Broadband networks transform radio astronomy

Astronomers from CSIRO, the Swinburne University of Technology and the University of Tasmania have made the first broadband hook-up between Australian radio telescopes, doing in just hours an experiment that would previously have taken weeks.

Data from four telescopes - near Parkes, Narrabri, Coonabarabran and Hobart - were streamed to CSIRO's Parkes Observatory, where they were processed in software developed at the Swinburne University of Technology.

“Broadband networks are revolutionising astronomy,” says Dr Tasso Tzioumis, VLBI operations and development manager at CSIRO's Australia Telescope National Facility. “We can now do experiments on very short time-scales with real-time transfer of data between telescopes.”

Added by Helen Sim on 2007-04-19