Name: Astronomy Lecture - Building the World’s Most Powerful Radio Telescope
Start: 2025-11-07T20:00:00-08:00
Location: 1216 E California Blvd, Pasadena, CA, United States, California 91125

$Astronomy Lecture - Building the World\u2019s Most Powerful Radio Telescope$

What does the sky look like in radio light? What will we learn about stars, galaxies, and black holes using the DSA-2000, a revolutionary new radio telescope being built in the remote Nevada desert? Join us for a 30-minute lecture about radio astronomy followed by a panel Q&A consisting of several astrophysicists to answer your questions about astronomy and space science.
This public astronomy event will be hosted both in-person as well as live-streamed over YouTube Live. The lecture will be 30 minutes, followed by a 90-minute session of telescope-aided stargazing and a Q&A Panel consisting of experts in the department on a variety of astronomy and astrophysical topics. You can attend in person or interact with us through the YouTube interface. Event is free and open to all, no reservations necessary.
For more information including a link to the YouTube Livestream and directions to Caltech, click on the poster image or visit our webpage: http://outreach.astro.caltech.edu
Title: Building the World’s Most Powerful Radio Telescope
Lecturer: Gregg Hallinan
Abstract:
Caltech is developing the world's most powerful radio telescope, the Deep Synoptic Array (DSA). Construction will begin in 2026 in a remote radio-quiet valley in Nevada. 1,650 dishes, each 20-ft (6.15m) in diameter will be deployed across a 12.5 x 10 mile area. Signals will be transmitted via underground fiber-optic cables and combined in a central supercomputer, or “radio camera,” that will process data at a rate of 200 Tb/s, comparable to the total internet traffic in the United States. This unprecedented capability will produce a movie of the changing sky as seen through radio waves. It will enable the detection of one billion new radio sources, a hundred times more than all previous radio telescopes combined. The DSA-2000 is expected to drive discoveries across radio astronomy, including identifying exotic neutron stars, mapping the cosmic web, tracking the formation and evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes over cosmic time, and detecting the stretching and squeezing of the very fabric of the Universe.