An international team of astronomers used the state-of-the-art capability of VERA, a Japanese network of radio telescopes operated by NAOJ, to uncover valuable clues about how rapidly growing “young” supermassive black holes form, grow, and possibly evolve into more powerful quasars.
The SKA1 Subproject (SKAJ) at the Mizusawa VLBI Observatory of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), in collaboration with NEC Corporation, has successfully demonstrated a high-speed data transfer system, the Ultra-high-speed Data Transfer System (UDTS), as part of its joint evaluation efforts toward deployment. The system was installed at the Japanese node of the SKA Regional Centre Network (SRCNet) and evaluated through an ultra-long-distance data transfer experiment spanning approximately half the circumference of the Earth. The demonstration achieved stable data transfer rates several to tens of times faster than conventional approaches, demonstrating the feasibility of achieving the 100 Gbps-class international data transfer performance required by SRCNet.
We have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for an international VLBI network that will combine approximately 20 radio telescopes in the East Asian region in Japan, South Korea, and China to achieve resolution equivalent to a giant radio telescope with a maximum diameter of 5,500 km.