Sardinia Radio Telescope

The Sardinia Radio Telescope (SRT) is a large telescope used to study space. It is located near San Basilio in the Province of Cagliari on the island of Sardinia, Italy. This telescope was finished in 2011 after many years of work.

The SRT is very special because it is 64 meters tall and can move in any direction to point at different objects in the sky. It was built by a team from three places: the Istituto di Radioastronomia di Bologna, the Cagliari Observatory in Cagliari, and the Arcetri Astrophysical Observatory in Florence.

This telescope helps scientists learn more about stars, planets, and other objects far away in space. By studying radio waves from space, scientists can discover new things about the universe. The Sardinia Radio Telescope is an important tool for exploring the cosmos.

Design

The Sardinia Radio Telescope is located in Sardinia, about 35 kilometers north of the city of Cagliari. It is the largest of three telescopes operated by INAF, along with telescopes at the Medicina Radio Observatory and the Noto Radio Observatory. This telescope can work alone or join with telescopes around the world.

It has a large round surface that is 64 meters across, made of 1,008 aluminum panels. The telescope can move in any direction. Its structure weighs around 3,300 tonnes. Over time, new parts have been added to let it pick up more kinds of radio signals from space.

Collaboration, construction and commissioning

The Sardinia Radio Telescope was built by working together with several research groups from the National Institute for Astrophysics. These groups include the Istituto di Radioastronomia di Bologna, the Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari, and the Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri. Money for the telescope came from the Italian Ministry of Education and Scientific Research, the Sardinia Regional Government, the Italian Space Agency, and INAF. Building the telescope cost about €70 million.

Work on making the telescope began in 2003, and the bases were finished by 2004. Originally, they planned to finish it by the end of 2006, but it wasn’t done until the middle of 2012. A company called MT Mechatronics GmbH from Germany built the telescope. The telescope’s first test was on August 8, 2012, when they looked at the Moon and a star called 3C218 (Alphard). Testing finished in 2013, and the official opening was on September 30, 2013. Scientists kept testing it for use in research from 2012 to 2015. The telescope’s first connection for very long baseline interferometry happened in January 2014.

Science

The Sardinia Radio Telescope can study stars and other objects in space in many ways, such as measuring their light and signals. It works with other telescopes around the world through a special system called very-long-baseline interferometry, which is part of the European VLBI Network. It also connects with a space telescope called RadioAstron and helps with deep space communication for the Italian Space Agency.