Following seven years of design and prototyping work, the Curtin University node of the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) has completed its preparations for the construction of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) in Western Australia, which will begin next year. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-06-western-australia-world-largest-telescope.html…
Tag: radio astronomy
Will SETI 2.0 lead to a discovery of intelligent aliens?
2020 has been an exciting year so far for SETI – the search for extraterrestrial life – in terms of new technological developments and strategies. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/seti-breakthrough-listen-new-technologies-and-strategies…
Something is lurking in the heart of Quasar 3C 279
One year ago, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration published the first image of a black hole in the nearby radio galaxy M 87. Now the collaboration has extracted new information from the EHT data on the distant quasar 3C 279: they observed the finest detail ever seen in a jet produced by a supermassive black hole. New analyses, led by…
Globular cluster billowing in the galactic wind
The galactic magnetic field plays an important role in the evolution of the galaxy, but its small-scale behaviour is still poorly known. It is also unknown whether it permeates the halo of the galaxy or not. By using observations of pulsars in the halo globular cluster 47 Tuc, an international research team led by Federico Abbate from the Max Planck Institute…
Astronomers detect biggest explosion in history of universe
Scientists studying a distant galaxy cluster have discovered the biggest explosion seen in the universe since the Big Bang. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/astronomers-detect-biggest-explosion-history-universe…
Using radio waves to discover and study exoplanets
A new study from researchers in the Netherlands shows how scientists can detect exoplanets orbiting red dwarf stars, and learn about their environments, from the radio waves generated by auroras on those worlds. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/exoplanets-red-dwarfs-radio-waves-auroras…
Bringing community astronomy to rural Africa
Ideas discussed at last month’s IAU symposium in Tokyo last month included projects using smartphones and low-cost battery-powered equipment. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/iau-symposium-diversity-inclusion-astronomy…
Awesome nightscape photos from New Mexico’s Very Large Array
Observatories make great locales for nightscape photography. Tips from an astrophotographer’s trip to the Very Large Array in New Mexico to help you plan an observatory astrophotography adventure – plus awesome photos. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/nightscape-photos-very-large-array-vla-observatory…
Scientists detect towering balloon-like feature near Milky Way’s center
It’s a huge bipolar structure, centered on the galactic center and near the central supermassive black hole. In that way, it’s like the Fermi Bubbles, found some years ago. But … there are differences. Source: https://earthsky.org/space/balloon-like-feature-near-milky-way-center…
Radio emission from a neutron star’s magnetic pole revealed by General Relativity
Pulsars in binary systems are affected by relativistic effects, causing the spin axes of each pulsar to change their direction with time. A research team led by Gregory Desvignes from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, has used radio observations of the source PSR J1906+0746 to reconstruct the polarised emission over the pulsar’s magnetic pole and to…