Radio Astronomy and Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex with Cristina García MIró. Prog. 168 LFDLC (English)

Activity Science & Technology Week with students from the British College of Gava ENTREVISTA A CRISTINA GARCÍA MIRÓ RESPONSABLE DEL DEPARTAMENTO DE RADIOASTRONOMÍA DEL MDSCC CV (Español). Estudié Ciencias Físicas en la Universidad Complutense de Madrid y me especialicé en Astrofísica. Realicé los cursos de doctorado en la misma universidad obteniendo el grado de Suficiencia Investigadora y posteriormente el DEA (Diploma de Estudios Avanzados) por la Facultad de Ciencias de la Universidad de Granada. Comencé mi carrera científica en el LAEFF (Laboratorio de Astrofísica Espacial y Física Fundamental del INTA). Los primeros años trabajé como controladora y operadora de telescopio del satélite Internacional Ultraviolet Explorer en el European Space Astronomy Centre - ESAC (antes VILSPA, la estación de seguimiento de satélites en Villafranca del Castillo de la Agencia Espacial Europea). Posteriormente disfruté de una beca Calvo-Rodés del INTA para la realización de la tesis doctoral. Durante este periodo apoyé y participé en las observaciones radioastronómicas lideradas por investigadores españoles que se realizaban en la estación de seguimiento de satélites de la NASA en Robledo de Chavela junto con mi supervisor el Dr. Antxon Alberdi. Tras un periodo de estancia en el Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA) del Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas comencé a trabajar en el año 2000 en la estación de la NASA en Robledo como Ingeniero de Radioastronomía. Desde entonces soy responsable del soporte a todas las actividades de radioastronomía que realizamos, tanto proyectos de investigación españoles como internacionales. Nuestras antenas están consideradas entre los mejores radiotelescopios del mundo con gran presión internacional para su uso con fines científicos en el área de la Radioastronomía. Recientemente he sido ponente del curso de verano “Introducción a la Radioastronomía” organizado por la Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA) y participo en un programa de investigación para el estudio de micro descargas eléctricas que ocurren en tormentas de polvo convectivas en la atmósfera de Marte. Responsable del departamento de Radioastronomía del Complejo de Comunicaciones Espaciales de NASA en Robledo de Chavela -MDSCC (Madrid Deep Space Comunications Complex). Colaboradora en los proyectos PARTNeR (NASA) y CESAR (ESA/INTA/ISDEFE) de radioastronomía y astronomía didácticas y de divulgación. Colaboradora en proyectos de investigación de la Red del Espacio Profundo de NASA (DSN) y del Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Participa en programas de investigación del INTA-ISDEFE. Ha recibido dos premios de la NASA por distintos logros realizados en grupo. ####################################### CV (English). Cristina García Miró received her Bachelor of Science in Physics from the Complutense University of Madrid (1994) and her Master of Science in Astrophysics from the same university (1997) and the Granada University (2003). She started her scientific career at the Laboratory of Space Astrophysics and Fundamental Physics of the Spanish Aerospace Institute (INTA) supporting the Host Country Radio Astronomy activities at the NASA’s Madrid Deep Space Communications Complex. She also worked as a spacecraft controller and telescope operator of the International Ultraviolet Explorer satellite (NASA/ESA). After a research stay at the Astrophysics Institute of Andalucía (IAA) of the Spanish Council for Scientific Research she started working in the NASA’s Madrid Deep Space Complex as Radio Astronomy Engineer (2000-date). She is currently responsible for all the Radio Astronomy activities in the complex and collaborates in the astronomical educational projects PARTNeR (NASA) and CESAR (ESA/INTA/ISDEFE). She also participates in several research programs (INTA/ISDEFE) and has published scientific results in well-known research journals. She has received two NASA group achievement awards. Figure 1. Cristina García Miró in front of the DSS-63 antenna of 70m of diameter in Madrid. 1. What is the NASA’s Deep Space Network? The Deep Space Network or DSN is the largest and most sensitive network of antennas (Fig. 2) used to track probes and spacecrafts that are exploring the Solar System and beyond. It is comprised of three complexes (Fig. 3) situated in California (USA), Canberra (Australia) and Madrid (Spain). Their locations were chosen in geographical longitude so the spacecrafts are always in view as the Earth rotates (Fig. 4). The size of the antennas is huge to be able to talk with probes that are very far away as the Voyagers, currently the most distant objects ever made by man (Fig. 5 and 6). Figure 2. NASA’s Deep Space Network, Madrid complex view. Figure 3. NASA’s Deep Space Network in the world Figure 4. NASA’s Deep Space Network distribution in geographical longitude Figure 5. Size of DSN antennas: 70m antenna inside of the Rose Bowl american football stadium. Figure 6. Voyagers crossing the heliopause, or the border of the Solar System, at a distance of 100 astronomical units. One astronomical unit is the distance between the Sun and the Earth that is equal to about 150 million kilometers. 2. What is Radio Astronomy? Radio Astronomy is the part of Astronomy that studies the astronomical bodies in radio wavelengths. Radio wavelengths is a type of light that is invisible to our eyes, like the ultraviolet or the X-rays, and that can be detected with the antennas. Any type of light can be represented like a wave of different size (Fig. 7). The size of radio waves ranges between the size of mountains and buildings to the size of butterflies (cm). The size of the visible light is as small as the protozoans. Radio Astronomy is important because thanks to the observations in radio wavelengths astronomers have discovered properties of the celestial bodies never seen before. For example there is a type of galaxies called active galaxies that are very bright in radio. Thanks to radio observations with the antennas the astronomers think that in the middle of these galaxies must lie a super massive black hole, containing millions of suns in a very small size. Fig. 8 shows the active galaxy Centaurus A in both visible light (left) and radio (right). The image in optical shows a normal elliptical galaxy but in radio it has 2 bright jets, the size of the whole galaxy, form by very fast particles like electrons that are thought to be accelerated and ejected by a supermassive black hole. Figure 7. Types of light: the electromagnetic spectrum. Figure 8. Centaurus A in visible light (left) and with radio emission (right). It is thought to have 55 million solar masses in a small area of several tens of millions of kilometers in radius, approximately the distance from Mercury to the Sun. 3. Why we do Radio Astronomy with the DSN? The antennas of the DSN are excellent radio telescopes, not only because of their large size but also for its state-of-the-art refrigerated receivers. These characteristics made the DSN antennas to be very sensitive and provide better detail (resolution) in the images. Radio Astronomy observations are performed with the DSN antennas whenever they are not supporting spacecraft projects. The DSN antennas are Cassegrain type antennas with a paraboloid primary reflector and a hyperboloid secondary reflector (Fig.9). A Cassegrain antenna works like an optical Cassegrain reflector telescope but instead of registering many points of the focal plane it registers only one point or pixel (Fig. 10). Figure 9. DSN Cassegrain antenna as a radio telescope (left), comparing with a reflector optical telescope of the same type (right). Figure 10. Image from a radio telescope (just one pixel, left) comparing with an image of an optical telescope with more or less pixels depending on the CCD camera (center and right). 4. How do we observe with the radio telescopes? 5. What processes produce the emission that we receive in radio astronomy? 6. What radio astronomy projects are supported by the DSN? 7. What is your job in the DSN?