Radio Astronomy Laboratory

We study different celestial objects at different radio frequencies with the use of radio telescopes

About

The radio astronomy lab was established in 2016 and has been welcoming the public, graduates, undergraduates and high school students for hands-on experience with radio telescopes, here, in Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences and Technology (SAASST). We are a group of dedicated researchers and students specialized in different fields of Sciences and Engineering who study the universe through the radio lens. The main objective of the Radio Astronomy Laboratory is to construct radio telescopes and observe the universe through them. The Academy provides a professional environment for future generations of radio astronomers.

Look at the sky with new pairs of eyes

Main Research Objectives

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Target

Target

Unravel the mysteries of the universe by carrying out radio astronomical observations of the Sun, Jupiter, the Milky Way, and extragalactic sources.
Connect

Connect

Establish collaborations with radio astronomers across the globe.

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Reach

Reach

Expand the horizons of radio astronomy to schools and colleges.

Build

Build

Conduct hands-on training programs and workshops in using radio receivers, fabricating antennas for different targets and purposes, data calibration and reduction and image processing.
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Educate

Educate

Establish a radio astronomy program at the University of Sharjah and Sharjah Academy for Astronomy, Space Sciences, and Technology.

“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star stuff”- 1973

Carl Sagan

“The history of astronomy is a history of receding horizons.” - 1936

Edwin Hubble

“The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we CAN imagine” 1993

Arthur Eddington

“What we know is a drop, what we don’t know is an ocean.”

Isaac Newton

Ruby Payne-Scott

Ruby Payne-Scott was an Australian Radio Astronomer and Radio Physicist born on 28 May 1912. In February 1946, Payne-Scott was a part of a three-member team that conducted the first ever radio interferometry observation through which they confirmed that intense radio bursts originated in sunspots classifying her hence as the “first female radio astronomer”
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Karl Jansky

Karl Guthe Jansky was an American physicist, radio engineer, and radio astronomer born on August 1931. While working at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Jansky built an antenna designed to receive radio waves at a frequency of 20.5 MHz, which resulted in the first detection of radio waves from an astronomical object ever observed, the radiation came from the center of the Milky Way galaxy in the Sagittarius constellation. In honor of Jansky, the unit used by radio astronomers for the strength of radio sources has been named after him (Jansky)

Our Projects

Decametric Radio Telescope

The SAASST Decametric Radio Telescope Array Project, funded by the UAE Space Agency, consists of dipole antennas connected in different configurations to perform radio observations of the Sun, Jupiter, and the background radiation of the Milky Way. All these observations are performed in the decametric range at the frequency 20.1 MHz.

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40-m Radio Interferometer

The radio interferometer consists of three 5-m SPIDER 500A telescopes. The system is in the final phase with the three 5-m telescopes installed and fully operational. The system operates at the frequency of the neutral Hydrogen line, 1420 MHz. The interferometer will simulate the resolution of a 40-m radio telescope, 0.36 degrees.