Latest ASTRON Stories
MENLO PARK, Calif., April 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- SRI International is the new manager of the Hat Creek Radio Observatory (HCRO) facility in Northern California, home of the Allen Telescope Array. SRI will assume site management responsibilities from the Radio Astronomy Laboratory at the University of California, Berkeley. "The Hat Creek Radio Observatory has a rich history of important scientific research about space and complex molecules," said Scott Seaton, vice president of...
IBM on Sunday, April 1 announced that it has won a $42 million contract to work with the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON) to research a new line of super-fast computers that will be needed for the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) to perform the most exhaustive search of the origins of the universe seen to date. IBM scientists will be part of an initial five-year collaboration called DOME, named for the protective cover on telescopes and for the famous Swiss mountain, which...
DRENTHE, Netherlands and ZURICH, April 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy and IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced an initial 32.9 million EURO, five-year collaboration to research extremely fast, but low-power exascale computer systems targeted for the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA). The SKA is an international project to build the world's largest and most sensitive radio telescope. Scientists estimate that the processing...
LEIDEN, Netherlands, Feb. 15, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Aeon Astron Europe B.V., has been awarded a governmental grant up to EURO 500,000 from AgentschapNL, Dept. of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands for its Biolens projects to begin development of a multipurpose collagen-based ophthalmic lens for use in refractive correction, corneal repair and drug carrier. The AgentschapNL program is an initiative of the Dept. of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands to encourage development of bold and...
[ Video 1 ] | [ Video 2 ] The governing body of the European Southern Observatory, the ESO Council, has approved ESO’s budget for 2012. This includes preparatory work on the road to the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT) site at Cerro Armazones and the start of development of some very challenging optical components for the telescope. With several ESO Member States now having committed their part of the required additional funding, the final approval for the whole E-ELT program...
NEWTON, N.C., Oct. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Thirteen 12-meter antennas manufactured by General Dynamics SATCOM Technologies have been successfully installed at the 16,500-foot-high Chajnantor plateau in Chile, home to the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) astronomical observatory. Located in the Andes mountains, the 115-ton, highly specialized antennas form part of an 11-mile-wide international astronomy project. When it is completed in 2013, scientists will use the...
The Science Technology and Facilities Council (STFC) confirmed that it will provide nearly $5.5 million (US) to UK scientists to develop key instruments for the European Extremely Large Telescope (E-ELT), which is slated to be the biggest optical and infrared telescope in the world. With funding in place, British astronomers will now be able to take a leading role in building the critical scientific instruments needed for the E-ELT, which will be constructed in Chile and should be complete...
The world’s biggest telescope, the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), is set to be built in one of two locations depending on the outcome of bidding, which starts today. The $2 billion project will consist of thousands of dishes stretching out 1,900 miles, with a total surface area of one square kilometer. The system will generate enough raw data to fill 15 million 64Gb iPods every day, and will require a supercomputer 1,000 times faster -- equivalent to a billion PCs -- than what...
The ultimate in high altitude, high-tech catering has arrived in Chile to serve chilled "provisions" to the telescopes at the largest astronomical complex in the world, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). Until now, servicing the state-of-the-art superconducting receivers inside an ALMA telescope has required hauling the entire 115-ton telescope from its observing site at 16,500 feet down to a support facility at 9,500 feet. The dangerous 40-mile roundtrip, atop...
WASHINGTON, Aug. 1, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Herschel Space Observatory's large telescope and state-of-the-art infrared detectors have provided the first confirmed finding of oxygen molecules in space. The molecules were discovered in the Orion star-forming complex. (Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20081007/38461LOGO) Individual atoms of oxygen are common in space, particularly around massive stars. But, molecular oxygen, which makes up about 20 percent of the air we...
Latest ASTRON Reference Libraries
Radio Astronomy -- Radio astronomy is the study of celestial phenomena through measurement of the characteristics of radio waves emitted by physical processes occurring in space. Radio waves are much longer than light waves. In order to receive good signals, radio astronomy requires large antennas. Radio astronomy is a relatively new field of astronomical research. The earliest investigations into extraterrestrial sources of radio waves were by Karl Guthe Jansky, an engineer with Bell...
Space Telescope Science Institute -- STScI mission statement: We bring the cosmos to Earth We carry out this vision by empowering the astronomy community to produce new scientific discoveries and by bringing the benefits of this research to the public. We make the best astronomical facilities productive for the largest number of scientists, and we promote new missions with the greatest potential for unlocking the secrets of the universe. We have done this with HST, and we will do...
National Radio Astronomy Observatory -- The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a research facility of the U.S. National Science Foundation. They provide state-of-the-art radio telescope facilities for use by the scientific community. They conceive, design, build, operate and maintain radio telescopes used by scientists from around the world. Scientists use their facilities to study virtually all types of astronomical objects known, from planets and comets in our own Solar...
European Southern Observatory -- ESO, the European Southern Observatory, was created in 1962 to: "establish and operate an astronomical observatory in the southern hemisphere, equipped with powerful instruments, with the aim of furthering and organising collaboration in astronomy". ESO is supported by Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom. Other countries have expressed interest to become a member as well. ESO...
