Astronomical detectors as a research area focuses on the development, characterization, and optimization of sensor technologies used to register electromagnetic or particle signals from astronomical sources with high sensitivity, dynamic range, and temporal and spatial resolution. It encompasses work on charge-coupled devices (CCDs), complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) imagers, infrared arrays, superconducting devices such as transition-edge sensors and kinetic inductance detectors, as well as photon-counting and polarimetric detectors. Research addresses quantum efficiency, noise sources, readout architectures, calibration strategies, radiation hardness, and cryogenic operation, enabling precise photometry, spectroscopy, astrometry, and time-domain observations across multiple wavelength regimes.
An international team led by astronomers at Leiden University has shown in laboratory experiments that sulfur can bind with ammonium under icy cosmic conditions and form a salt that sticks to dust and pebbles. The resulting ...
Astronomy
Jan 16, 2025
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Researchers led by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed a breakthrough technique that could lay the foundations for detecting the universe's "dark matter" and bring scientists closer ...
Astronomy
Jan 9, 2025
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Prof Zhang Zhiyong's team at Peking University developed a heterojunction-gated field-effect transistor (HGFET) that achieves high sensitivity in short-wave infrared detection, with a recorded specific detectivity above 1014 ...
Optics & Photonics
Jan 2, 2025
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60
X-rays are radiated by matter hotter than one million Kelvin, and high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy can tell us about the composition of the matter and how fast and in what direction it is moving. Quantum calorimeters are ...
Quantum Physics
Dec 17, 2024
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Researchers have shown that optical spring tracking is a promising way to improve the signal clarity of gravitational-wave detectors. The advance could one day allow scientists to see farther into the universe and provide ...
Astronomy
Dec 4, 2024
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On a mountain in northern Chile, scientists are carefully assembling the intricate components of the NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory, one of the most advanced astronomical facilities in history. Equipped with an innovative ...
Astronomy
Nov 1, 2024
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138
EIRSAT-1, the student-built satellite from University College Dublin (UCD) that was launched into space last December, detected two separate gamma-ray bursts on 21 August. One of the gamma-ray bursts has been confirmed by ...
Astronomy
Oct 16, 2024
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136
A team of researchers at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO), in the U.S., has developed what they describe as a squeezed light system to improve detection sensitivity.
A WashU team launched the Dilution Refrigerator Transition Edge Sensor (DR-TES) mission on Sept. 24 from NASA's scientific balloon facility in Fort Sumner, N.M. The mission is testing a sophisticated cooling system and a ...
General Physics
Sep 26, 2024
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54
The detection of gravitational waves stands as one of the most significant achievements in modern physics. In 2017, gravitational waves from the merger of a binary neutron star were detected for the first time which uncovered ...
General Physics
Apr 5, 2024
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