Cardiff students take control of world’s largest radio telescope

The Parkes telescope - one of the largest in the world

A group of Cardiff students took control of one of the world’s most powerful radio telescopes this week as part of an innovative Cardiff University astronomy link-up.

AS and A-level students from Cardiff schools including Whitchurch High and Howells visited the University’s School of Physics and Astronomy which is playing host to the Parkes telescope, one of the world’s most powerful radio telescopes.

The 64m radio telescope, situated 400km west of Sydney, Australia was used to receive the television transmission of the Apollo 11 moon walk in 1969 and allows astronomers the chance to observe pulsars, along with a whole host of other astronomical observations.

By remotely accessing the radio telescope and working directly with the telescope’s Australian-based operators, students will be given the chance to view pulsars – which are spinning, magnetised neutron stars, left over from massive star explosions.

Pulsars spin and emit radio waves in beams from their poles. The spinning causes the beams to sweep across the Earth, creating pulses of radio waves. By taking control of the telescopes the students have the chance to witness first-hand some of the most striking images and undertake real-time scientific research.

Mr Chris North, from Cardiff University’s School of Physics and Astronomy, said: “Pulse@Parkes is an innovative project that allows students interested in astronomy a unique opportunity to take control of one of the world’s most powerful radio telescope. We are delighted to be hosting it here in Cardiff for its first visit to the UK.

“The students will have the chance to take part in real science with the measurements adding to an archive which may eventually help scientists detect the elusive gravitational waves predicted by Einstein’s theory of general relativity.”

The event is open to A-level and AS-level students with a keen interest in astronomy. The measurements used by the students will also form part of an archive of data that is used to monitor and record the characteristics of pulsars throughout our galaxy, such their distance, their rate of spin and any unusual characteristics.

Cardiff University’s Astronomy Group carries out research in many areas of astronomy, in particular the formation of stars, the origin and evolution of galaxies and the cosmic microwave background.

The University’s School of Physics and Astronomy has one of the most active Gravitational Physics Groups, and remains one of the largest research groups in the School. The Group’s search for gravitational waves is focused on transient events such as supernovae and binary neutron stars and black holes, and stochastic gravitational waves.