Astronomers create first four-continent telescope

Taking into consideration the aspect of globalization I have a very good information to those who are interested in astronomy.

A radio telescope that spans four continents has been set up for the first time. This proves that cooperation can make fantastic results :))

In an observational run conducted in May, antennas in North America, South America, Europe and Africa all pointed in the same direction. Signals were fed by fibre optics to create real-time images at a hub in the Netherlands.

Astronomers have long combined observations from individual telescopes. The process, called interferometry, produces the same resolution as a single dish as wide as the distance between the antennas.

Its size gives it 10 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope.

Now, the data is sent via fibre optic cables to produce real-time images of celestial objects. That allows astronomers to easily plan follow-up observations for rapidly changing phenomena, such as supernovae.