Special Seminar

The Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) is a pan-European radio telescope whose massive data-taking and processing capabilities make it an unprecedented, powerful instrument for carrying out the deepest and widest radio surveys at the lowest radio frequencies accessible from the ground. Over the last few years, we have addressed important issues related to the analysis and calibration of the radio data so that we can now make thermal noise-limited maps at low frequencies. Together with the superb imaging from the Euclid space telescope, the resulting maps enable studies of a wide range of scientific topics ranging from (i) shocks in merging clusters, (ii) radio feedback processes, (iii) star formation in distant galaxies and (iv) the most distant radio AGN, close to the epoch of reionisation. In this talk, I will first discuss solutions to the main technical challenges. Secondly, scientific highlights related to these four topics will be given.