Astronomers in Australia have found a way to track space junk and prevent collisions using an FM radio, pop songs and cutting-edge technology. Australia's Curtin University will be spearheading the project and will use the newly developed Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), one of the three precursor telescopes for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project.

The new telescope can detect radio waves reflected from thousands of space junk orbiting the Earth. The project has already detected radio waves from FM transmitters near Geraldton and Perth. The radio waves were bouncing off the International Space Station as it passed over the country which is 500 kilometres above the surface of the Earth.

Curtin University's MWA Director and Professor Steven Tingay said the new telescope will be able to monitor space junk by watching out for radio signals generated by stations, including popular radio station among the youth, Triple J.

Mr Tingay said the team has detected 10 pieces of space trash. He believes Australia can keep track a significant portion of space junk orbiting the earth.

Space debris: collision risk

The movement of space debris is unpredictable and can pose a threat of collision, according to Mr Tingay. The risk of damage from a collision of space junk is great, considering the presence of expensive communication satellites and other space infrastructure.

A device that can detect the risk of space junk colliding can help protect infrastructure and equipment costing billions of dollars. Mr Tingay said it will also prevent the presence of more space debris from scattering in Earth's orbit like what happened in 2009 with the Iridium 33 satellite.

The results of the study are important since they will confirm that the US$51 million MWA is functioning with scientific expectations. Mr Tingay said the project was their chance of testing the capabilities of the most powerful low frequency radio telescope in the Southern Hemisphere.

SKA project

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope will make it possible for astronomers to look at the entire sky thousands of times faster than any other system in existence. Scientists also expect that the large telescope will help provide new information about the history of the universe.

The largest radio telescope will be stationed in Africa and Australia and will have several dishes and millions of dipole radio receptors. The new radio telescope is designed to be 100 times as sensitive as the existing telescopes. It will also feature an image resolution quality which is 50 times better than the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope.

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