Three Asian Nations Link Up To Form A Formidable Radio Telescope Array

摘要

Seoul-The hill smack in the center ofYon-sei University here gives a spectacular view of the school's gardenlike campus and, in the distance, downtown Seoul. Astronomers from South Korea and across Asia also hope this vantage point will offer an arresting view of the heavens. A 21-meter radiornantenna perched on the hilltop is part of Korea's first very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) array, completed this week.rnLinked to arrays in Japan and China, Korea's three instruments will fill out the densest network of its kind, says Hideyuki Kobayashi, a radio astronomer at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan in Mitaka. The East Asia VLBI Network comprises 19 antennas scattered over 6000 kilometers, from Urumqi in northwestern China to Japan's remote Ogasawara Island, and from Hokkaido to Kunming in China's southwest. A rival to U.S. and European networks (with 10 and eight instruments, respectively), the East Asia VLBI is expected to put Asian astronomers at the vanguard of mapping stars and galaxies and studying active galactic nuclei and other exotic objects.