Our group develops radio instrumentation and conducts astronomical observations to study the evolution of the early Universe and the first stars and galaxies. We also apply our technical experience in large data analysis to study new approaches for helping improve science learning and public outreach. Below we showcase some of the projects we are involved in.
DORA
The Deployable Optical Receiver Aperture for Lunar Communications and Navigation is a collaboration between ASU and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). The technology development objective is to build a cubesat demonstration of a wide-field laser terminal that provides a sustained 1 Gbps data rate over 1000 km, while requiring only 10 degree spacecraft bus pointing accuracy and stability.
ECHO
The External Calibrator for Hydrogen Observatories is a drone mounted calibration source which enables precision measurements with 21cm radio instruments.
EDGES
The Experiment to Detect the Global EoR Signature is collaboration between scientists and engineers at ASU, MIT Haystack Observatory, and CSIRO. It enables high-precision measurements of the smoothness of the all-sky radio spectrum between 50 and 200 MHz (6<z<30), placing limits on the global 21 cm contribution to the all-sky spectrum. This approach may yield powerful tests of the radiative histories of the first luminous sources. Browse the latest EDGES data.
HERA
The Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array is under construction in South Africa to enable the first detailed measurements of the redshifted 21cm power spectrum from reionization.
MWA
The Murchison Widefield Array aims to characterize spatial fluctuations in the redshifted 21 cm HI emission from the cosmological epoch of reionization through CMB-style statistical measurements of the fluctuation power spectrum and other diagnostics. It is also conducting a large survey of the southern sky for astronomical radio transient sources and investigate the heliosphere through scintillation and Faraday rotation effects to improve the prediction of space weather.
OVRO-LWA
Owens Valley Radio Observatory-Long Wavelength Array in California aims to study the high redshift HI as a probe of the Epoch of Reionization and fast-cadence all-sky imaging for the detection of low-frequency transients, such as coherent radio emission from exoplanets and compact object merger events.
Software
The E-field Parallel Imaging Correlator (EPIC), based on the MOFF algorithm, is the first generic implementation of a direct imaging correlator for dense, large-N radio arrays. The Precision Radio Interferometer Simulator (PRISim) provides accurate, widefield visibility and delay spectra simulations for low-frequency arrays, including MWA and HERA.
Concluded Projects
Ask Dr. Discovery
Ask Dr. Discovery was a partnership between ASU, the Arizona Science Center, and the Arizona Museum of Natural History that investigated how to use familiar technology, including smartphones and tablets, to address the immediate and pressing challenge of affordable, ongoing, large-scale museum evaluation while encouraging visitors to explore and engage deeply with museum content in astronomy, space science, and natural history.
DARE
The Dark Ages Radio Explorer (DARE) was an Explorer mission concept that would take advantage of the pristine radio environment behind the farside of the Moon to probe the global 21 cm spectrum. The mission concept was motivated by research performed as part of the Lunar University Network for Astrophysics Research (LUNAR), a collaboration between many institutions to investigate opportunities for new astrophysical measurements from the lunar surface or orbit.