Towards the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, in the constellation Sagittarius, astronomers have discovered 10 monstrous neutron stars. These particular stars, called pulsars, reside together in globular cluster Terzan 5, a crowded home for hundreds of thousands of different types of stars. In one of the most jam-packed places in our Milky Way, many pulsars in Terzan 5 have evolved into bizarre and eccentric forms.
Recent News
Old Data, New Tricks Discover Pulsar in Galactic Plane
A team of astronomers has found a new tool to discover pulsars, rapidly rotating neutron stars that blast out pulses of radiation at regular intervals ranging from seconds to milliseconds. Named the VLA Low-band Ionosphere and Transient Experiment (VLITE), the tool was made possible by a collaboration between the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
AUI and the NRAO Announce Recipients of the 2024 NAC Bridge Scholarship Award
In its fourth year, the AUI Board of Trustees NAC Bridge Scholarship Award recognizes the academic accomplishments of National Astronomy Consortium (NAC) alums and assists them in the transition from undergraduate to graduate programs.
NRAO and SpaceX Coordinate to Protect Radio Astronomy
NRAO and SpaceX have engaged in coordinated experiments involving NRAO telescopes and the Starlink satellite constellation for over two years. Early experiments began in late 2021 with the deployment of working Starlink user terminals near the Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico and have continued to the present day. These experiments highlight the ways in which satellite constellations and radio telescopes might be able to coexist, provided there is mutual awareness of what the other is doing.
Supported by the National Science Foundation, NRAO and SpaceX are developing a system called Operational Data Sharing (ODS) that provides the current status (position in the sky and observing frequency) of two of its telescopes: the VLA in New Mexico and the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia. SpaceX is able to incorporate these data into its operational algorithm so that its Starlink satellites can steer their downlink beams away the NRAO telescope “boresight” (where the telescopes are pointed in the sky) at the moment an observation is taking place. This adaptation helps to ensure critical internet connectivity for users of the Starlink system while protecting and potentially expanding the frequency bands that radio astronomers can use for their research.
For more details on this developing system, see a recent video produced for NRAO by One World Media above.
This news article was originally published on the NRAO website on March 18, 2024.
Recent News
Telescope Tag-Team Discovers Galactic Cluster’s Bizarre Secrets
Towards the center of our Milky Way Galaxy, in the constellation Sagittarius, astronomers have discovered 10 monstrous neutron stars. These particular stars, called pulsars, reside together in globular cluster Terzan 5, a crowded home for hundreds of thousands of different types of stars. In one of the most jam-packed places in our Milky Way, many pulsars in Terzan 5 have evolved into bizarre and eccentric forms.
Old Data, New Tricks Discover Pulsar in Galactic Plane
A team of astronomers has found a new tool to discover pulsars, rapidly rotating neutron stars that blast out pulses of radiation at regular intervals ranging from seconds to milliseconds. Named the VLA Low-band Ionosphere and Transient Experiment (VLITE), the tool was made possible by a collaboration between the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
AUI and the NRAO Announce Recipients of the 2024 NAC Bridge Scholarship Award
In its fourth year, the AUI Board of Trustees NAC Bridge Scholarship Award recognizes the academic accomplishments of National Astronomy Consortium (NAC) alums and assists them in the transition from undergraduate to graduate programs.