ASTRON - Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy

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ASTRON - Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy

This is the official ASTRON - Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy page. Dit is de officiële ASTRON Facebookpagina.

ASTRON is onderdeel van de Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO). ASTRON is part of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).

05/01/2026

🎉 Happy 2026! We kick off the year with a cosmic mystery: an international team of astronomers have discovered a dark object with a million times the mass of the Sun. The is unlike anything seen before! 🌌

This required combining data from radio telescopes distributed all over the world at the Joint Institute for VLBI ERIC JIVE). Including the data of all 14 Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) dishes.

Its unusual structure doesn’t match current dark-matter theories, hinting at new physics or a completely new type of object.

🔗 Read more: https://www.jive.eu/news/nature-astronomy-now-million-solar-mass-dark-object-unlike-anything-seen-discovered

23/12/2025

As we wrap up the year, we’d like to thank our amazing community for joining us in exploring the universe. From groundbreaking discoveries to inspiring collaborations. 🌟

We wish you a warm holiday season and a bright, curious, and cosmic New Year ahead. Here’s to new discoveries in 2026! 🥂🎄

19/12/2025

LOFAR Focus 🌌 Through the lens of the LOFAR telescope, we’re bringing you exclusive space images. This time; The giant radio galaxy J0349+7511

This giant radio galaxy, discovered in 2016 by Hunik and Jamrozy, seen in the LoTSS wide-area survey images. The source is associated with the cluster of galaxies Abell 449.

📷: Maya Horton and the LOFAR surveys team

11/12/2025

Think we know what planets can look like? Think again! 🌎 Ekaterina Ilin, astronomer at ASTRON - Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy reveals everything about weird planets in the first episode of her exoplanet series!

Curious about exoplanet research?
🔭Dive into Cristina Maria Cordun’s paper, where she hunt for the magnetic field of Tau Boo: a heavyweight Jupiter whipping around its star in 3 days: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2025A%26A...693A.162C/abstract
🔭 Or check out Sanne Bloot’s paper, where she search for a magnetic connection between AU Mic and its inner Neptunes: https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2024A&A...682A.170B

Got a question for Ekaterina? Drop it in the comments or slide into our DMs 👇🏻

11/12/2025

Geminid Meteor Shower: a Spectacular sight on 13–14 December! 🤩

This weekend, the Geminid meteor shower reaches its peak, offering one of the most striking annual shows in the night sky. Under clear conditions, you may spot up to 85 meteors per hour.

The Geminids come from debris left behind by the asteroid Phaethon. As Earth passes through this stream each year, we see bright, yellow-tinted meteors with short, sharp trails. These flashes occur when tiny particles, sometimes no larger than a grain of san, enter the atmosphere at high speed and heat the air around them.

Despite the Moon being around 30% illuminated, viewing conditions remain favourable, especially in the early hours of 14 December. No special equipment is needed: just find a dark location, dress warmly, and enjoy the sky! ⭐️

Credit: J. Bout

10/12/2025

Earliest supernova ever seen with JWST ✨

Astronomers have detected the earliest known supernova, from a time when the Universe was just 730 million years old. The discovery began with gamma-ray burst GRB250314A and was quickly followed up by observatories worldwide, allowing JWST to capture the explosion and identify its distant host galaxy.

This breakthrough shows that JWST can study individual stars from the dawn of the Universe, offering new insights into the first billion years after the Big Bang.

📷: Artistic impression of gamma-ray burst 250314A with the supernova on the right. Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Leah Hustak (STScI).

05/12/2025

Think lightning is just a flash? Think again! ⚡️Brian Hare, Lightning Scientist at .nl reveals why we study lightning in the first episode of his lightning series!

Got a question for Brian? Drop them in the comments or send us a DM👇🏻

05/12/2025

Think lightning is just a flash? Think again! ⚡️Brian Hare, Lightning Scientist at ASTRON - Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, reveals why we study lightning in the first episode of his lightning series!

Got a question for Brian? Drop them in the comments or send us a DM👇🏻

02/12/2025

🤝 Start of a new research domain combining astronomy and artificial intelligence!

Many properties of our Universe remain a mystery due to great observational challenges. Artificial intelligence (AI) is already assisting astronomers in their research into these open questions, and that role is set to grow. To better understand the foundations and future of this interaction, ASTRON and Universiteit Leiden are establishing a new research field. Prof. dr. Joeri van Leeuwen and team will develop astrophysics-informed AI, and then use it to uncover new astronomy.

The formation, structure, and evolution of our Universe is driven by many different forces and processes. Gravity, light, and explosive outbursts of matter connect the cosmos over vast scales. “We now want to find out how AI can help us understand the laws of nature that shape the Universe,” says the new professor by special appointment, Van Leeuwen.

“The Netherlands hosts radio telescopes that are world leading in astronomical research. These generate more data than entire countries,” says Dr. Violette Impellizzeri. “Analysing all those images already requires supercomputers and AI, and this challenge will only grow with our future telescopes.” That is why ASTRON and Leiden University are jointly establishing the new endowed chair.

👀 Read more: https://www.astron.nl/improving-our-understanding-of-ai-and-the-universe/

02/12/2025

Catching Jupiter with LOFAR2.0! 🪐 During LOFAR2.0 commissioning, Cristina Cordun and her team tested the LBA’s polarization performance and unexpectedly caught a burst of Jupiter’s radio emission around 30 MHz!

Even with only basic self-calibration, Jupiter popped out in one-minute snapshots (Stokes I & V), and a dynamic spectrum from the visibilities revealed beautiful frequency structure and drift.

These early results show that Jupiter is an excellent on-sky target for checking the stability of the LOFAR2.0 polarization signal path, and they’re a reminder of just how fun and exciting commissioning can be! 📡

📷: NASA / Cristina Maria Cordun

01/12/2025

🛩️ A serendipitous discovery: mapping radio emissions from aircraft with unprecedented precision!

While our LOFAR radio telescope was imaging a lightning flash, we stumbled upon something unexpected: radio signals from a Boeing 777 flying through high clouds at 8 km altitude. This chance observation opened a window into understanding how aircraft shed electrical charge.

Using LOFAR's advanced imaging techniques, we pinpointed emission sources on the moving aircraft to within 50 cm unprecedented precision for such observations.

Key findings: Radio emissions came exclusively from specific locations: the two engines and a spot on the tail. Surprisingly, we detected NO emissions from the aircraft's static discharge wicks (p-static wicks), despite the plane flying through electrically charging ice clouds. This challenges our understanding of how aircraft discharge accumulated static electricity. ⚡️

This serendipitous discovery also helped us refine LOFAR's lightning observation techniques, improving our spatial resolution and polarization accuracy for studying atmospheric electrical phenomena.

Read more: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65667-2.epdf

Published in Nature Communications | Lead author: Olaf Scholten (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen / ASTRON)

27/11/2025

Join dr. Emma van der Wateren, astronomer at ASTRON - Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy on a worktrip at the Effelsberg Observaroty in Germany, as she explores how satellite radiation affects our observations and how we can protect radio telescopes from human-made interference! 📡

This is the third episode of our Day in the Life series, offering a behind-the-scenes look at the people driving research at ASTRON. Want to join us on this journey? Discover opportunities on our careers page: https://werkenbijastron.nl

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+31521595100

Website

http://www.astron.nl/

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