Extreme Astrophysics with Revolutionary Radio Telescopes

Against the background of the (mostly) Unchanging Heavens, the
universe is punctuated by dramatic explosions and accretion events in
which extremes of density, pressure, temperature, magnetic field and
space-time curvature are reached which will be forever unattainable in
any Earth-bound laboratory. Studying these events allows us to probe
both the underlying physics as well as the effect of these massive
injections of energy on the surrounding interstellar and intergalactic
media. Such events are ubiquitously associated with radio emission,
resulting from the interaction of highly-accelerated electrons with
magnetic fields. In this talk I will outline how and where in the
universe we use radio emission to understand the budget of explosive
feedback, and how a new generation of radio telescopes en route to the
Square Kilometre Array have the potential to revolutionize our
understanding of extreme astrophysics.