LOFAR observation of beautiful galaxy, M87

I just posted the below over on the LOFAR-UK blog, but is also fits into my series of Messier Object posts - this one M87, which has a beauty in the eye of the beholder perhaps as a "boring" elliptical, but check out that jet from it's actively accreting supermassive black hole. Amazing!

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A paper appears on the arxiv today with new images of the centre of nearby elliptical galaxy M87, taken with the Dutch LOFAR stations.

M87 at Metre Wavelenghts: the LOFAR Picture, by de Gasperin et al. (A&A in press).

M87 (also known at Virgo-A) is one of the two massive elliptical galaxies found at the centre of our nearest cluster of galaxies (the Virgo cluster).

In the centre of M87 is a well know actively accreting supermassive black hole, which is emitting jets of energetic particles which emit significant amounts of radio. These jets are even (just) visible in optical images of M87 (the blue line below).

Optical image of M87 taken with Hubble Space Telescope. Scale 3x3 arcmins.  More details. 

M87 has often been a poster child for radio astronomy images. These images of the jet taken by the NRAO's VLA can be seen in many talks about radio galaxies and AGN.

M87 imaged at 90cm (300 Mhz) with the VLA. Scale 15x15 arcmin. More details. 

And especially this series of images zooming into the central regions.

For more details see the APOD entry for this image. 

The paper on the arxiv today used observations of M87 with both the HBA and LBA arrays of LOFAR. The Dutch stations only were used in this observation - adding in international stations like Chilbolton will be able to increase the resolution even further, and I will look forward to seeing that in the future.

I have extracted two of the images from the paper. This first was taken with the HBA at 140 MHz (2.1 m) and shows an area 15x15 arcmin in size (same as the VLA image above, but at wavelengths more than twice as large).

And this shows one of the many LBA images made - this one at 25 Mhz (12m) of a slightly larger sky area (21x21 arcmin). 

These new observations at lower frequencies than ever before allow scientists to better constrain the spectral shape of the radio emission from the jets, which in turn can be used to constrain the details of how the supermassive black hole in the centre of M87 is able to power these extremely extended emission regions.

Women in STEM at Portsmouth

I'm part of the University of Portsmouth Athena SWAN committee. We're working to submit for a Bronze Award in November to this organization which "recognises and celebrates good employment practice for women working in science, engineering and technology (SET) in higher education and research. "


One idea we had to get started was a blog promoting the many women working in STEM fields at our university. So I now have another blog to run! ;) 


Here's the first post - pointing out a poster which exists profiling some of the young women researcher in science and enginneering at Portsmouth.

Including our very own Heather Campbell from the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, pictured helping to install the low band antennas of the LOFAR station in Chilbolton.

LOFAR-UK Repair Day

On Wednesday this week I got to go help repair the storm damage to the LOFAR-UK station in Chilbolton. I blogged about this for LOFAR-UK: LOFAR-UK Repair Day a Big Success.

Talking about LOFAR on the Astronomy Now YouTube Channel

At NAM in Llandudno I talked with Nick Howes from Astronomy Now about the LOFAR project. The video was posted on the Astronomy Now YouTube Channel this week.

Interview on the Jodcast

I'm interviewed on the May 2011 Extra edition of the Jodcast. I talk both about the LOFAR project and Galaxy Zoo. Enjoy. :)

LOFAR-UK blog about it.
Galaxy Zoo blog about it.

(this post makes me think I have too many blogs, and talked to too many people at NAM! Still one more NAM interview about LOFAR to come out!).

Talking about LOFAR with the Naked Scientists

I discussed LOFAR and LOFAR-UK with Andrew Pontzen on the special National Astronomy Meeting edition of the Astronomy podcast for the Naked Scientists.

MP3 of just my LOFAR segment.

Link to the whole podcast (including a transcript).

LOFAR - the Largest Telescope in the World....?

My favourite post over at the LOFAR-UK blog is the one I wrote earlier this month in response to the press about the first light image including our Chilbolton station.

LOFAR-the Largest Telescope in the World?

In the press for that LOFAR was described as the largest telescope in the world, but there has been a lot of critique of that claim. In the post I explain why LOFAR can claim that title, at least for the time being.

Also I love this picture of the LOFAR super-terp in the Netherlands. This shows several of the core stations of LOFAR.

The LOFAR Superterp (part of the core) in the Netherlands. Credit: ASTRON