Artikel: Effective, and impressive, radio astronomy in Malaysia, by Sascha Trippe

Effective, and impressive, radio astronomy in Malaysia

 Due to its geographic location, Malaysia is an interesting site for radio observations, and especially VLBI: a VLBI station in Malaysia would improve the uv-plane coverage of radio arrays in the Asia-Pacific area substantially. Obviously, the tropical weather imposes serious constraints, in two ways: absorption by water vapor, and rain attenuation.

 However: At frequencies less than about 10 GHz, the atmosphere is almost perfectly transparent regardless of water vapor content. In addition, at those frequencies rain attenuation becomes more or less negligible. So which science can we do there?

 A lot, actually. Continuum observations in the frequency range 1–10 GHz have provided us with loads of information on non-thermal sources of radiation, like the jets and radio cores of AGN. Mapping the 1.4-GHz radiation of atomic hydrogen traces the large-scale distribution of interstellar matter. Observations of 6.7-GHz methanol maser lines probe the physics of the interstellar medium around young stars.

 A Malaysian radio telescope observing at low frequencies would be highly productive most of the time – especially so if also used as a test bed for technologies: continuous frequency coverage 1–10 GHz, full polarization capabilities, low-noise receivers etc. would make the telescope – and Malaysian radio astronomy – stand out globally.

Sascha Trippe, Seoul National University.
Telegram: https://t.me/prof_sascha_trippe/128