News & Events
LOFAR1 operations stopped, telescope gearing up for 2.0 upgrade
August 31st was the last day on which we received data from LOFAR1. With the shutdown of LOFAR1 operations, over a decade of gathering and handling huge amounts of data came to an end. LOFAR1 operations have led to the publication of more than 750 scientific papers so far, and this number is still growing by about two papers per week. The end of LOFAR1 production operations does of course not mean the end of LOFAR (which became LOFAR ERIC last year): right now we are working hard on upgrading the LOFAR telescope to version 2.0, both in software and hardware.
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.
© SD Group
Ever asked a bunch of software engineers to build a Dolmen? On the 24th of October 3 teams from the Software Delivery group tried to do so during the annual group outing. Through a number of games, quizzes, and reenactments of paintings, the teams competed to create a Hunebed. TL;DR You won't find a Hunebed picture in this Daily Image!
As always, however, we started the day with some topics presented by group members. This year Hannes Feldt spoke about Nomad, which is a great help for managing your infrastructure and could be used by both LOFAR and the SDC, Rene Lourens spoke about giving feedback and the 360 degrees feedback experiment in team Rainbow, and Robbie Luijben engaged in a workshop/ game to write the worst code ever! These are all topics that could support our instrument and teams development, so do reach out to them if you'd like to know more!
So should you ask software engineers to build a Hunebed? In the end, the teams finished their Hunebedden for 90%. We believe these Hunebeds are usable, perfect MVPs!