The international LOFAR collaboration has released the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS‑DR3), an exceptionally detailed radio map of the sky revealing 13.7 million cosmic sources. This survey provides the most complete census yet of actively growing supermassive black holes and traces energetic phenomena such as jets from black holes, star formation in galaxies, and cosmic magnetic fields.
Covering a decade of observations across 38 Dutch and 14 international stations, the survey showcases the power of international collaboration and advanced data processing. LoTSS‑DR3 already enables hundreds of new studies and makes publicly available the most sensitive wide-area radio maps ever produced.
With LOFAR now upgrading to LOFAR2.0, even higher-resolution and faster surveys are on the horizon, promising further transformative discoveries in radio astronomy.
Read the full ASTRON press release.
Image: ASTRON