About GASKAP

The Galactic ASKAP (GASKAP) Survey is one of several approved priority survey science projects to be undertaken with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), a 36 element interferometer located in Western Australia, that utilizes innovative phased array feed technology to maximize sensitivity and field-of-view (FoV). 

The long (~6 km) baselines, which give rise to synthesized beams at resolutions between 20'' and 30'' within the 30 deg² FoV, coupled with the narrow spectral resolutions down to ~ 0.2 km s^-1, will provide astronomers an unprecedented view of the neutral gas content the Milky Way (MW) and nearby Magallenic system. Over the allocated ~8000 hours, GASKAP will map up to +/-10 deg in Galactic latitudes over all Galactic longitudes, in addition to the two Magellanic Clouds (MCs), Bridge, and Stream (MS). See the figure and table below for a visual break down of the survey areas and summary of target surface brightness sensitivities (Dickey et al. 2013). 

The primary science goals of GASKAP are: 

• construct a comprehensive picture of the multi-phase nature (warm, cool, and molecular) of the interstellar medium (ISM) of the MW and Magallenic System through observations of neutral hydrogen (HI) at 21-cm and the three 18-cm OH lines.
• study the gas cycle of the ISM. Specifically, how does gas flow into and out of the Milky Way?
• utilze the GASKAP's unmatched spectral and angular resolution in conjunction to study the influence of stellar feedback processes and overall energy flow into the ISM, map the structure of diffuse molecular clouds through OH emission, and probe the cold gas properties through absorption.
• discover and catalog thousands of OH masers to use as a tracer for stellar evolution by observing the birth of stars in areas of high-mass star formation and probing the latter stages in outflows of red supergiants.

Pilot observations were completed in 2022 and the full survey is set to begin in 2023.