The historic Goonhilly satellite station in Cornwall is to be given a new lease of life. Money from the government's regional growth fund will transform the former BT satellite station into a space and communication centre. GES, the company which leases Goonhilly near Helston from BT, wants to upgrade the existing antennas and reopen the visitor centre. Read more
Title: Goonhilly Sparklers Authors: Aris Karastergiou, Mark Walker
Flux monitoring of compact radio quasars has revealed dramatic radio-wave lensing events which challenge our understanding of the interstellar medium. However, the data on these events remain very sparse. Here we consider how the Goonhilly radio astronomical facility can make an impact on this problem by dedicating one or more dishes to flux monitoring for a period of one year. Such an experiment would be able to identify ~6 new events and study them in detail.
Part of the telecommunications site at Goonhilly Downs in Cornwall is to be sold to create a space science centre. The deal includes upgrading satellite dishes for "deep space communication with spacecraft missions". A link with the University of Oxford will mean new radio astronomy work on the origins of the universe. Ian Jones, who heads the new company, Goonhilly Earth Station Limited, said their aim was to support "missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond". Read more
An internet cafe offering connections 50 times faster than typical broadband services has opened in Cornwall. Computers at Goonhilly satellite station, on the Lizard peninsula in Cornwall, are connected to BT's global internet protocol network. That means users can download data at speeds of up to 100 megabits per second (Mbps). It is thought to be the first time such high speeds have been seen at a UK internet cafe.