Queen's University
The Balloon-borne Very Long Baseline Interferometry Experiment — To clearly map small and distant objects in space, such as black holes in nearby galaxies, astronomers point radio telescopes from all over the world at the same location in the sky. Later, they combine the recorded light waveforms using software on powerful computers, generating an interference pattern that can be used to map out the distant object, as though it was observed with a telescope the size of the Earth. 

The goal of the Balloon-borne Very Long Baseline Interferometry Experiment (BVEX) is to demonstrate that a telescope suspended from a high-altitude stratospheric balloon can be used as an interferometry station. Stratospheric balloons operate above 99.5% of the Earth’s atmosphere, so they should be ideal for observing the high frequency light needed to resolve more distant black hole shadows. To achieve this goal, BVEX will use a GPS system and accelerometers to track the 3-D position of a small radio telescope to an unprecedented resolution.

This project will demonstrate