New ‘mini halo’ discovery deepens our understanding of how the early Universe was formed
Astronomers have uncovered a vast cloud of energetic particles – a ‘mini halo’ – surrounding one of the most distant galaxy clusters ever observed, using the LOFAR radio telescope, marking a major step forward in understanding the hidden forces that shape the cosmos.
An Earth-sized radio observatory just got better: South Africa’s MeerKAT telescope joins forces with the European VLBI Network of telescopes
South Africa’s MeerKAT radio telescope has successfully conducted very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations with telescopes of the European VLBI Network (EVN)—currently the world’s most sensitive VLBI network. Their synergy sets a new standard for global collaboration and significantly enhances both resolution and sensitivity, opening new avenues for scientific exploration.
All sky, all the time – A new radio sky monitor for transients and technosignatures
Breakthrough Listen, headquartered at the University of Oxford – the most ambitious project to date searching for technosignatures (signs of technology as an indicator of extraterrestrial intelligence) – is partnering with ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, and the University of Manchester, to deploy a new all-sky monitor at the Westerbork Observatory in the Netherlands. The new experiment takes phased array feeds (PAFs) – essentially wide-field radio cameras – that were previously deployed on the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT), and installs them on the ground, looking up at the sky directly.
Sweden and the United Kingdom Join the LOFAR ERIC
Sweden and the United Kingdom have joined the LOFAR ERIC (European Research Infrastructure Consortium) as a member, following the decision of the Council on 26 March 2025. This significant expansion brings the total membership to eight countries, marking an important milestone in the growth of this pioneering research infrastructure.
An Earth-sized radio observatory just got better: MeerKAT joins forces with the EVN
© Illustration: Benito Marcote, JIVE. Image credits: MeerKAT image ©SARAO; EVN map image ©Paul Boven, JIVE (satellite image: Blue Marble Next Generation, courtesy of NASA Visible Earth).
For more read the <a href="https://jive.eu/news/earth-sized-radio-observatory-just-got-better-south-africas-meerkat-telescope-joins-forces">press release from JIVE</a> and <a href="https://www.sarao.ac.za/news/pr_evn-meerkat/">from SARAO</a>.
CASPER Workshop 2025
Mon 08 Sep 2025 - Fri 12 Sep 2025
The CASPER workshop is a semi-annual workshop where FPGA, GPU, and general heterogeneous system programmers get together to discuss new instruments in radio astronomy, as well as the tools and libraries for developing and manipulating these instruments.