The SKA Mid-frequency All-sky Continuum Survey: Discovering the unexpected and transforming radio-astronomy

TL;DR

This paper advocates for an all-sky SKA continuum survey, emphasizing its potential to enable unexpected discoveries and significantly advance radio-astronomy beyond initial scientific goals.

Contribution

It highlights the importance of conducting a comprehensive all-sky survey with SKA to maximize scientific impact and foster transformational advances in radio-astronomy.

Findings

All-sky survey can lead to unexpected discoveries.

Such surveys can transform radio-astronomy into a mainstream science.

Maximizing scientific productivity requires broad survey strategies.

Abstract

We show that, in addition to specific science goals, there is a strong case for conducting an all-sky (i.e. the visible 3-pi steradians) SKA continuum survey which does not fit neatly into conventional science cases. History shows that the greatest scientific impact of most major telescopes (e.g., HST, VLA) lies beyond the original goals used to justify the telescope. The design of the telescope therefore needs to maximise the ultimate scientific productivity, in addition to achieving the specific science goals. In this chapter, we show that an all-sky continuum survey is likely to achieve transformational science in two specific respects: (1) Discovering the unexpected (2) Transforming radio-astronomy from niche to mainstream