![]() ![]() The slightly varied arrival times of the quasar’s radiation at each station allow seven dedicated supercomputers, located across the globe, to analyze the differences with precise time-stamps from atomic clocks. The IVS focuses on observing these distant sources of radiation, which appear as stationary points, offering excellent reference points for orientation purposes.įor optimal performance, the IVS requires at least three different dishes to simultaneously observe each quasar. The radio waves emitted by these ancient quasars are only just reaching us now. Although they burned out before the Earth formed, they once shone 1,000 times brighter than an entire galaxy filled with stars. Quasars remain visible long after their creation, second only to the Big Bang itself. These events generated immense heat, light, shock waves, and high winds that often dispersed gas clouds, ending star formation within the galaxy’s boundaries. ![]() Unlike a gentle amalgamation of materials, infalling matter into a black hole caused chaotic and violent interactions, igniting the accretion disc into a quasar. Most quasars originated about 10 billion years ago during the violent early stages of the universe when galaxies were denser and black holes more active. If ancient Greeks were aware of quasars, these objects would have likely replaced thunderbolts as Zeus’ favored weapon. Quasars are incredibly bright celestial objects resulting from a galaxy’s central black hole absorbing vast amounts of matter. While these observatories serve multiple scientific goals, the IVS utilizes a portion of their observing time to continuously track quasars in different regions of the deep sky. The term “VLBI” stands for “very-long-baseline interferometry.” By observing distant celestial objects, this network of telescopes provides us with a real-time map of Earth’s position in our galaxy and a rough understanding of the Milky Way’s movement among billions of other galaxies. Using a complex fiber network, these observatories collectively form the International VLBI Service for Geodesy and Astrometry (IVS). Even further south, in Antarctica, sits the network’s southernmost dish at Syowa Station. I had the opportunity to visit one of Australia’s five dishes in a vast landscape of gold-and-green canola fields, 200 miles west of Sydney. Russia, Italy, and China also have their own observatories. These radio dishes are scattered across the globe, from the northernmost location in Svalbard, Norway, nestled in an ice field with staff carrying rifles for protection against polar bears, to Japanese archipelago with six observatories, and the United States with various dishes including one in Hawaii. ![]() Our most remarkable endeavor is a global collaboration spanning decades, involving over 30 radio observatories working together to position our planet within the mind-boggling expanse of space. These feats of orientation are impressive, but pale in comparison to what humans have accomplished. Birds, for instance, developed an inner sense of the Earth, enabling them to migrate across entire hemispheres. From its lineage, animals emerged with the ability to navigate across vast oceans and continents. Earth’s earliest cell had a limited sense of its immediate surroundings, but it reproduced successfully. ![]() As living beings, we all have the innate need to understand our location and direction in the world. ![]()
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