An international team of astronomers has published the most sensitive images of the Universe ever taken at low radio frequencies, using the International Low Frequency Array (LOFAR).
An international team of astronomers has published the most sensitive images of the Universe ever taken at low radio frequencies, using the International Low Frequency Array (LOFAR).
A new project has kicked off to enhance cooperation between European astronomy facilities and promote transnational access among them. ASTRON (Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy), ILT (International LOFAR Telescope), JIV-ERIC (Joint Institute for VLBI ERIC), and NOVA (Netherlands Research School for Astronomy) are partners based in the Netherlands.
An international team of astronomers has produced the largest and sharpest map of the sky at ultra-low radio frequencies, using the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) radio telescope. The map published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics reveals more than 25,000 active supermassive black holes in distant galaxies.
© Image credit: Dmitry A. Ladeyschikov / Maserdb.net
Gathering of such information for all known maser sites (~7000 and counting) is impossible due to limited observation time and resources. However, since the maser emission discovery, the science community has already conducted many maser observations. Analysis of the archival data allows us to study the astrophysical sources in many different maser species (e.g. CH3OH, OH, H2O), transitions, and observational epochs. When combined, this information provides a comprehensive view of each star formation region. The catch is that there has been no effective way of searching and comparing data from the literature.
We present the MaserDB (http://maserdb.net/) database of astrophysical masers which is designed to study published maser data using graphical interface and capability of structured query language (SQL). Currently the database contains ~98% of published data on methanol masers and ~85% of data on water masers in the star formation regions. The maser database can be effectively used to study individual astrophysical objects, prepare interferometric proposals, and obtain statistics of maser emission in different samples of sources.
In this talk, the primary functionality of the web interface and possibilities of using the maser database for science research will be covered.
The work on the water maser database is supported by the Russian Science Foundation grant 20-72-00137.
Mon 17 May 2021 - Thu 20 May 2021
The RF course is an excellent introduction for Digital / Analog engineers who are or will be involved in the development of RF systems.