ARTICLES
Stimulus Material for depth studies, courtesy of Macquarie University (continued)
Fibre-optical telecommunications helping scientists peer into
deep space
Researchers have demonstrated that a stable frequency reference can be reliably transmitted more than 300
kilometres over a standard fibre-optical telecommunications network.
Their new method enables widely-separated telescopes used for high-resolution radio astronomy to be
synchronised.
The research, published in Optica, shows the successful transmission of a stable frequency reference between
two radio telescopes via a fibre link and demonstrates that the technique’s performance is at least as good as
using separate atomic clocks at each telescope. The paper was written by a consortium involving Macquarie
University’s Yabai He and Brian Orr (Physics and Astronomy).
This will potentially allow scientists anywhere to access the frequency standard by tapping into the
telecommunications network.
Find out more
Photo by CSIRO / D. Smyth.
Syllabus links: Physics: Module 3: Waves and Thermodynamics. Inquiry question How do waves behave?
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SCIENCE EDUCATIONAL NEWS VOL 67 NO 3