Telescopes

ASTRON is responsible for the operations of the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) and the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR).

Astronomy

The astronomical research at ASTRON is closely aligned with the strengths of our facilities LOFAR and WSRT-APERTIF.

Research and Innovation


Radio astronomy delivers important breakthrough technology for our society.

News & Events


Read all our latest news here.

Making discoveries
in radio astronomy
happen.

ASTRON is the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, and is part of the Institutes organisation of NWO.
STORIES
Simultaneous optical and radio observations of Perseids

From today (August 11th) up until Friday the yearly Perseids meteor shower will have its peak. This phenomenon is not only interesting for amateur astronomers, professional astronomers will be observing them as well.

Humans of ASTRON: Jorrit Siebenga

In Humans of ASTRON we share stories about the people at ASTRON. Who are the people behind the discoveries and innovations and also, who are the people that make sure that everything runs smoothly? In this second part of the series, we’ll be sharing the story of Jorrit Siebenga, who joined ASTRON in 2017 as research instrument maker.

Women Astronomers Day

Throughout the history of astronomy, women have played essential roles towards astronomical breakthroughs. In this article we highlight but a few of these women identified in history from 1600 to the modern era.

Humans of ASTRON: Emanuela Orrù

In Humans of ASTRON we share stories about the people at ASTRON. Who are the people behind the discoveries and innovations and also, who are the people that make sure that everything runs smoothly? In this second part of the series, we’ll be sharing the story of Emanuela Orrù, support scientist at ASTRON since 2012.

What we look forward to in LOFAR 2.0: Live warning system to study solar eruptions
What we look forward to in LOFAR 2.0: Habitability of alien worlds
What we look forward to in LOFAR 2.0: Cranking up LOFAR’s robustness
What we look forward to in LOFAR 2.0: LOFAR expands to Italy
Nearest fast radio burst source is regularly active
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DAILY IMAGE
The Crab Nebula with the LOFAR Long Baselines

© Maria Arias

The Crab Nebula as seen with the High Band Antennas of the International LOFAR Telescope. This map has a central frequency of 145 MHz, an angular resolution of 0.43′′ × 0.28′′, an rms noise of 260 μJy/bm−1, and a dynamic range of 61,000; the area displayed here has a size of 8′ ×8′. Reference: Arias et al, 2025. ArXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.19460
EVENTS
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