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Astronomy news

Telescope quartet reveals surprising statistics of cosmic flashes

Scientists led by Chalmers astronomer Franz Kirsten have studied a famous source of repeating fast radio bursts – a still unexplained cosmic phenomenon. Comparing with earlier measurements, the scientists draw a conclusion with far-reaching consequences: any source of fast radio bursts will repeat, if watched long enough and carefully enough. The research team, a unique collaboration between professional and amateur radio astronomers, used four telescopes in northern Europe, amongst which ASTRON’s Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope.

Astronomy
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telescopes
WSRT-APERTIF
Published by the editorial team, 4 January 2024

Dutch astronomers prove last piece of gas feedback-feeding loop of black hole

Three astronomers from the Netherlands have proven that gas that was previously heated near a supermassive black hole and flowed to the outskirts of the galaxy and cooled down, is moving back towards the black hole. While there had been indirect evidence for this theory, this is the first time that the cooled gas moving toward the black hole has actually been observed.

Astronomy
News
Published by the editorial team, 7 December 2023

Super sharp images reveal a possible hypernebula powered by a source of fast radio bursts

A team led by astronomers in the Netherlands have confirmed a repeating FRB source to be linked to a potential ‘hypernebula’ – a dense and highly magnetised cloud of plasma that is illuminated by a powerful but still mysterious source.

Astronomy
News
Published by the editorial team, 30 November 2023

Astronomers discover ultra-fast radio bursts in archived data

An international team of researchers led by Dutch Ph.D. candidate Mark Snelders has discovered radio pulses that last only millionths of a second.

Astronomy
News
Science
Published by the editorial team, 20 October 2023

Radio waves leaking from large satellite constellations could jeopardize astronomical exploration

The LOFAR radio telescope has shown that satellites can unintentionally emit radio waves that interfere with the observations of radio telescopes. Satellites circle the globe in ever increasing numbers. Their radio emission could, if not addressed, close unique and scientifically valuable windows into the Universe. It is of crucial importance for the astronomy sector and industry to collaborate to overcome these issues and for the International Telecommunications Union to establish regulation to control this emission.

Astronomy
LOFAR
News
Science
Published by the editorial team, 5 July 2023

Pulsar clocks open new window on gravitational waves

An international collaboration of European astronomers, together with Indian and Japanese colleagues, have seen evidence for ultra-low-frequency gravitational waves, which is expected to originate from pairs of supermassive black holes found in the centres of merging galaxies. This is the result of more than 25 years of observations with the most sensitive radio telescopes in Europe and India, including the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT). In doing so, they have opened a new window on gravitational wave research. These gravitational waves contain information about the Universe’s best-kept secrets. The research has been published in a series of articles in the professional journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

Astronomy
News
WSRT-APERTIF
Published by the editorial team, 29 June 2023

Astronomers discover Fast Radio Bursts that skewer nearby Galaxy

Astronomers have found five new Fast Radio Bursts with the upgraded Westerbork radio telescope array. The telescope images revealed that multiple bursts had pierced our neighbouring Triangulum Galaxy. This allowed the astronomers to determine the maximum number of otherwise invisible atoms in this galaxy for the first time.

Astronomy
News
telescopes
WSRT-APERTIF
Published by the editorial team, 12 April 2023

ERC Advanced Grant for research into the origin of fast radio bursts from space

Jason Hessels, Professor of Observational High-Energy Astrophysics at the University of Amsterdam and Chief Astronomer at ASTRON, has been awarded a €3.5 million ERC Advanced Grant to search for the origin of fast radio bursts. Among other things, the research money will be used to develop new hardware to set up a coordinated network of European radio telescopes to study repeating FRBs in more detail.

Astronomy
News
telescopes
Published by the editorial team, 30 March 2023

NAC 2023 to be held in Leeuwarden in May

The 78th edition of the Nederlandse Astronomen Conferentie (NAC) will be held this year in the Westcord WTC hotel in Leeuwarden from 15 to 17 May.

Astronomy
News
Published by the editorial team, 6 March 2023

ASTRON astronomy groups focus on LOFAR and SKA

Recently, the astronomy group within the A&O department of ASTRON went through a reformation: instead of several focus groups, it now consists of two groups: the LOFAR Science Group and the SKA Science Group. The LOFAR Science Group is led by André Offringa, the SKA Science Group by Joe Callingham.

Astronomy
LOFAR
News
SKA
Published by the editorial team, 21 February 2023

Flurry of new discoveries as incredible new image revealing 4.4 million galaxies is made public

Over a seven year period an international team of scientists has mapped more than a quarter of the northern sky using the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), a pan-European radio telescope. It reveals an astonishingly detailed radio image of more than 4.4 million objects and a very dynamic picture of our Universe.

Astronomy
LOFAR
News
telescopes
Published by the editorial team, 25 February 2022

Cosmic flashes discovered in a surprising location in space

Astronomers have observed mysterious flashes in the sky from an unexpected source, a globular cluster in the galaxy M81.

Astronomy
News
telescopes
WSRT-APERTIF
Published by the editorial team, 23 February 2022
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