‘Beyond what we’d hoped’: international telescope in Australia captures first glimpse of the Universe
The first image from the international SKA Observatory’s telescope in Australia, SKA-Low, has been released – a significant milestone in its quest to reveal an unparalleled view of our Universe.
New Technology for Ultra-Fast Data Transfer: SURF and ASTRON Establish 400G Connection
SURF and ASTRON have implemented the OpenZR+ technology to establish a 400G network connection, significantly enhancing scientific research in the Netherlands.
Astronomers Astonished: Enigmatic Distant Radio Bursts Appear to be Neutron Stars
Using the radio telescope at Westerbork, The Netherlands, astronomers have discovered two dozen of the unexplained Fast Radio Bursts. After zooming in on the signal of the distant bursts, the astronomers found a striking similarity to the radio flashes emitted by nearby, known neutron stars. The discovery is remarkable because these nearby neutron stars already produce more energy than anything achievable on Earth. The distant stars that emit the Fast Radio Bursts must somehow generate an astounding one billion times more energy than the nearby ones.
European Pulsar Timing Array Wins Two Prestigious Awards
The European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) has been honored with two major awards for its groundbreaking work in gravitational wave astronomy. In 2024, the team received the International Congress of Basic Sciences (ICBS) Frontiers of Science Award in China, followed by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) Group Achievement Award in the United Kingdom in 2025.These accolades celebrate the team’s innovative use of pulsar timing to detect low-frequency gravitational waves. The EPTA is a collaborative effort involving scientists from more than ten institutions across Europe. ASTRON is one of the participating organisations in this project with its most sensitive radio telescope including the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope. (WSRT).
Successful observations with first ALF demonstrator
© The ALF team, ASTRON
Last week Wednesday the demonstrator was mounted on WSRT RT2 and since then several observations have been taken. Of course these included the infamous pulsar B0329+54, shown in the image. The pulsar signal was clearly visible in the first raw recorded data without any further processing, as shown in the dynamic spectrum and time series. The other pictures in the slide show are an impression of the mounting and the first detection of one of the Galileo satellites.
The instrument is based around a new LNA, which is connected to the MFFE L-band horn and OMT (orthomode transducer). A sensitive receiver chain further conditions the signal to be captured with a SDR, all included in the feed box. The data capturing is performed on a computer that can offload the data offline to a processing cluster.
This first demonstrator has been essential to verify that the basic design of the receiver is viable, and to understand where improvements can be made. For the next demonstrator a new horn design and active OMT will be implemented. It will also include a new SDR, and a custom-made analogue receiver rack that conditions both polarizations to be captured with a wide bandwidth SDR.
If you want to hear more about this amazing project and see the very latest observations, come to the special astro-lunch talk on 9 April in the Auditorium where more results will be presented. Jason Hessels will talk about the science potential of the ALF receiver and Mark Ruiter will discuss the technical design and next steps.
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.