Daily Image
13-11-2006
e-VLBI Comes of Age!
| Submitter: | Michael Garrett |
| Description: | Earlier this year the first European e-VLBI science observations were successfully conducted. These have been implemented under the standard EVN "open skies" policy, ensuring that the facility is able to take advantage of and respond to the best ideas of the entire international astronomical community. e-VLBI Observations were successfully made in April and May 2006, and the first refereed publications are now beginning to appear: Tudose et al. 2006 (Univ. of Amsterdam) and Rushton et al. 2006 (Jodrell Bank Observatory). The observations in April and May were made with a 6 telescope array (including the Westerbork Radio Telescope) at a sustained data rate of 128 Mbps. Further e-VLBI sessions took place through the summer with the most science run in October routinely able to employ 256 Mbps data rates. When you consider that the first science demonstrations in September 2004 were limited to data rates of 32 Mbps,the rate of progress over the last 2 years is impressive. The Tudose et al. observations managed to capture the X-ray binary system Cygnus X-3, both in quiescence (April 2006) and during a huge, active outburst (May 2006) - the total intensity and (the very first VLBI) polarisation images are shown in the image above. These e-EVN papers have just been accepted as "back-to-back" letters in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS). For more information on the detailed scientific results see the astrophysics preprint server - http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0611054 and http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0611049. |
| Copyright: | JIVE |
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