The Ukrainian T-shaped Radio telescope, second modification (official abbreviation UTR-2) is the world's largest low-frequency
radio telescope
A radio telescope is a specialized antenna (radio), antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the r ...
at
decametre wavelengths. It was completed in 1972 near the village of Hrakovo (), 15 km west-south-west from
Shevchenkove, Ukraine. The telescope is operated by the Institute of Radio Astronomy of the
Ukrainian Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (NASU; , ; ''NAN Ukrainy'') is a self-governing state-funded organization in Ukraine that is the main center of development of Science and technology in Ukraine, science and technology by coordinatin ...
.
The UTR-2 consists of an array of 2040 dipole elements in two arms each containing 6 rows of elements, oriented in a T shape: a north–south arm consisting of 1440 elements covering an area of 1800×60 meters, and an east–west arm consisting of 600 elements covering an area of 900×60 meters. The basic element is a broadband
cage dipole 1.8 m in diameter and 8 m long made of galvanized steel wire, mounted 3.5 m above the ground, with a
balun
A balun (from "balanced to unbalanced", originally, but now derived from "balancing unit") is an electrical device that allows balanced and unbalanced lines to be interfaced without disturbing the impedance arrangement of either line. A ba ...
to connect it to the transmission line. The dipoles are all oriented along the east–west axis, with the spacing between rows of 7.5 m in east–west direction and 9 m in north–south. It has a total area of , and a resolution of about 40 arcminutes at the middle frequency 16.7 MHz. The operating frequency range is 8–33 MHz. The sensitivity is about 10
mJy.
Steering of the antenna main lobe is accomplished with phase shifters consisting of switchable delay lines.
The telescope is a part of the
URAN
Uran is a coastal town in Raigad District's Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra state in Konkan division. It lies to the east of Mumbai across the Dharamtar Creek. Uran is primarily a fishing and agriculture village, which has developed into the spec ...
(Ukrainian Radio Interferometer of NASU) decametric
VLBI
Very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) is a type of astronomical interferometry used in radio astronomy. In VLBI a signal from an astronomical radio source, such as a quasar, is collected at multiple radio telescopes on Earth or in space. T ...
system, which includes another four significantly smaller low-frequency radio telescopes. That system has bases from .
The telescope was seriously damaged during
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine
On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...
, the observatory's measuring complex and scientific equipment (but not the antennas) were completely destroyed.
The UTR-2 and GURT observatories repair will cost an estimated $4 million US (of which $150,000 has been secured from Ukraine's National Academy of Sciences (NAS)). This reflects the critical reliance on foreign funds and international collaboration for both scientific endeavors and education. Despite these challenges, foreign scientists remain optimistic about the observatory's future.
See also
*
List of radio telescopes
This is a list of radio telescopes – over one hundred – that are or have been used for radio astronomy. The list includes both single dishes and interferometric arrays. The list is sorted by region, then by name; unnamed telescopes are in ...
References
External links
* Institute of Radio Astronomy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukrain
* Braude, S. Ia.; Megn, A. V.; Riabov, B. P.; Sharykin, N. K.; Zhuk, I. N.
Decametric survey of discrete sources in the Northern sky. I - The UTR-2 radio telescope: Experimental techniques and data processing ''Astrophys. and Space Sci., 54'', 3–36, 1978
* A. Konovalenko, L. Sodin, V. Zakharenko, P. Zarka, O. Ulyanov, M. Sidorchuk, S. Stepkin, P. Tokarsky et al
The modern radio astronomy network in Ukraine: UTR-2, URAN and GURT Experimental Astronomy, Vol. 42, Is. 1, pp 11–48.
{{Radio astronomy
Radio telescopes
Interferometric telescopes
Astronomical observatories built in the Soviet Union