~0.1'' max. angular resolution respectively. Contact: Jamie Stevens PARKES antenna is a fully operational dish; radio imaging (pointed and scanned), spectroscopy, high-time resolution observing (e.g. pulsars and FRBs), 0.7-22 GHz, ~23' to ~0.7' angular resolution respectively. Contact: Jimi Green Australian Astronomical SurveysCurrent Optical Surveys (spectroscopy and imaging)
Galaxy And Mass Assembly (GAMA) GAMA combines 20-band photometry and AAT/AAOmega spectroscopic redshifts for ~300,000 galaxies down to r < 19.8 mag over ~286 deg^2. Contact: Simon Driver and Andrew Hopkins Deep Extragalactic Visible Legacy Survey (DEVILS) DEVILS will collect highly complete (>95%), magnitude limited (Y-mag<21.2) AAT/AAOmega spectroscopic redshifts in the range 0.3 < z < 1 over 4 1.5 deg^2 regions which have existing extensive multi-wavelength imaging across a broad range of wavelengths. Contact: Luke Davies OzDES The Australian Dark Energy Survey (OzDES) used the 2dF fibre positioner and AAOmega spectrograph on the AAT to obtain the redshifts of thousands of sources in the 10 deep fields of the Dark Energy Survey. Contact: Tamara Davis 2-degree Field Lensing Survey (2dFLenS) 2dFLens is a galaxy redshift survey which was performed using the AAT/AAOmega instrument to extend the spectroscopic-redshift coverage of deep-imaging gravitational lensing surveys in the southern sky, in particular the Kilo-Degree Survey. The 2dFLenS sample consists of 70,079 redshifts across 731 sq deg, including 40,531 Luminous Red Galaxies spanning redshift range z < 0.9, and 28,269 redshifts which form a magnitude-limited nearly-complete sub-sample in the magnitude range 17 < r < 19.5. Contact: Chris Blake The SAMI Galaxy Survey The survey used the Sydney-AAO Multi-Object Integral Field Spectrograph (SAMI) on the AAT to obtain resolved spectroscopy for ~3000 galaxies with 0.004 < z < 0.1 and selected from the GAMA equatorial regions, as well as from 8 massive clusters of galaxies. Contact: Scott Croom The GALactic Archaeology with HERMES (GALAH) GALAH survey is a Large Observing Program using the HERMES instrument with the Anglo-Australian Telescope of the Australian Astronomical Observatory. GALAH will obtain precise radial velocities and abundances of over 15 different chemical elements per star for approximately one million stars. Contact: Joss Bland-Hawthorn SkyMapper Southern Sky Survey The SkyMapper Southern Sky Survey covers six optical bands (uvgriz) with a median spatial resolution of 2.5 arcsec. Observations are running from 2014 to 2021. The newest release is DR2, which has nearly hemispheric coverage in all bands to 18 mag, in i and z to >19 mag, and one third of the Southern hemisphere in all bands to 19..21 mag. DR3 is expected in May 2020 and will extend the deep all-band coverage to 80% of the Southern hemisphere. The precision of absolute photometric calibration is better than 2% with the exception of the passbands u and v. Cone searches, image cutouts and full catalogue queries are accessible via VO-compatible endpoints and through web browsers at skymapper.anu.edu.au. Contact: Christian Wolf current Radio Surveys
Evolutionary Map of the Universe (EMU) EMU is a large project which will use the new ASKAP telescope to make a census of 50-70 million radio sources in the sky from -90 to +30 dec. EMU covers the frequency range 800-1100 MHz with spatial resolution ~10 arcsec, and sensitivity ~15-20microJy/beam. Contact: Ray Norris The Widefield ASKAP L-band Legacy All-sky Blind surveY (WALLABY) WALLABY is one of two key surveys that are now running on the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP). WALLABY will cover 3/4 of the sky (DEC < +30 deg) out to redshift z~0.26. The spatial and spectral resolutions are 30" and 4 km/s, respectively, and WALLABY expects to detect over half a million galaxies in HI emission. Over 5000 galaxies will be well-resolved (>=5 beams). Contact: Lister Staveley-Smith and Baerbel Koribalski Galactic Australian SKA Pathfinder Survey (GASKAP) GASKAP is using ASKAP to study the evolution of gas in the Milky Way and Magellanic System through deep, high spectral resolution observations of the 21-cm atomic hydrogen (HI) line and three 18-cm lines of the OH molecule. The survey will study the distribution of HI emission and absorption with unprecedented angular and velocity resolution, as well as molecular line thermal emission, absorption, and maser lines. The area to be covered includes the Galactic plane (|b| < 10°) at all declinations south of δ = +40°, spanning longitudes 167° through 360°to 79° at b = 0°, plus the entire area of the Magellanic Stream and Clouds. The survey has a wide spectrum of scientific goals, from studies of galaxy evolution to star formation, with particular contributions to understanding stellar wind kinematics, the thermal phases of the interstellar medium, the interaction between gas in galaxy disks and the surrounding medium via outflows and accretion, and the dynamical and thermal states of gas at various positions along the Magellanic Stream. Contact: Naomi McClure-Griffiths and John Dickey The Galactic and Extra-Galactic All-Sky MWA Extended Survey (GLEAM-X) The GLEAM-X survey covers the entire sky south of Dec +30 in five frequency bands in the range between 72 and 231 MHz. GLEAM-X covers 30,000 square degrees, has spatial resolution ~45arcsec, and sensitivity 1-2mJy/beam. Contact: Natasha Hurley-Walker The First Large Absorption Survey in HI (FLASH) FLASH is a blind HI absorption-line survey that uses background radio continuum sources to identify and characterise foreground neutral hydrogen. FLASH science outcomes are focused on both the neutral gas content of galaxies and the cosmic HI mass density in the redshift range 0.5 < z < 1.0 where the HI emission line is too weak to be detectable in individual galaxies. The observations will increase the total number of absorption line systems by an estimated two orders of magnitude, representing a significant data set to study gas assembly and galaxy formation during a time in the history of the Universe that is largely unstudied thus far. Contact: Vanessa Moss The Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients survey (CRAFT) CRAFT is a purely commensal survey for transient sources with timescales shorter than 5 seconds. It uses ASKAP to survey the Universe for impulsive astrophysical phenomena , such as Fast Radio Bursts, at radio frequencies between about 700 and 1500 MHz. Contact: Keith Bannister An ASKAP Survey for Variables and Slow Transients (VAST) VAST gives unprecedented opportunities to investigate the sky at radio wavelengths for transients with a timescale as short as 5 seconds. VAST uses ASKAP’s wide-field survey capabilities to probe unexplored regions of phase space where new classes of transient sources may be detected. Contact: Tara Murphy Deep Investigations of Neutral Gas Origins (DINGO) DINGO will use ASKAP to study the evolution of neutral hydrogen (HI) from the current epoch to redshift about 0.5, providing a legacy dataset spanning cosmologically representative volumes. ASKAP data will be combined with optical data in the GAMA and WAVES regions to enable a thorough study of the co-evolution of the stellar, baryonic and dark matter content of galaxies. Contact: Martin Myer UTMOST The survey is operational from 2014; searches for fast radio transients, 840 MHz, 45" angular resolution. Contact: Matthew Bailes Multi-Wavelength Surveys
Deeper, Wider, Faster (DWF) DWF coordinates over 50 telescopes worldwide and in space, at all wavelengths (radio, mm/sub-mm, infrared, optical, UV, X-ray, and gamma-ray), organised with neutrino, cosmic ray, and gravitational wave detectors, to detect and follow up fast transients (millisecond-to-hours duration). DWF consists of four main components: (1) coordinated simultaneous observations with all wavelengths on the same field at the same time performing deep, wide-field, fast-cadenced observations before, during, and after fast transients burst, (2) real-time wide-field data processing (in seconds) and transient identification (in minutes) throughout the observing nights, (3) fast triggering of DWF program rapid-response space-based and 8m-class ground-based deep spectroscopy and imaging (acquired within minutes of the light hitting the telescope) and conventional 4-10m class ToO and space-based deep spectroscopy and imaging, and (4) long term transient follow up and field monitoring with program 1-4m telescopes worldwide, as some fast transients are associated with slower evolving events (e.g., supernova shock breakouts). Contact: Jeff Cooke SWAG-X: Survey With ASKAP of GAMA-09 + X-ray As part of the new AAL/eROSITA MoU, SWAG-X will observe the eFEDS GAMA-09 field with ASKAP as a follow-up Observatory Project to the Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey. This dataset will be created as an ASKAP Observatory Project, run by the observatory while maximising the benefit for existing ASKAP Survey Science Teams (SSTs). SWAG-X will observe the eFEDS field at 888 MHz and 1296 MHz in full-resolution mode, producing data for both continuum and spectral-line science. With 16 hr integration time per tile, a continuum RMS of ~15 microJy per beam is expected. We encourage the Australian community to work with the ASKAP SSTs and eROSITA team as part of the new MoU to maximise science output from these data. Contact: Vanessa Moss planned optical Surveys
Wide Area Vista Extragalactic Survey (WAVES) WAVES is a massively multiplexed spectroscopic survey of 1.6 million galaxies planned to be carried out on the VISTA telescope as part of the 4MOST Consortium's suite of surveys. Contact: Simon Driver The Hector Galaxy Survey The Hector Galaxy Survey will use the Hector-I instrument on the AAT to collect resolved spectroscopy for 15,000 galaxies out to z < 0.1. Contact: Julia Bryant The Taipan galaxy survey It will use the TAIPAN facility on the UK Schmidt Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory to collect spectroscopy for more than a million galaxies in the local Universe (z<0.3) that are brighter than i<17. Contact: Andrew Hopkins |
