An Astronomer's Field of Dreams

MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
PASADENA, CALIF. 91109 TELEPHONE 818-354-5011
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

Feature: 2011-027 Jan. 26, 2011

Priscilla Vega (818) 354-1357
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
priscilla.r.vega@jpl.nasa.gov

An Astronomer's Field of Dreams

The full version of this story with accompanying images is at:
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news.cfm?release=2011-027&cid=release_2011-027

An innovative new radio telescope array under construction in central New Mexico
will eventually harness the power of more than 13,000 antennas and provide a
fresh eye to the sky. The antennas, which resemble droopy ceiling fans, form the
Long Wavelength Array, designed to survey the sky from horizon to horizon over a
wide range of frequencies.

The University of New Mexico leads the project, and NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., provides the advanced digital electronic systems,
which represent a major component of the observatory.

The first station in the Long Wavelength Array, with 256 antennas, is scheduled to
start surveying the sky by this summer. When complete, the Long Wavelength
Array will consist of 53 stations, with a total of 13,000 antennas strategically placed
in an area nearly 400 kilometers (248 miles) in diameter. The antennas will
provide sensitive, high-resolution images of a region of the sky hundreds of times
larger than the full moon. These images could reveal radio waves coming from
planets outside our solar system, and thus would turn out to be a new way to
detect these worlds. In addition to planets, the telescope will pick up a host of other
cosmic phenomena.

"We'll be looking for the occasional celestial flash," said Joseph Lazio, a radio
astronomer at JPL. "These flashes can be anything from explosions on surfaces of
nearby stars, deaths of distant stars, exploding black holes, or even perhaps
transmissions by other civilizations." JPL scientists are working with multi-
institutional teams to explore this new area of astronomy. Lazio is lead author of
an article reporting scientific results from the Long Wavelength Demonstrator
Array, a precursor to the new array, in the December 2010 issue of Astronomical
Journal.

The new Long Wavelength Array will operate in the radio-frequency range of 20 to
80 megahertz, corresponding to wavelengths of 15 meters to 3.8 meters (49.2 feet
to 12.5 feet). These frequencies represent one of the last and most poorly
explored regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

In recent years, a few factors have triggered revived interest in radio astronomy at
these frequencies. The cost and technology required to build these low-frequency
antennas has improved significantly. Also, advances in computing have made the
demands of image processing more attainable. The combination of cost-effective
hardware and technology gives scientists the ability to return to these wavelengths
and obtain a much better view of the universe.
The predecessor Long Wavelength Demonstrator Array was also in New Mexico.
It was successful in identifying radio flashes, but all of them came from non-
astronomy targets -- either the sun, or meteors reflecting TV signals high in Earth's
atmosphere. Nonetheless, its findings indicate how future searches using the Long
Wavelength Array technology might lead to new discoveries.

Radio astronomy was born at frequencies below 100 megahertz and developed
from there. The discoveries and innovations at this frequency range helped pave
the way for modern astronomy. Perhaps one of the most important contributions
made in radio astronomy was by a young graduate student at New Hall (since
renamed Murray Edwards College) of the University of Cambridge, U.K. Jocelyn
Bell discovered the first hints of radio pulsars in 1967, a finding that was later
awarded a Nobel Prize. Pulsars are neutron stars that beam radio waves in a
manner similar to a lighthouse beacon.

Long before Bell's discovery, astronomers believed that neutron stars, remnants of
certain types of supernova explosions, might exist. At the time, however, the
prediction was that these cosmic objects would be far too faint to be detected.
When Bell went looking for something else, she stumbled upon neutron stars that
were in fact pulsing with radio waves -- the pulsars. Today about 2,000 pulsars are
known, but within the past decade, a number of discoveries have hinted that the
radio sky might be far more dynamic than suggested by just pulsars.

"Because nature is more clever than we are, it's quite possible that we will discover
something we haven't thought of," said Lazio.

More information on the Long Wavelength Array is online at: http://lwa.unm.edu .

The Long Wavelength Array project is led by the University of New Mexico,
Albuquerque, N.M., and includes the Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M., the
United States Naval Research Laboratories, Washington, and NASA's Jet Propulsion
Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The California Institute of Technology manages JPL for
NASA.
-end-

To remove yourself from this mailing, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=hoKOJZNvHdLRI6I&s=isJYJ1MFIeIKI0NLLsF&m=7dKLISOnHdJOI3L

To remove yourself from all mailings from NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, please go to http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=mtJYLePPIjITKcJ&s=isJYJ1MFIeIKI0NLLsF&m=7dKLISOnHdJOI3L