Sunday, March 7, 2010

High resolution LOFAR image of 3C 61.1 at 173 MHz

The Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy ASTRON, and the Joint Institute for Very Long Baseline Interferometry in Europe JIVE, have published an outstanding high resolution image of radio source 3C 61.1 obtained with the Low Frequency Array LOFAR in Europe.

The image was computed using a small fraction of the data from 60 hours of observation with 20 LOFAR stations, and has a resolution of better than 10 arcseconds.
A even better image is expected, using more of the available data.

For comparison, the image above was made with the Very Large Array (at 1.5 GHz) in the United States, by Leahy and Perley in 1991.

See also Progress of LOFAR for a very brief description of the instrument.