Drones help calibrate radio telescope at Brookhaven Lab
Thursday, June 25, 2020 - 09:30
in Astronomy & Space
Cosmologists at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory are experimenting with a prototype radio telescope, called the Baryon Mapping Experiment (BMX). Built at the Lab in 2017, the prototype serves as a testbed for managing radio interference and developing calibration techniques. Lessons learned from the prototype could pave the way for Brookhaven to develop a much larger radio telescope in collaboration with other national Labs, universities, and international partners. Such a telescope would map neutral hydrogen over large swaths of the universe, enabling researchers to gain a better understanding of its accelerated expansion, as well as the nature of dark energy.