Radboud University and TUE link on antenna development

Radboud University Nijmegen’s Radio Lab and Eindhoven University of Technology (TUE) will join forces to develop new astronomy instruments. On 20 September, the universities will sign the collaboration agreement and will officially open the virtual Center for Astronomical Instrumentation (CAI). The center’s aim is to develop astronomical apparatus at the limits of technological possibility, together with institutions such as the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (Astron), the Netherlands Institute for Space Research (SRON) and the Dutch Research School for Astronomy (Nova).

The collaboration builds on the recent experience of the Radboud Radio Lab with the Chinese space mission Chang’e 4 to the ‘dark’ side of the moon. Together with Astron and the Delft company Isis, the lab built the radio antenna on a Chinese satellite that’s now orbiting behind the moon (link in Dutch). The antenna is designed to detect weak radio signals originating from the early universe with the aim of learning more about its origin.

“High-precision measurements require several antennas in space that together form a single large radio telescope. This technology, known as interferometry, is already being used on Earth – as was the case with the first image of a black hole that was taken by the Event Horizon Telescope – but it is not yet possible in space,” says Marc Klein Wolt, director of the Radboud Radio Lab. “The development of this technology of combined radio antennas in space requires the extensive experience in technological innovation that’s available in Eindhoven.”