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13 MSEK award to Sweden’s premier radio telescope will enable multicolour images of black holes in global project

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large dish antenna pointing upwards
Against a black background, plumes extend out to one side from a small, bright ring with a dark centre
A circular metal plate with many small holes in it, in a lab environment
The 20-metre telescope in Onsala, Sweden, will celebrate 50 years of operation in May 2026. The parabolic mirror, 20 meters across, is protected from the weather by a round, white dome with triangular segments. The new camera is placed behind the centre of the dish.

Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, has received 13 million SEK from the Hasselblad Foundation to build a new camera for Sweden’s premier radio telescope. The new three-band camera is part of a global initiative to enable high-quality, multi-colour images of black holes and other space phenomena, using innovative technology that has excited astronomers since its first test runs in South Korea.

The world’s biggest and most iconic radio telescopes are joining forces with a bold aim – to make new images of black holes and their surroundings, in detail and in new colours. In Sweden, Chalmers University of Technology has just received a 13 million SEK grant to build a new, three-band camera for the country’s flagship radio telescope, the 20-metre telescope at Onsala Space Observatory.  Private grants and donations are of essential importance to Chalmers’ long-term strategy to reach academic quality at the highest European level.

“This grant opens up exciting possibilities. Our new three-band camera will be a very different instrument than the Hasselblad cameras that took pictures on the Moon, but for us the goal is the same. We want to develop world-leading technology to image and understand phenomena in space”, says John Conway, director of the Onsala Space Observatory, and professor of radio astronomy at Chalmers. 

Radio telescopes study the universe by detecting invisible light known as radio waves. By connecting antennas together in large networks, radio astronomers can make sharper images than it's possible to achieve with other kinds of telescope.  

New cameras are now being built or planned at many of the world’s leading radio telescopes, and new possibilities are opening up, according to John Conway.  

“Each of the new three-band cameras aims to be the best in the world. But they are all based on a new innovative technology that corrects for the way the Earth’s atmosphere distorts radio signals from far out in space”, says John Conway. 

The new method is known as frequency phase transfer, or FPT, and was first proposed by astronomers Maria Rioja and Richard Dodson in Australia, following earlier work in Japan and Germany. Radio signals measured at high frequencies can be corrected for disturbances in Earth’s atmosphere, they suggested, as long as signals from the same source are also measured at lower frequencies at the same time – just what a three-band camera provides. The method has since been developed and implemented with great success by scientists and engineers at the Korean VLBI Network in South Korea. 

“Thanks to this pioneering work, we now know that high-quality observations are possible even from sites with less than optimal weather conditions - something that once seemed out of reach. Now, with cameras specially built for this purpose, our telescopes will work together to help us explore black holes, the early universe, the lives of stars, and fast-changing cosmic events in greater detail than before," says Anton Zensus, director at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany. 

Sara Wallin, CEO of the Chalmers University of Technology Foundation, sees private research grants as an important part of the funding needed for competitive universities that deliver top-quality research.

“This grant from the Hasselblad Foundation will contribute to real progress in astronomy research. The joint effort between the Hasselblad foundation, Chalmers and Onsala Space Observatory is a clear example of how targeted investments in top-tier research and innovative technology development can make a big difference”, she says. 

“We are proud of our long-standing collaboration with Onsala Space Observatory. The foundation was laid when Victor and Erna Hasselblad donated land to the observatory. Just as the Hasselblad camera once made it possible to see the Moon in a new way, the three-band camera contributes to exploring the universe with new precision. We look forward to following the results that this technology will enable”, says Kalle Sanner, CEO of the Hasselblad Foundation in Sweden.

Contacts

Robert Cumming, astronomer and communicator, Onsala Space Observatory, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, robert.cumming@chalmers.se, +46704933114, +46317725500 

John Conway, director, Onsala Space Observatory, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, john.conway@chalmers.se

More about the observatory

Onsala Space Observatory is run by Chalmers with the support from the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) and the Swedish Mapping Authority (Lantmäteriet). Recently, international and national experts gave top marks to Onsala Space Observatory and its plans as part of a review of Swedish research infrastructures carried out by the research council. The experts highlighted the observatory’s high-profile science impact, high scientific return on investment and world-class technology development.

Against a black background, plumes extend out to one side from a small, bright ring with a dark centre
A black hole and its surroundings were captured for the first time in the same image by the GMVA network, which included the 20-meter telescope in Onsala (ESO press release from 2023). The image, of black hole M87*, is shown here in a version by Jongseo Kim (Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Bonn, Germany) and colleagues, in which new computational techniques have revealed new details. In this image, the colour scale only shows signal strength in light with wavelength of 1.3 mm. Using three-band cameras, researchers hope to be able to make images in three wavebands, making three-colour images possible.
Photographer: MPIfR/Jongseo Kim et al  (2025) 
A circular metal plate with many small holes in it, in a lab environment
The camera’s innovative dichroic in the lab. Longer radio waves reflect from this special surface, while shorter ones pass straight through. The component’s honeycomb pattern makes it possible for the camera to work with polarised radio waves, which can reveal magnetic fields near black holes, for example. 
Photographer: Chalmers/Anna-Lena Lundqvist
In a darkened optical lab, an engineer is adjusting a metal plate, among other mirrors and screens
Key components of the camera are already being tested at the GARD group's lab on the Chalmers campus in Gothenburg. Here, Leif Helldner is adjusting the dichroic which reflects radio waves depending on frequency. – We’re making these parts entirely in metal, so we can cool them to cryogenic temperatures. That reduces losses and makes the receiver more sensitive, says Leif.
Photographer: Chalmers/Anna-Lena Lundqvist
An engineer in front of a wall with poster, and behind a cylindrical receiver cartridge with metal details
Team leader Leif Helldner is working to make the three-band camera a reality, from design (note the CAD image on the wall; left) to finished product (like the receiver for ALMA; right).
Photographer: Chalmers/Anna-Lena Lundqvist
Engineer leans on the railing of a spiral staircase, seen from below, beyond him part of a telescope dish
This steep staircase leads up to the 20-metre telescope’s instrument cabin, where Magnus Dahlgren and his team will install the camera.
Photographer: Chalmers/Anna-Lena Lundqvist
Close-up of a shiny circuit board, with a soldering iron held over it
Technology choices and careful design are keys to how the camera transforms radio signals to data, Magnus Dahlgren explains. Here he’s showing a circuit board, part of the camera’s room temperature construction.
Photographer: Chalmers/Anna-Lena Lundqvist
Engineer in foreground, lab environment behind him
"I like to tackle the toughest design work early on, here in the lab in Onsala. When the difficult designs are done, the rest of the project will flow much better, and the risks are smaller", says Magnus Dahlgren.
Photographer: Chalmers/Anna-Lena Lundqvist
In a brightly lit control room, a scientist is kneeling next to a bank of computers with flashing lights, pointing to one of them
In the control room next to the telescope in Onsala, Jun Yang shows the computers that will handle the new camera's measurements. Converting radio signals from space into digital data is a process that’s similar to digitizing music, but requires powerful computers and advanced software, he explains.
Photographer: Chalmers/Anna-Lena Lundqvist
John Conway
  • Full Professor, Onsala Space Observatory, Space, Earth and Environment
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Robert Cumming
  • Communications Officer, Onsala Space Observatory, Space, Earth and Environment
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