UK astronomers unleash the worlds most powerful radio telescope

UK astronomers are in the process of building the world's most powerful radio telescope. Its called the e-MERLIN. This telescope will use new technology to connect antennas across the UK, this will create the largest and most sensitive linked network in the world. The 217km MERLIN radio astronomy telescope is to be given a 7.8 million pound upgrade.

Funding of the radio telescopes project for MERLIN is from the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council. Radio astronomy is important to the understanding of our Universe because radio waves penetrate the clouds of dust and gas that hamper observations of telescopes at other frequencies. The e-MERLIN telescope will have an imaging capability equivalent to observing a 1p piece at a distance of 50 miles.

The radio astronomy telescope MERLIN will open up new areas of science, especially in fields such as extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. e-MERLIN radio telescopic instruments will view star formations across the Universe and study the extreme conditions around black holes.

The MERLIN radio astronomy telescopes sensitivity will be upgraded 30-fold. This will enable the improved instrument, e-MERLIN to probe far deeper into the Universe. It will be able to achieve in one day what would currently take 3 years of continuous telescopic observation. Seven radio antennas currently make up the MERLIN telescope. The increase in sensitivity will be due to optical fibre connections between the antennas.