The Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team 90 GHz Survey
The Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team 90 GHz (MALT90) Survey is a large international project to make molecular line maps of over 2,000 dense cores in the galactic plane. The survey is now complete.
The MALT90 survey exploited the fast-mapping capability of the ATNF Mopra 22-m telescope, combined with the new broadband MOPS correlators which allowed the simultaneous imaging of 16 molecular lines near 90 GHz. These molecular lines probe the physical conditions, chemical state, and evolutionary state of over 2,000 dense molecular cores. The target cores were selected to host the early stages of high-mass star formation and to span the complete range of their evolutionary states (from pre-stellar cores, to proto-stellar cores, and on to H II regions). Each core has been mapped simultaneously in 16 molecular lines at excellent angular (40 arcsec) and spectral (0.1 km/s) resolution.
The creation of the Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team (MALT) was an initiative of the Australian and International astronomy community to coordinate efforts to design and carry out surveys with maximum efficiency and scientific return, and to keep Australia's millimetre astronomy facilities competitive when ALMA becomes operational. A key project identified by this initiative was a 90 GHz molecular line Mopra survey of high mass star-forming cores: MALT90. The MALT90 survey is unique and uses Mopra's current capabilities for world-class science whilst also providing key targets for ALMA. To increase the scientific legacy value of this survey, the team waives all propriety periods and releases the data products to the astronomy community as soon as quality checks have been performed.
This website provides information about the survey and a timeline of progress. It serves as one method of accessing the survey data. The team-member-only MALT90 wiki was used for planning and tracking observations. See the list of participants to contact the appropriate person about different aspects of the survey.
If you use MALT90 data, please cite the following papers: Jackson et al. (2013), Foster et al. (2013), Foster et al. (2011)
Year 4 data is now available. Data for 100 more sources are now available and the data-collection phase of the MALT90 survey is now complete. See the data page for more details.