In order to receive radio signals from across the Universe, LOFAR needs to be very sensitive. The downside of that sensitivity is susceptibility to radio interference: other sources that produce radio signals that LOFAR detects, but does not want to measure.
In 2018, Italy officially joined the International LOFAR Telescope (ILT) and in the near future the LOFAR station in Italy will become operational.
An international team of astronomers, including a number of Dutch researchers, has discovered that a repeating fast radio burst (FRB) source becomes active about every sixteen days.
In 2021, ASTRON will deliver TMSS (Telescope Manager Specification System), which is a brand-new platform for the specification, administration, and scheduling of LOFAR observations.
In the LOFAR radio telescope, the observation data is synchronized over time for accurate processing of the received signals. Until now, the telescope uses GPS techniques to synchronize the observation data, achieving an accuracy between 1 ns and 10 ns.
Supermassive black holes can leave a trail of energetic particles that astronomers are able to detect using radio telescopes.
If the antennae of LOFAR are the senses of the radio telescope, then the central correlator is its brain. It is the place where all the data streams come together and are converted into astronomy data.
LOFAR uses two types of antennas. Each type listens to different wavelengths of the radio spectrum. Different wavelengths provide complementary information about the Universe and its constituents.
During the 10 years since the LOFAR opening, the telescope has proven itself as an excellent instrument for the study of radio pulsars, rotating neutron stars whose radio beams act as lighthouses.
One of the important aspects of radio telescopes, in general, is the synchronisation in between antennas and for LOFAR in particular the synchronization between stations
