ASKAP VAST Transients Project

The ASKAP Survey for Variables and Slow Transients (VAST) is the study of astrophysical transient and variable phenomena at radio wavelengths using the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope. This includes the study of objects such as flare stars and pulsars within our own Milky Way galaxy to extremely powerful events as gamma-ray bursts and active galactic nuclei in distant galaxies. The large field of view of ASKAP means that large areas of the radio sky can be surveyed regularly and swiftly. This has not been possible with previous radio telescopes, and means that ASKAP is now providing an unprecedented view of the dynamic radio sky. Specifically, in our work we search for sources of interest in the image domain of ASKAP data, this means hundreds to thousands of images of the radio sky are analysed through both targeted, where the variable or transient source is already known to be present, and 'untargeted' searches, where the transient was not previously known. This storage allocation request allows us to store and share the hundreds of astronomical images for VAST collaborators to access and perform science.