News Overview
Gargantuan Black Hole Jets Are Biggest Seen Yet
Astronomers have spotted the biggest pair of black hole jets ever seen, spanning 23 million light-years in total length. That’s equivalent to lining up 140 Milky Way galaxies back to back.
Second-Generation Starlink Satellites Leak 30 Times More Radio Interference, Threatening Astronomical Observations
Observations with the LOFAR (Low Frequency Array) radio telescope last year showed that first generation Starlink satellites emit unintended radio waves that can hinder astronomical observations. New observations with the LOFAR radio telescope, the biggest radio telescope on Earth observing at low frequencies, have shown that the second generation ’V2-mini’ Starlink satellites emit up to 32 times brighter unintended radio waves than satellites from the previous generation, potentially blinding radio telescopes and crippling vital research of the Universe.
European grant allows ASTRON astronomer Joe Callingham to study the space weather of other worlds
Dr Joe Callingham has received an ERC Starting Grant worth 1.5 million euros.
Top marks for ASTRON
ASTRON has been assessed by the Strategy Evaluation Protocol (SEP) committee as a research institute that produces excellent research both on astronomy and in technology and innovations.
Women Astronomers Day 2024
Today, August 1st, marks Women Astronomers Day. Throughout history women astronomers have played a vital role in the development of astronomy and have made important astronomical discoveries.
International Women in Engineering Day
Yesterday marked International Women in Engineering Day. We at ASTRON are very proud of our women engineers. Two of those are Ágnes Mika and Paula Fusiara.
Origin of fast radio bursts come into focus through polarized light
Non-repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) probably originate from galaxies similar to our Milky Way.
Violette Impellizzeri to head astronomy and operations department
We are excited that Dr Violette Impellizzeri will join ASTRON as head of the Astronomy & Operations department. She will start her new duties on 1 September 2024. Her research focus is on VLBI investigations of the molecular gas enveloping black holes and spectral line analyses.
New calibration technique circumvents Earth’s ionosphere
An international team of researchers has developed a new calibration technique to circumvent disturbances of Earth’s ionosphere.
ASTRON has turned 75!
75 years ago today, SRZM (Stichting Radiostraling van Zon en Melkweg/Netherlands Foundation for Radio Astronomy) was founded. This organization would later become ASTRON.
ASTRON launches database of female experts
Today marks International Women’s Day. This year’s theme is ‘Inspire Inclusion’.
LOFAR ERIC: Distributed Research Infrastructure for European Astronomical Research Launched
LOFAR ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium) has been officially launched at its first Council meeting today. The world-leading LOFAR (LOw Frequency ARray) Distributed Research Infrastructure has already revolutionised low-frequency radio astronomy research, resulting in an avalanche of scientific publications in the past decade. LOFAR ERIC is now a single legal entity across the European Union. The LOFAR ERIC statutory seat is in Dwingeloo, the Netherlands, hosted by NWO-I/ASTRON (Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy; the original designer of LOFAR).