Nederlandse versie                                                             Copyright: Topfoto Assen

Her Majesty the Queen will open the largest radio telescope in the world, LOFAR, on Saturday afternoon 12 June 2010 in Borger-Odoorn (Drenthe). The new LOFAR telescope has been built according to a completely new concept. No large dishes are used, but large numbers of small antennas.

7,000 antennas are spread over 44 fields in the North of the Netherlands and from Sweden to France and from the UK to the East of Germany. Glass fibres connect the antennas with a supercomputer at the University of Groningen's Computer Centre. In this way, a giant telescope is formed with a diameter of one hundred to one thousand kilometres.

The telescope researches, among other things, the earliest Universe, cosmic particles and magnetism in the Milky Way and other galaxies. LOFAR is also used for research in the area of geophysics, precision agriculture and ICT. While the antennas observe the sky, underground sensors collect date about the structure of the Earth. These data contribute to better models for the Earth, water management and gas exploitation.