I-LOFAR Consortium win SFI Award for International Engagement

Orlaigh Quinn (Secretary General of the Department of the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation) and Mark Ferguson (Director General of SFI) presenting Joe McCauley, Peter Gallagher, Tom Ray and Eoin Carley from the I-LOFAR Consortium with the Best International Engagement Award at the SFI Annual Summit 2017.

I-LOFAR Education Centre Progress

The builders are back in Birr! In October 2017 our building contractor begin refurbishing the I-LOFAR Education Centre and Control Room. The Education Centre will provide a space overlooking the I-LOFAR array for team meetings and visiting groups to be hosted. The Control Room is also being refurbished to provide modern office space for our researchers to work in. All building work should be completed by January 2018 and we plan on having a formal opening in Spring 2018.

The Education Centre refurbishment is supported by the Rural Economic Development Zones (REDZ) programme from the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht and Offaly County Council.

Watch the LOFAR TV documentary “13 Billion Light Years From Birr”

We’re delighted to announce that the documentary on LOFAR is now available on the RTE Player and the RTE Player International. This is a documentary where great feats of engineering meet space exploration, where Irish ingenuity from the past meets Irish innovation for the future, to produce a cutting-edge technological adventure film set in rural Ireland. “13,000,000,000 Light Years from Birr” shows how the Irish now unlock some of the universe’s most important secrets.

13 Billion Light Years From Birr follows the construction of the I-LOFAR telescope on the grounds of Birr Castle, which, once completed, will be the most westerly part of a network stretching from Ireland to the town of Bałdy, in eastern Poland, composed of six partner countries and 50 antenna stations spread across the continent.

The network the Irish telescope is now joining will be able to research the origin of the first galaxies, black holes and gas clouds seen at the birth of our universe when the first stars formed – an era beyond the reach of even the biggest optical telescopes. It also opens up the possibility that if there is anybody out there, the first messages may be picked up on an antenna in County Offaly.

Featuring contributions from a stellar cast of Irish and International world of Astronomy.

Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell – Discoverer of Pulsars, Oxford, UK

Professor George Miley – One of the inventors of LOFAR, Leiden, Netherlands

Professor Peter Gallagher – Head of I-LOFAR, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Professor Mike Garrett – SETI, Jodrell Bank, UK

Professor Anna Scaife – Radio Astronomer, Jodrell Bank, UK

The one hour documentary is made by Midas Productions, and funded by RTÉ and the BAI through the Sound and Vision scheme.