Northern Ireland experts behind new GOTO telescope to detect violent cosmic events like neutron stars and black holes

Armagh is one of ten international partners who built the telescope – known as a Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) – which monitors the disturbances associated with phenomenons like neutron stars and black holes.

Arrays of the telescopes will be set up in the Canary Islands and Australia to map the skies for gravitational waves, indicative of violent ripples in spacetime.

GOTO began when the UK’s University of Warwick and Australia’s Monash University wanted to address the gap between gravitational wave detectors and electromagnetic signals.

The project has received £3.2 million of funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).

Dr Gavin Ramsay, who leads Armagh’s involvement, said: “It has taken many years to get to this point, so it’s a mixture of excitement and trepidation as we move into the next phase of the project.

“We expect both sites to be ready early next year.

“We are very much looking forward to getting onto the site in Australia to build and commission the systems there. Being active partners in international projects such as GOTO is very much part of the heritage and fabric of Armagh which goes back to the 1950’s when the Armagh-Dunsink-Harvard telescope was built in South Africa.”