First network of robotic telescopes in the five continents

14 Feb. () –

He Institute of Astrophysics of Andalusia (IAA) The development of the BOOTES network, the first network of robotic telescopes with stations on five continents, has been completed.

With facilities in Spain (two stations), New Zealand, China, Mexico, South Africa and Chile, BOOTES (acronym for Outburst Observatory and Optical Sporadic Source Exploration System) it is the most comprehensive network of its kind and a unique, fully automated resource for combining data from instruments from around the world, monitoring the sky, and supporting observations from missions and satellites.

“BOOTES is the result of almost twenty-five years of continuous effort, since we installed the first station in 1998 at INTA (Arenosillo, Huelva), the institution that initially supported the project. The complete deployment represents a scientific milestone since it is the first robotic network with a presence on all continents”, highlights it’s a statement Alberto J. Castro-Tirado, IAA-CSIC researcher who has led the project since its creation. This has placed it in time ahead of the American networks, whose Asian station is under construction, and Russia, which lacks installation in Oceania.

The BOOTES network is managed by the IAA-CSIC, with strong involvement of the University of Malaga and with the collaboration of other Spanish entities, such as the National Institute of Aerospace Technology (INTA) and the University of Huelva, and international entities. Its main objective is to quickly and autonomously observe what are known as transient sources, astrophysical objects that do not present a permanent emission over time, but rather emit light briefly, intensely and suddenly. The detection of these events is usually done from satellite, and BOOTES provides an automated response in real time that allows their characterization.

The network will contribute to the study of gamma-ray bursts, which constitute the most energetic events in the universe and which are associated with the death of very massive stars. Its detection usually occurs through satellites, that report the outbreak to the scientific community so that the event can be studied in detail.

The existence of a network of very fast pointing robotic telescopes such as BOOTES represents an ideal complement to satellite detection and, in fact, BOOTES will also work to track and monitor sources emitting neutrinos and gravitational waves, or even objects such as comets. , asteroids, variable stars or supernovae. But it will also keep an eye on the sky, both in tracking space debris and potentially dangerous objects, that could pose a threat to our planet.