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Are you ready for one of “the great scientific adventures of the coming decades”? Construction of the largest and most complex radio telescope network in the world officially began today in what is being described as a “historic moment for radio astronomy.” Designed to help astronomers answer some of astronomy’s most fundamental questions, the Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) was today given the go-ahead at its first council meeting at its headquarters at Jodrell Bank, Cheshire in the UK. Jodrell Bank is home to the Lovell Telescope, the world’s third-largest steerable radio telescope. SKA is going to cost $2.2 billion—and...

Public release date: 7-Oct-2004 Contact: Julia Maddock julia.maddock@pparc.ac.uk 44-179-344-2094 Particle Physics & Astronomy Research Council Radio astronomers remove the blindfold -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cambridge telescope -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Full size image available here UK radio astronomers at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, working with colleagues from Europe and the USA, have demonstrated a new technique that will revolutionise the way they observe. To create the very best quality images of the sky, they routinely combine data from multiple telescopes from around the world – a technique called Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). They have now combined this with the power of dedicated internet...

Astronomers have completed their most sensitive search yet for radio signals from intelligent life in space. They believe the best way to find ET is to look for a radio signal. Such signals can travel vast distances. The Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, supported by Jodrell Bank, searched over a period of 10 years. The scientists looked at 800 nearby stars with no evidence of a signal from ET. They say they have learned a lot, and plan another search next year. From the ashes The last star scrutinised by Project Phoenix - the most powerful search for intelligent...