Post by Bozur on Aug 10, 2008 22:56:33 GMT -5
Radio Signal Detected from Beyond Solar System
indlebe.dut.ac.za — On the evening of July 28th, the Indlebe Radio
Telescope, situated on the Steve Biko campus of the Durban
University of Technology, successfully detected its first radio source
from beyond the solar system. A strong signal was detected from
Sagittarius A, the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy, approximately 30
thousand light years away.More… (Space)
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Press Release - 4 August 2008
DUT Indlebe Radio Telescope Sees First Light
On the evening of 28th July 2008, at 21h14 local time the Indlebe
Radio Telescope, situated on the Steve Biko campus of the Durban
University of Technology, successfully detected its first radio source
from beyond the solar system. A strong source was detected from
Sagittarius A, the centre of the Milky Way Galaxy, approximately 30
thousand light years away.
To put this achievement into perspective, the energy gained by a
grain of rice falling 2 cm in the earth’s gravity to a plate is more
than the total energy received by all the radio telescopes in the
world operating since 1960.
The Indlebe project was initiated in 2006 by the Department of
Electronic Engineering with the primary object of providing
engineering projects and research opportunities to undergraduate
and postgraduate students working on a real-world complex
electronic system. A secondary objective was to provide a vehicle
to increase awareness and interest of secondary school students
in the fields of Science, Engineering and Technology (SET), and to
promote local awareness of the celebration of the International
Year of Astronomy in 2009 (IYA2009).
Indlebe is the Zulu word for ear, an appropriate name for the
project when one views the 5 m diameter parabolic reflector
antenna of the telescope from above. The telescope is a transit
instrument which operates at the Hydrogen Line frequency of 1420
MHz and uses a very sensitive radio receiver to detect extra
terrestrial radio sources. A remarkable aspect of the project is that
all the hardware, from the antenna and feedhorn to the final
analog to digital converter providing a digital representation of the
detected source to a pc, has been designed by students and
constructed on campus. It is intended that the received data will
shortly be made available in real time to interested persons who
will be able to graph the data using freely available software.
For further information contact the project leader Stuart
MacPherson via email on stuartm@dut.ac.za or by phone on
+27 31 373 2538.
Schematic showing Sagittarius A crossing the beam of Indlebe on 28 July 2008
indlebe.dut.ac.za/