Scientists registered “first light” signals with locally assembled Band-1 receivers at the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile on Aug. 14, demonstrating that Taiwan’s antenna technology is on par with that of Europe, the US and Japan, Academia Sinica’s Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics said.
“First light” describes the first signal that passes through the entirety of a radio telescope, from the antenna to a computer screen.
The ALMA is on the Chajnantor plateau in the Atacama Desert, and its 66 radio telescopes allow it to “see” a wide range of light wavelengths, the institute said.
Photo courtesy of Academia Sinica’s Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics and National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology’s Aeronautical Systems Research Division
The array was previously equipped with eight receivers, covering frequencies from 84 gigahertz (GHz) to 950 GHz, it said.
The institute said that the Band-1 receivers are capable of ultrawide frequency reception — 35GHz to 50GHz — and are considered one of the most sensitive antennas in the world.
Ninety-nine percent of the receivers were built and assembled in Taiwan, it added.
In a first test on Aug. 14, astronomers conducted observations of the edge of the moon, followed by a first successful interferometry test using two Band-1 receivers on Aug. 17 and the acquisition of the first radio spectrum on Aug. 27, it said.
The Band-1 receivers are the lowest-frequency receivers used on the telescopes and should be able to better observe red-shifted celestial bodies that are more distant, it said.
Academia Sinica assistant researcher Yen Shih-wei (顏士韋) said the Band-1 receivers would allow scientists to observe regions of star formation, and examine how dust particles as small as 1cm accrete, grow and eventually form planets.
The remainder of the 66 receivers, to be fitted on each radio of the array’s telescopes, along with seven spare units, are expected at the site by the end of next year, the institute said.
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
US President Donald Trump said "it’s up to" Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be "very unhappy" with a change in the "status quo," the New York Times said in an interview published yesterday. Xi "considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing," Trump told the newspaper on Wednesday. "But I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that," he added. "I hope he doesn’t do that." Trump made the comments in
Tourism in Kenting fell to a historic low for the second consecutive year last year, impacting hotels and other local businesses that rely on a steady stream of domestic tourists, the latest data showed. A total of 2.139 million tourists visited Kenting last year, down slightly from 2.14 million in 2024, the data showed. The number of tourists who visited the national park on the Hengchun Peninsula peaked in 2015 at 8.37 million people. That number has been below 2.2 million for two years, although there was a spike in October last year due to multiple long weekends. The occupancy rate for hotels
A cold surge advisory was today issued for 18 cities and counties across Taiwan, with temperatures of below 10°C forecast during the day and into tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. New Taipei City, Taipei, Taoyuan and Hsinchu, Miaoli and Yilan counties are expected to experience sustained temperatures of 10°C or lower, the CWA said. Temperatures are likely to temporarily drop below 10°C in most other areas, except Taitung, Pingtung, Penghu and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, CWA data showed. The cold weather is being caused by a strong continental cold air mass, combined with radiative cooling, a process in which heat escapes from
RSS