Personal tools
Log in
You are here: Home › Research Activities › Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation › Experimental radio, microwaves and gravitation

Experimental radio, microwaves and gravitation

Instrumental activity at radio wavelengths involves two, partially overlapping, scientific communities in Italy, with different scientific objectives. Radio astronomy uses, above all, coherent receivers connected to digital electronic systems for the analysis of the converted signal, on ground-based telescopes with ever larger collecting areas. To increase further the baselines of interferometric systems, possible space missions are being studied.

The study of the CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background), that is, the first light in the Universe, is today carried out using coherent (radio), incoherent (bolometers) and cryogenic quantum receivers, for ground-based telescopes, balloons (Boomerang), and space missions (Planck). Lastly, gravitational experiments using radio science are carried out with interplanetary probes, using, above all, precise radio tracking measurements.

PLANETARY SYSTEMS, TWO DISTINCT FAMILIES: THE HOST STAR LEAVES ITS SIGNATURE

Oct 13, 2026

PLANETARY SYSTEMS, TWO DISTINCT FAMILIES: THE HOST STAR LEAVES ITS SIGNATURE An international team led by INAF analysed multi-planet systems and found that they split into two distinct families born around different types of stars. The study, published in Nature Astronomy, shows for the first time that the host star's properties determine the architecture and dynamical evolution of the entire planetary system

NGC 362D: TWO RECORD-BREAKING FINDINGS SHED LIGHT ON THE EVOLUTION OF MILLISECOND PULSARS

Sep 30, 2026

NGC 362D: TWO RECORD-BREAKING FINDINGS SHED LIGHT ON THE EVOLUTION OF MILLISECOND PULSARS An INAF- and University of Bologna-led research team has discovered a binary system caught in an exceptionally rare evolutionary stage, consisting of a millisecond pulsar and the youngest white dwarf ever observed in a system of this kind

AN "IMPROBABLE" PLANETARY SYSTEM: COMPACT, COPLANAR, AND SHAPED BY A BROWN DWARF

Jun 17, 2026

AN "IMPROBABLE" PLANETARY SYSTEM: COMPACT, COPLANAR, AND SHAPED BY A BROWN DWARF An international team involving over ten institutions, with a strong participation from ESO and INAF, has characterised TOI-201 c, the transiting brown dwarf with the longest period for which mass has been measured. The study, published today in Nature, reveals a compact, coplanar system in which the presence of a massive, eccentric object redefines the stability boundaries for the inner planets