Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy 1 ASTRON is part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Kurgan high-school students visit, Dwingeloo, April 21, 2011 Research at ASTRON Vladislav Kondratiev Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy

Outline ASTRON Institute, general information Astronomers Radio waves Telescopes of Astron Study possibilities Quiz Could you turn off your mobile phones? 2 ASTRON high-school students

ASTRON, The Institute for Radio Astronomy Making discoveries in radio astronomy happen! 3 ASTRON departments: Research and development (R&D) Radio observatory Astronomy group ASTRON is host for: JIVE NOVA optical/IR lab Total 200 people ASTRON high-school students

Goal: Make discoveries possible 4 Drenthe world-class telescopes: WSRT (Westerbork telescope) LOFAR Preparing for the SKA Technological development LOFAR Technology for the SKA Optical/IR instruments ASTRON high-school students

1. Research & Development (R&D) 5 Technical Department Developing new telescopes and instruments for telescopes Hardware and software development Example: EMBRACE ASTRON high-school students

2. Radio observatory → Doing observations with the WSRT and LOFAR → Maintaining and repairing telescopes 6 ASTRON high-school students

3. Astronomy group 7 Find answers to main questions in the world: What is outside the Earth? What is the origin of everything? What is the fate of the Universe? Using: Observations with the telescopes Nature/mathematical theory Computer simulations ASTRON high-school students

3. Astronomy group Different topics, such as: Special stars, like pulsars Birth of stars Galaxies with an active central black hole Study of distant galaxies: structure and evolution 8 You are here ASTRON high-school students

Electromagnetic spectrum 9 ASTRON high-school students

Electromagnetic spectrum M81 is seen in different EM waves 10 ASTRON high-school students

11 ASTRON high-school students Observations: black holes

12 ASTRON high-school students Observations: black holes

Observations: Pulsars 13 Lighthouse AmelandPulsar “lighthouse effect” ASTRON high-school students

Observations: Crab Nebula 14 ASTRON high-school students

How do astronomers work? Scientifically 15 Proposal for observations Proposal will be evaluated: Is the question interesting? How will an observation help? Look at the data Answers??? Write papers and present the results at the conferencies New ideas and questions! ASTRON high-school students

Telescopes: Dwingeloo telescope 1956 in operation Largest radio telescope at that moment Discovery: structure of gas clouds in our Galaxy Is now managed by foundation CAMRAS 16 ASTRON high-school students

Telescopes: WSRT 14 dishes (10 fixed, 4 movable) All 14 dishes together form a telescope with a size given by the largest distance between two dishes 17 receiver ASTRON high-school students

Telescopes: LOFAR 18 ASTRON high-school students

Location of LOFAR 19 LOFAR “Superterp” ASTRON high-school students

Location of LOFAR 20 Station “CS302” ASTRON high-school students

Location of LOFAR 21 Station “DE601” in Germany Station “SE601” In Sweden ASTRON high-school students

LOFAR: operation 22 ASTRON high-school students

LOFAR is more geophysics agriculture ASTRON high-school students

Telescopen: SKA 24 ASTRON high-school students

Study possibilities University education: Astronomy Nijmegen, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Groningen, Leiden Abroad College education (exact studies): engineering, mathematics, physics, space technology, ICT, electronics 25 ASTRON high-school students

Questions? 26 ASTRON high-school students

Quiz Question 1: What image shows the Faraday's cage? 27 A B C

2. How big is the largest single-dish telescope? A. 50 meters B. 100 meters C. 300 meters 28 Single-dish telescopes

Energy of radio waves 29 3.How much energy was received in the last 50 years of all radio telescopes in the world? A. With this energy a fly can do one push-up B. With this energy a dog can do one push-up C. With this energy a hippo can do one push-up D. With this energy an elephant can do one push- up

Size of the Milky Way 4 What is the size of our Galaxy? A light years B light years C light years D light years 30

Pulsar 5 Which statement is true? A. A pulsar is a neutron star B. A pulsar can rotate ~1000 times per second around its axis C. A pulsar resembles a lighthouse, but emits radio waves instead of visible light D. All above is true 31

Hubble's law 6 What is Hubble's law? A. The relationship between the mass and the maximum size of a black hole B. The relationship between the speed of an object in the universe and the distance from the place where we are. C. A law that says something about the number of stars in the universe D. A law that Americans have made in response to the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope 32

To observe radio waves 7 When can you observe with the Westerbork radio telescope? A. Always B. Only if it is not cloudy C. Day only D. Only at night End of quiz 33

Quiz Question 1: What image shows the Faraday's cage? 34 A B C

Single-dish telescopes Arecibo, Puerto Rico (305m) Effelsberg, Germany 100m Green bank telescope, USA 100 m/110 m 2. How big is the largest single-dish telescope? C 305 meters

Energy of radio waves 36 3.How much energy was received in the last 50 years of all radio telescopes in the world? A. With this energy a fly can do one push-up B. With this energy a dog can do one push-up C. With this energy a hippo can do one push-up D. With this energy an elephant can do one push- up

Energy of radio waves 37 1 Jansky = W m -2 Hz m Parkes radio telescope

Size of the Milky Way 4 What is the size of our Galaxy? A light years B light years C light years D light years 38

Pulsar 5 Which statement is true? A. A pulsar is a neutron star B. A pulsar can rotate ~1000 times per second around its axis C. A pulsar resembles a lighthouse, but emits radio waves instead of visible light D. All above is true 39

40 Pulsar

Hubble's law 6 What is Hubble's law? A. The relationship between the mass and the maximum size of a black hole B. The relationship between the speed of an object in the universe and the distance from the place where we are. C. A law that says something about the number of stars in the universe D. A law that Americans have made in response to the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope 41

42 Hubble's law

To observe radio waves 7 When can you observed with the Westerbork radio telescope? A. Always B. Only if it is not cloudy C. Day only D. Only at night 43

Quiz answers Right answers: 1 B 2 C 3 A 4 C 5 D 6 B 7 A 44 Who has all the answers right? or Who has the most answers right?