LOFAR Telescope Uncovers Hidden Planets
Through the use of the world’s most powerful radio telescope the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR), which is located in the Netherlands, scientists have discovered stars unexpectedly blasting out radio waves, possibly indicating the existence of hidden planets.
The new discoveries using the LOFAR suggest that this is only the beginning of the impact radio astronomy has on revolutionising our understanding of planets and red dwarfs outside our solar system.
On The Record presenter Graeme Watson is joined in the studio with Dr Benjamin Pope, who is a lecturer in Astrophysics at The University of Queensland, who has been working alongside the Dutch National Observatory ASTRON, searching for new planets and red dwarf stars specifically.
Together they sit down to discuss how to listen out for radio waves in space, how the new discoveries were made using the Low Frequency Array, including how future astrology technology in the form of the South Africa and Australian Square Kilometre Array, will allow researchers to to scan further into space.
