Daily Image
24-08-2015
The International LOFAR Telescope now has more than 100.000 dipole antennas!
| Submitter: | Ronald Halfwerk |
| Description: | Friday August 21th, the recently built LOFAR station at Baldy in Poland, was opened officially by Prof. Ryszard Górecki, Rector of the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. In the week before, a Site Acceptance Test was performed successfully by ASTRON system engineers Menno Norden, Henri Meulman and Klaas Stuurwold, and witnessed by representatives from the new owner of the station, the University of Warmia and Mazury. Completing the Site Acceptance Test qualifies the station to serve as an international LOFAR station, and simultaneousny sets a new record: more than 100.000 dipole antennas are now incorporated in this radio telescope! LOFAR , the LOw-Frequency ARray, is a radio interferometer constructed in the north of the Netherlands and has stations across Europe. Utilizing a novel phased-array of simple omni-directional antennas instead of mechanical beam forming with a dish antenna, LOFAR covers the largely unexplored low-frequency range from 10-240 MHz and provides a number of unique observing capabilities. The new station at Baldy is currently the easternmost component of LOFAR, and Prof. Andrzej Krankowski of the University of Warmia and Mazuria in Olsztyn will work with other centers on research into pulsars, the distribution of neutral hydrogen in the early universe, and a search for radio emissions from planets. He will also take part in programs involving global navigation and local environment research. For more information, please watch this report from TVP (Polish Television) about this new LOFAR station. Another two Polish stations are under construction as part from the POLFAR consortium. |
| Copyright: | Photos: Menno Norden, Ronald Halfwerk |
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