PHOTO: Bethany Boarts/Collegian
Professor Charles Higgins and students stand yesterday behind a radio telescope that is able to detect signals from Jupiter and the sun he and undergraduates built.

By Laura Shirey
Collegian Staff Writer

A group of eight Penn State students are listening to the universe through a radio telescope that they built.

The undergraduate students in the astronomy department were studying when Charles Higgins, an astronomy instructor, invited them to participate in building a radio telescope capable of picking up signals from Jupiter and the sun, Jerod Caligiuri (sophomore-astrophysics) said.

"He (Higgins) asked us if we knew any undergraduates who would be interested, and we said, 'Yeah, we will,' " Caligiuri said.

The Radio Jove kit, a build-it-yourself telescope, was purchased from NASA around October.

"It is an education and public outreach project sponsored by NASA," Higgins said.

Included in the kit was an antennae used to detect the radio signals and parts for the receiver that had yet to be built. For about three weeks in typically two-hour time increments, the students wired, soldered and cased the receiver into a box only slightly larger than a VCR tape.

The receiver was then connected to a computer where the radio signals could be interpreted and recorded.

Then it was time to put their radio telescope to the test.

Buildings on campus can cause interference in the radio signals, so the antenna needs to be placed in an open area. Because the wire antenna is portable, students can easily take it to the fields near the football stadium to avoid disturbances.

The telescope is used at night to avoid interference, Stephanie Zonak (sophomore-astronomy and physics) said.

"During the day, the ionosphere is more active so there is more interference," she said.

Excited about the project, the students first log on to the Internet to find out about upcoming storms on Jupiter before trying to detect signals, Michelle Graver (sophomore-astrophysics) said.

"At first we didn't know if what we were hearing was the storms," Graver said. After checking online, they determined that they had found what they were looking for.

"We actually heard the storms," Graver said.

The radio telescope has been used once for the specific reason of listening for storms, but has been set up multiple times for less formal reasons.

"We've gotten Portuguese radio stations," Zonak said.

The telescope also can be used to learn about one of the moons around Jupiter, Caligiuri said.

"A moon from Jupiter would pass in front, a volcanic moon. It would send off radio waves giving a lighthouse effect," Caligiuri said.

The project combines astronomy with electronics and other science-related fields, Higgins said.

"The idea is to get students involved in science," Higgins said. "The students build it, use it and collect data from it."