News & Events

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.

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.

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.

ERC Starting Grant Awarded to Dr. Aditya Parthasarathy

The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded Dr. Aditya Parthasarathy a prestigious and extremely competitive grant to pursue his research at ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy.

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.

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.

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell public lecture

We have the honour of welcoming Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell to the Netherlands. On 13 December 2023, she will give a public lecture in Amsterdam at the Science Park. Recently, ASTRON announced the Bell Burnell Fellowship, named in honour, and with support of, Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell. The Bell Burnell Postdoctoral Fellowship is designed […]

7th LOFAR Data School

Dear LOFAR Users, We are happy to announce that the 7th LOFAR Data School (LDS2024) will take place at ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (The Netherlands) in the week of 15-19 April, 2024. Rationale The goal of the school is to assist the participants in the generation and analysis of LOFAR science ready […]