Examples of exciting SKA phase 1 science

Epoch of reionisation
Simulation of the reionisation caused by the first stars and galaxies. The small ionised "bubbles", represented by the blue regions, develop around denser regions of dark matter and eventually grow to ionize the entire universe (M. Alvarez, T. Able, R. Kaehler).

 

Neutral hydrogen, star formation & magnetic fields
The Whirlpool Galaxy (M51) seen in neutral hydrogen (left: THINGS VLA survey) and in the optical (HST image) overlaid with the 5 GHz radio polarisation (Flechter et al. 2011)

 

Galaxy evolution
A typical merger tree, as expected in a hierarchical model of structure formation in the Universe (P. Schneider 2005)

 

 

The cosmic large scale structure
The image shows the millennium simulation of the dark matter distribution for a 15 Mpc/h thick slice at redshift z=0. The overlaid panels zoom into this structure by a factor of 4 showing at least cluster like structures (V. Springel 2004).

 

 

 

 

 

Pulsars in the Milky Way
Known pulsars in the Milky Way (yellow) and ca 20000 pulsars expected with the SKA (blue). The position of the sun is marked by a red circle.(Simulation: J. Cordes, Cornell Univ. Ithaka.Graphics: Sterne und Weltraum, Heidelberg.)

 

 

 

 

Tests of General Relativity in the vicinity of black holes

A pulsar orbiting a black hole (M. Kramer).

 

 

 


Some stars orbiting the central black hole of our Milky Way (MPE).

 

 

Gravitational waves

Two-dimensional representation of gravitational waves generated by two neutron stars orbiting each other.

 

An artist's impression of an array of pulsars emitting radiation, which, combined with the rotation of the pulsars, produces the characteristic lighthouse effect. The background of gravitational waves perturbs the space-time between pulsar and earth, which can be registered as a deviation to the expected arrival-time of the pulses (D. Champion).