Students Oian MacMichael (left) and Luis Alberto Canizares walk through the I-LOFAR in the grounds of Birr Castle in Co Offaly. Photograph: Niall Carson\/PA Wire <\/p>\n
Birr Castles status as a world-class place for astronomy research has been restored with the opening of the Irish Low Frequency Array Radio Telescope (I-LOFAR) on Wednesday. <\/p>\n
The 2 million I-LOFAR is part of a much bigger network of radio telescopes spread from Ireland to Poland and connected by a high speed network to a centre in the Dutch city of Groningen. <\/p>\n
I-LOFAR was funded with a 1.4 million grant from Science Foundation Ireland (SFI). The rest came from donations from business people including Denis OBrien and Dermot Desmond as well as local schoolchildren who raised 700. <\/p>\n
The castles original telescope had a diameter of six foot (1.8 metres). From 1845 to 1917, the telescope, known as the Leviathan of Parsonstown, was the biggest ever built. <\/p>\n
The LOFAR array across Europe has the equivalent of a diameter of 2,000 kilometres, making it over a million times more powerful than the original Leviathan. <\/p>\n
It means we can make very precise measurements of very faint objects, explained Prof Peter Gallagher of Trinity College Dublin (TCD), head of the I-LOFAR collaboration. <\/p>\n
The research will be able to detect exoplanets, planets around other stars, with strong magnetic fields like Earth which make them places that could harbour life. <\/p>\n
To date 3,500 have been discovered including many which potentially could have the conditions suitable for life as it is on Earth. <\/p>\n
I-LOFAR can also pick up signals from extraterrestrial intelligence if any such intelligence exists elsewhere in the universe. <\/p>\n
It will also be used to monitor solar flares and the early light from the universe. <\/p>\n
It is humbling to realise that 170 years later we have brought one of the biggest telescopes in the world back to Birr, Prof Gallagher said. <\/p>\n
I think our heritage in astronomy is as important to us as the Book of Kells or W.B Yeats. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
See more here: <\/p>\n
After a century, world-class astronomy returns to Birr Castle - Irish Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Students Oian MacMichael (left) and Luis Alberto Canizares walk through the I-LOFAR in the grounds of Birr Castle in Co Offaly. Photograph: Niall Carson\/PA Wire Birr Castles status as a world-class place for astronomy research has been restored with the opening of the Irish Low Frequency Array Radio Telescope (I-LOFAR) on Wednesday. Continue reading