UNM students search the heavens

UNM researchers and students are setting up radio telescope stations across the state that will open a window to unexplored parts of the Earth’s atmosphere and outer space.

The Long Wavelength Array in the San Agustin Plains, the first of the stations, will be completed at the end of next month, Executive Project Director Lee Rickard said. He said the stations will help scientists better understand the ionosphere, an atmospheric layer that interferes with satellite systems.

“The usefulness of this is not just astronomical,” he said.

Rickard said studying the ionosphere is useful because it affects systems between the Earth and near space. He said telescopes pick up images between 10-88 megahertz, but the ionosphere, radio waves and television sets interfere with telescopes’ ability to pick up the images.

Students volunteered with the project’s construction during its early stages. The project began April 2007 and has been supported by about $8 million in congressional funds.

UNM Project Director Greg Taylor said there is a lot to discover in frequencies between 10-88 megahertz.

“You can think of the LWA as a little window on the universe operating in this band,” he said.

Unlike the Very Large Array telescope system in the San Agustin Plains, the LWA equipment is sturdy and inexpensive, Rickard said. Students will be able to use the

equipment once construction is complete, and Rickard said student accessibility led to the array’s chosen location.

“We didn’t want to be dealing with things in Europe or Australia because it’s too expensive to send any students there,” Rickard said. “We would really want everyone to have the experience of hands-on work again.”

Researchers received funding in 2007, and it will support the project until September. Between now and then, researchers will send proposals to the National Science Foundation, and Taylor said they will find means to continue their work.

“If there is no funding to be had anywhere then we might have to stop operating,” he said. “I doubt that that will happen because there’s really a lot of exciting stuff we could do, and it’s not so expensive to operate.”