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POSSUM: Polarisation Sky Survey of the Universe's Magnetism

The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) is a next-generation radio telescope currently under construction in outback Australia. ASKAP's large instantaneous field-of-view will allow it to survey the sky vastly faster than is possible with existing radio telescopes, allowing us to address fundamental questions about the origin and evolution of the Universe.

The "Polarisation Sky Survey of the Universe's Magnetism" (POSSUM) is one of the ten major ASKAP surveys now in a design study phase for ASKAP. In POSSUM, we plan to use ASKAP's unique survey capabilities to measure the Faraday rotation of three million extragalactic radio sources over 30,000 square degrees, thereby dramatically improve our understanding of astrophysical magnetism. With these data, we will be able to determine the 3D geometry of the Milky Way's magnetic field, to test dynamo and other models for magnetic field generation, and to carry out a comprehensive census of magnetic fields as a function of redshift in galaxies, in clusters and in the overall intergalactic medium.

• POSSUM Principal Investigators: Bryan Gaensler, Tom Landecker, Russ Taylor.
• Popular article on POSSUM published in Cosmos magazine
• Full list of POSSUM team members
• One page summary of POSSUM proposal (note that POSSUM-Deep and POSSUM-Diffuse have not been approved for a Design Study)
• 2010 AAS presentation on POSSUM, and PDF file of associated poster

How to get started

The links below are available only to authorised members of the POSSUM team.

• Log on to the wiki
• Read the POSSUM proposal
• Manage your email subscriptions and read the POSSUM email archives.
• Register for redmine
• Update your profile
• Join a working group
• Participate in upcoming meetings
• Look through relevant documents

If you have any questions or need help using the wiki please email bryan.gaensler@sydney.edu.au .