Bulgaria Set to Launch Cutting-Edge Radio Telescope by 2025

Astronomer Kamen Kozarev stresses the importance of being at the forefront of modern scientific developments

published on 1/24/24 1:58 PM

Photo: BGNES

The European Commission has given the go-ahead for the European consortium to start building a state-of-the-art infrastructure designed for astronomical research. In Bulgaria, a member and co-founder of the consortium, work is beginning on the installation of a professional radio telescope, which will be completed by 2025. It will be part of the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) celestial observing network.

LOFAR is currently the largest radio telescope designed to operate at the lowest frequencies observable from Earth. Operational since 2012, LOFAR is hard at work studying the universe and its phenomena. It operates as an advanced low-frequency radio telescope, consisting of 52 individual observing stations strategically distributed across Europe. The forthcoming 53rd station, to be built in Bulgaria, underlines the country's three-year commitment to this groundbreaking project.

"Each station has a large number of relatively simple radio antennas which, using modern technology, electronics and computers, can together observe the same objects in the sky - points out in an interview for Bulgarian National Radio Associate Professor Kamen Kozarev from the Institute of Astronomy with the National Astronomical Observatory at BAS. - If all these observing stations work simultaneously, the radio telescope can achieve very high resolution".

"In fact, with this telescope we can observe all sorts of phenomena from the universe's inception and the birth of the first stars to exploring our ionosphere and studying our own sun.Two more stations will be built by 2025. One will be in Bulgaria and the other in Italy, with our station being the first on the Balkan Peninsula and in south-eastern Europe in general. It will be the southernmost and easternmost radio telescope station, and the northernmost is in Sweden. The group of participating countries also includes Germany, France, Poland, the United Kingdom and Latvia".

The new observation station in Bulgaria will be built next to the Rozhen National Astronomical Observatory. Dipole antennas will be positioned on the site, which will be the size of a football field.

The project is funded by the Bulgarian government through the National Roadmap for Research Infrastructure. The station is currently under construction and details of where the antennas will be located are being carefully planned. According to Associate Professor Kozarev, Bulgaria has a tradition in optical astronomy, with a brand new optical telescope recently commissioned at the Rozhen Observatory, but researchers in the country have little experience of radio astronomy. Once the radio telescope is built, it will be able to work with the other stations as well as independently, allowing Bulgarian researchers to carry out valuable new research on different objects.

"The main interest of our radio telescope group is the study of the Sun and the activity in the ionosphere caused by solar activity.

We are currently recruiting specialists and building a very strong team. I dare say that it will be fully prepared for the modern technology and science of the 21st century. It is very important for us to keep up with modern scientific developments.