Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre unveils 'world's biggest' orrery
The Jodrell Bank Discovery Centre in Cheshire has unveiled its latest exhibit, a mechanical orrery. The orrery, a moving model of the solar system, is 5m in diameter. Read more
e-MERLIN's deep radio survey of the Hubble Deep Field: first results
Credit: N. Wrigley / Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics
Image composed from e-MERLIN and EVLA observations in C-band. The width of the whole field is approximately 1/4 of a degree (the same diameter as half a full moon). The inset images illustrate the effectiveness of e-MERLIN's capabilities in revealing the structure of galaxies even at distances of billions of the light years. Bottom left: An interesting example of an AGN galaxy with large lobes thought to be caused by jets, emanating from a central black hole, interacting with interstellar material. Bottom right: An FR1 type AGN galaxy. Top left: A more typical AGN type galaxy. Top right: An AGN with star formation characteristic emission detected at an estimated distance of 7.5 billion light-years.
e-MERLIN's deep radio survey of the Hubble Deep Field: first results
A team of astronomers at Jodrell Bank Observatory have begun the deepest ever high-resolution radio imaging of the region around the Hubble Deep Field (HDF), the images originally captured by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) in the mid 1990s. The HDF led to the discovery of numerous galaxies billions of light years distant and provided direct visual evidence of the evolution of the Universe. First results from the new imaging, which uses observations from the UK's newly upgraded e-MERLIN radio telescope array together with the EVLA radio array based in New Mexico, show galaxies some 7 billion light years away in unprecedented detail. Graduate student Nick Wrigley will present the new results at the National Astronomy Meeting in Manchester on 27 March 2012. Read more
The world-famous Jodrell Bank observatory has been chosen to represent the letter J in a new set of stamps featuring an A to Z of iconic landmarks from all four countries in the UK. Read more
A new visitor centre which is hoped will inspire the scientists of the future opened on Monday. The visitor centre includes an interactive discovery centre, a pavilion for exhibitions, a cafe overlooking the Lovell Telescope and an entrance building modelled on the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey. Read more
Jodrell Bank is among a shortlist of 11 sites in the UK that will be nominated for World Heritage status. The Government selected the observatory, home to the world famous Lovell Telescope, due to its scientific and historic significance. This means Jodrell Bank could soon be held in the esteem as the Pyramids and Stonehenge. Read more
Title: Expanding e-MERLIN with the Goonhilly Earth Station Authors: I. Heywood, H-R. Kloeckner, R. Beswick, S. T. Garrington, J. Hatchell, M. G. Hoare, M. J. Jarvis, I. Jones, T. W. B. Muxlow, S. Rawlings
A consortium of universities has recently been formed with the goal of using the decommissioned telecommunications infrastructure at the Goonhilly Earth Station in Cornwall, UK, for astronomical purposes. One particular goal is the introduction of one or more of the ~30-metre parabolic antennas into the existing e-MERLIN radio interferometer. This article introduces this scheme and presents some simulations which quantify the improvements that would be brought to the e-MERLIN system. These include an approximate doubling of the spatial resolution of the array, an increase in its N-S extent with strong implications for imaging the most well-studied equatorial fields, accessible to ESO facilities including ALMA. It also increases the overlap between the e-MERLIN array and the European VLBI Network. We also discuss briefly some niche science areas in which an e-MERLIN array which included a receptor at Goonhilly would be potentially world-leading, in addition to enhancing the existing potential of e-MERLIN in its role as a Square Kilometre Array pathfinder instrument.
The Flaming Lips announce show at Jodrell Bank Observatory
The US group from Oklahoma City, led by Wayne Coyne, will perform in the shadow of the University of Manchester's Lovell telescope, the biggest and most powerful radio telescope in the UK, on Saturday 2 July. Read more