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A partially processed view of Tycho Crater at a resolution of about five meters by five meters and containing about 1.4 billion pixels, captured during a radar project by the Green Bank Observatory, the National Radio Astronomical Observatory and Raytheon Intelligence & Space using Green Bank Telescope and Antennas at The base array is too long. Covering an area of 200 kilometers by 175 kilometers, this image is large enough to contain the Taiko crater, which measures 86 kilometers in diameter. Credit: NRAO / GBO / Raytheon / NSF / AUI
The National Science Foundation (GBO) Green Bank Observatory, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) and Raytheon Intelligence & Space (RI&S) have released a new high-resolution image of the moon, the highest image taken from Earth at using a new radar. On the Green Bank Telescope (GBT).
The resolution of the new Tycho Crater image is close to five meters by five meters and contains around 1.4 billion pixels. The image covers an area of 200 km by 175 km, ensuring that the scientists and engineers involved have captured the entire crater, which is 86 km in diameter. “This is the largest synthetic aperture radar image we have produced to date with the help of our partners at Raytheon,” said Dr Tony Beasley, director of the National Radio Astronomical Observatory and vice-president. Head of Radio Astronomy at Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI). “While there is still work to be done to improve these images, we are delighted to share this wonderful image with the public and look forward to sharing more images from this project in the near future. “
GBT, the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope, will be equipped at the end of 2020 with new technology developed by Raytheon Intelligence & Space and GBO, which enables it to transmit a radar signal into space. Using GBTs and antennas from the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA), several tests have since been carried out, focusing on the lunar surface, including Tycho Crater and Nasa Apollo landing sites.
Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, United States. Credit: GBO / AUI / NSF
How is this low power radar signal translated into images that we can see? “This is done through a process called synthetic aperture radar, or SAR,” explained GBO engineer Galen Watts. “As each pulse is sent out by the GBT, it is reflected back to the target, the surface of the Moon in this case, and received and stored. The stored pulses are compared to each other and analyzed to produce an image. The emitter, target, and receiver are all in constant motion as we move through space. While you might think that this can make producing an image more difficult, it actually produces more important data. “
This movement causes slight differences from one radar pulse to another. These differences are examined and used to calculate higher image resolution than is possible with static observations, as well as increased accuracy in distance to target, how fast the target is approaching or moving away. away, and how the target moves in the field of view. “Radar data like this has never been recorded before at this distance or with this precision,” Watts said. “This has already been done at distances of a few hundred kilometers, but not at the hundreds of thousands of kilometers scale of this project, and not at a high resolution of about a meter at these distances. It all takes a lot of computing hours. Ten years ago, it would have taken months of computation to get an image of a receiver, and maybe a year or more for several.
These promising first results garnered support from the scientific community for the project, and at the end of September, the collaboration received $ 4.5 million in funding from the National Science Foundation to design ways to scale up the project. Medium Scale Research Infrastructure Design-1 (AST-2131866). “After these designs, if we can attract full financial support, we will be able to build a system hundreds of times more powerful than the current system and use it to explore the solar system,” Beasley said. “Such a new system would open a window to the universe, allowing us to see neighboring planets and celestial bodies in a whole new way.”
West Virginia has a long history of colonies which have greatly expanded our scientific knowledge of the universe. “New images and details of the Tycho crater on the moon using radar technology from the Green Bank Telescope show an incredible scientific breakthrough underway here in West Virginia,” said West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin III. For more than two decades, GBT has helped researchers explore and better understand the universe. With my seat on the Trade, Justice and Science credit subcommittee, I strongly supported these technological advances in GBT, which will now allow GBT to transmit radar signals in space and to fulfill its essential role in research. astronomical for years to come. I look forward to seeing more stunning images and future discoveries of our solar system, and will continue to work with the National Science Foundation to advocate for funding to support projects at the Green Bank Observatory.
This technology has been used for years, as part of a research and development collaboration agreement between NRAO, GBO and RI&S. The high-power radar system of the future, combined with GBT sky coverage, will allow objects in the solar system to be imaged with unprecedented detail and sensitivity. Expect more exciting images this fall, as processing that early data with tens of billions of pixels of information is worth the wait.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Green Bank Observatory are facilities of the National Science Foundation and are operated under a cooperative agreement with Associated Universities, Inc.
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