RadioAstron



On Monday, a radio telescope launched into space that will travel most of the way to the moon.



Although the RadioAstron telescope is fairly small at 10 metres wide, astronomers plan to sync it up with antennas back on Earth to effectively create a single receiver that will be up to 30 times as wide as the planet. At its best, the entire system will have about 10,000 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope.



(Image: Russian Space Agency)

LOFAR



Light from hydrogen that existed when the first stars and galaxies formed reaches Earth in the form of the longest radio wavelengths, which are relatively unstudied.



LOFAR (LOw Frequency ARray), a network of antennas in the Netherlands and other European countries, begins its first full year observing these metres-long wavelengths this year.



(Image: ASTRON)

Long Wavelength Array



In May, the first of the Long Wavelength Array's 50 stations began observations. Each station in the array, based mainly in New Mexico, will contain 256 antennas.



Like LOFAR, the LWA will study the poorly explored low-frequency end of the radio spectrum. In addition to revealing hydrogen in the early universe, these wavelengths are produced when ultra-high-energy charged particles stream through the Earth's atmosphere and neutrinos slam into the moon.



(Image: LWA Project/UNM/NASA) Advertisement

Atacama Large Millimeter Array



Later this year, the Atacama Large Millimeter Array in Chile will begin conducting early science operations. This long-awaited telescope will employ an array of 12-metre movable antennas.



The light it will study, at millimetre wavelengths, can be used to study star formation, the evolution of intergalactic dust over billions of years, and the dusty, planet-forming environments around stars.



(Image: ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)