Latest Jodrell Bank Observatory Stories

An international team of scientists including University of British Columbia astronomer Ingrid Stairs has discovered a promising way to fine-tune pulsars into the best precision time-pieces in the Universe.The discovery could give astronomers a new tool to study the powerful gravitational forces that shaped the universe.Pulsars--incredibly fast spinning collapsed stars--have been studied in great detail since their discovery in 1967. The extremely stable rotation of these 'cosmic clocks' has...

The SKA Program Development Office (SPDO) announced on May 11 the appointment of Mr Kobus Cloete to the role of Project Manager and Dr Minh Huynh to the role of Deputy International SKA Project Scientist. The appointments are made at a crucial stage in the finalization of the design for the world's largest radio telescope.Kobus will lead the growing international SKA development team and coordinate work on the technical design of the telescope. He gained extensive experience working in the...

Pulsars in many octavesA unique combination of telescopes allowed astronomers to simultaneously observe the radio wavelength light from six different pulsars across wavelengths from only 3.5 centimetres up to 7 metres - a difference-factor of 200, providing an unprecedented view of how radio pulsars shine. For this world record in wavelength coverage, the international team, including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, used the new European LOFAR telescope, in...

Astronomers from the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics and the Observatoire de la Cote d'Azur in France have used the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile to discover discs of dust around ageing stars. The images will be presented by Foteini (Claire) Lykou on Wednesday April 14th at the RAS National Astronomy Meeting (NAM2010) in Glasgow."This is the first time we have ever observed in these dusty discs in such detail," said Ms Lykou.Towards the end of its life,...

Radio astronomers at the University of Manchester's Jodrell Bank Observatory have discovered a strange new object in a nearby galaxy. The object, which appeared very suddenly in radio wavelengths and shows no signs of going away, does not appear to be like anything that has been seen in the Milky Way.  Dr Tom Muxlow will present the discovery at the National Astronomy Meeting in Glasgow on Wednesday April 14th.The galaxy, known as M82, is 10 million light years away and is a stellar...

Astronomers with the e-Merlin system of telescopes have seen "˜first light' as they look forward to being able to see further and more clearly than ever before."The new optical fiber network, together with new electronics at each telescope and a powerful new "˜correlator' which combines the signals at Jodrell Bank, will make the telescope one of the most powerful of its type in the world," said Professor Simon Garrington, Director of e-Merlin."The e-Merlin fiber network will carry as much...

The Jodrell Bank telescope has been secured for the "medium and long term future", the University of Manchester said yesterday. The Government's Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) has agreed to contribute towards the running costs of the radio astronomy centre in Cheshire, the university said. The cash will initially provide two years of funding for the e- MERLIN project, which comprises two telescopes at Jodrell Bank, as well as dishes at Pick-mere and Darnhall in Cheshire,...

Funding for one of the world's leading radio astronomy centers has now been secured, according to Manchester University, the site's owner.Jodrell Bank in Cheshire, an observatory that has made many key discoveries as well as tracking the moon landings, was in danger of closing due to uncertainty of proper funding for its key new project, the eMerlin network.The network, which ties together radio dishes across the UK, now has the necessary money in place.The observatory, home to the giant...

A team of astronomers from the UK and Germany have found that a nuclear explosion on the surface of a star 5,000 light years from Earth resulted in a blast wave moving at over 1,700 km per second. Dr. Richard Porcas from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn coordinated the observations with the European VLBI network (EVN). The discovery, reported in the 20th July issue of Nature, was made by bringing together many of the world's radio telescopes into arrays capable of seeing...

Astronomers based at Jodrell Bank Observatory have discovered a giant bridge of methyl alcohol, spanning approximately 288 billion miles, wrapped around a stellar nursery.  The gas cloud could help our understanding of how the most massive stars in our galaxy are formed.The new observations were taken with the UK's MERLIN radio telescopes, which have recently been upgraded.  The team studied an area called W3(OH), a region in our galaxy where stars are being formed by the gravitational...