Ghana and South Africa have announced the first successful detection of fringes during a VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) test experiment with the European VLBI Network (EVN). A 32 metre converted telecommunications antenna at Kutunse, Ghana, was used in the ‘first fringe' detection. The experiment is one of three positive detections, with the other two successes including methanol maser detection and pulsar observations.
After serving as the director of JIVE for a decade, Huib van Langevelde will continue his career at JIVE in a different role. The council of the JIV-ERIC accepted his aspiration to spend more time on science and development, and they are beginning the process of selecting a new director. After serving JIVE in various roles, Huib van Langevelde took on the responsibility of acting director in 2007 and then the position of director in 2008.
This year the astronomy community is commemorating the 50th anniversary of the first successful VLBI (Very Long Baseline Interferometry) experiments.
RadioNet, a consortium of 28 leading institutions for radio astronomical research from 13 countries, has been awarded 10 million Euro by the European Commission, to be used over the next four years. The speaker of the RadioNet consortium is Prof. J. Anton Zensus from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn (Germany).
An international team of radio astronomers led by Jun Yang (Onsala Space Observatory, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden) studied the new-born jet in a source known as Swift J1644+57 with the European VLBI Network (EVN), an Earth-size radio telescope array.