A years-long battle over the placement of the Thirty Meter Telescope saw a major development this week, when Hawaii issued the telescope a permit to begin construction on the dormant volcano of Mauna Kea.
A consortium launched a crowdfunding campaign for an optical instrument that could search for planets in Alpha Centauri.
(PhysOrg.com) -- On 15 November 2011, the Effelsberg 100-meter radio telescope, together with three Russian and one Ukrainian telescope, took part in the first interferometric observations with the orbiting 10-meter antenna Spektr-R of the Russian RadioAstron project. The observations were made at a wavelength of 18 centimeters, targeting the distant, bright, and very compact quasar 0212+735. Interferometric signals have been successfully detected by the RadioAstron team between Spektr-R and the ground antennas, setting a new world record for the size of a radio interferometer and opening a new era in interferometric studies of cosmic radio emission.
