From Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy [MPG Institut für Radioastronomie] (DE)
December 22, 2020
Dr. Rainer Mauersberger
Phone:+49 228 525-358
rmauersberger@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn
Prof. Dr. J. Anton Zensus
Director and Head of “Radio Astronomy/VLBI” Research Dept.
Phone:+49 228 525-298
azensus@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn
Dr. Norbert Junkes
Press and Public Outreach
Phone:+49 228 525-399
njunkes@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Bonn
European Commission facilitates use of European telescopes
The European Commission will provide €15 million in funding to a consortium of 37 astronomical institutions from the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) [leaving the U.S. behind, the same as what happened in High Energy Physics]. The goal of the Opticon-RadioNet Pilot Project (ORP) is to enable and facilitate scientists to share between the partners observing time at optical and radio telescopes. Similar programs have existed before: the RadioNet program made top-class radio telescopes available for joint use, including the 100-m radio telescope of the Bonn-based Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) at Effelsberg, and the APEX submillimeter telescope in Chile, in which the MPIfR participates.
And the OPTICON alliance pursued a similar concept with its telescopes operating in the visible wavelength range. Now, as a next step, the entire diversity of optical and radio astronomical infrastructures in Europe will be brought together under one roof.
EU-funding under the Opticon-RadioNet Pilot Project (ORP) will be used over the next four years to provide astronomers with reciprocal access to the best ground-based telescopes from European institutes. This will include not only their free use, but also training and support in operating the complex infrastructures.
Prof. Anton Zensus, director and head of the Radio Astronomy/VLBI research department at the MPIfR, who will scientifically coordinate the participation of the radio astronomical institutes, is pleased:
“Imagine you have a brilliant research idea and need a top radio telescope for it. No obstacle for European researchers. That’s because the EU-funded RadioNet network has not only provided astronomers with Europe’s best radio telescopes free of charge for 20 years; it also makes observing easier with on-site training and service. Now we have gone a step further and joined forces with optical telescope operators to become even more synchronized in the Opticon-RadioNet pilot project. A great success for all who believe in the European idea. And a great step forward for science. Because astronomical phenomena can only be understood if you have the best observing instruments available.”
However, the Bonn scientists are concerned about the increasing radio interferences from new mobile phone systems. “If we don’t act now, then wide areas of radio astronomical research will no longer be possible in the foreseeable future”, says Prof. Michael Kramer, director and head of the Fundamental Physics in Radio Astronomy research department at the MPIfR. “I am in particular pleased that, with the help of the approved EU funding, we will be able to develop sophisticated strategies to reduce the interfering signals and their impact and thus be able to continue to maintain the Effelsberg site for radio astronomy.”
See the full article here .
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MPIFR/Effelsberg Radio Telescope, Germany
The Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy [MPG Institut für Radioastronomie] (DE) is located in Bonn, Germany. It is one of 80 institutes in the Max Planck Society.
By combining the already existing radio astronomy faculty of the University of Bonn led by Otto Hachenberg with the new Max Planck institute the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy was formed. In 1972 the 100-m radio telescope in Effelsberg was opened. The institute building was enlarged in 1983 and 2002.
The institute was founded in 1966 by the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft as the “Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie” (MPIfR).
The foundation of the institute was closely linked to plans in the German astronomical community to construct a competitive large radio telescope in (then) West Germany. In 1964, Professors Friedrich Becker, Wolfgang Priester and Otto Hachenberg of the Astronomische Institute der Universität Bonn submitted a proposal to the Stiftung Volkswagenwerk for the construction of a large fully steerable radio telescope.
In the same year the Stiftung Volkswagenwerk approved the funding of the telescope project but with the condition that an organization should be found, which would guarantee the operations. It was clear that the operation of such a large instrument was well beyond the possibilities of a single university institute.
Already in 1965 the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft (MPG) decided in principle to found the Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie. Eventually, after a series of discussions, the institute was officially founded in 1966.
The Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science (German: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e. V.; abbreviated MPG) is a formally independent non-governmental and non-profit association of German research institutes founded in 1911 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Society and renamed the Max Planck Society in 1948 in honor of its former president, theoretical physicist Max Planck. The society is funded by the federal and state governments of Germany as well as other sources.
According to its primary goal, the Max Planck Society supports fundamental research in the natural, life and social sciences, the arts and humanities in its 83 (as of January 2014)[2] Max Planck Institutes. The society has a total staff of approximately 17,000 permanent employees, including 5,470 scientists, plus around 4,600 non-tenured scientists and guests. Society budget for 2015 was about €1.7 billion.
The Max Planck Institutes focus on excellence in research. The Max Planck Society has a world-leading reputation as a science and technology research organization, with 33 Nobel Prizes awarded to their scientists, and is generally regarded as the foremost basic research organization in Europe and the world. In 2013, the Nature Publishing Index placed the Max Planck institutes fifth worldwide in terms of research published in Nature journals (after Harvard, MIT, Stanford and the US NIH). In terms of total research volume (unweighted by citations or impact), the Max Planck Society is only outranked by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences and Harvard University. The Thomson Reuters-Science Watch website placed the Max Planck Society as the second leading research organization worldwide following Harvard University, in terms of the impact of the produced research over science fields.
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