Bonus Contest answer: LOFAR, Exloo, The Netherlands

Believe it or not, but you are looking here at the core of the largest radio telescope in the world, the LOFAR telescope in the North Eastern part of the Netherlands.

The LOw Frequency ARray is a multi purpose set of sensors, suitable for astronomical observations, but also for geophysical and agricultural applications. The antennas are located in a wide area in Northern Europe and ‘talking’ to each other by means of a fast glass fibres connection network.

lofar_antenne

When LOFAR is fully completed there will be an array of 7000 antennas in clusters with a diameter of 100 km and spread out over an area of 1500 km across Europe.

lofar_area

LOFAR will be officially opened on june 12th by HM Queen Beatrix of The Netherlands.

Kudos to Milosh, Serbia and David Kozina for finding this location.

Contest #141 answer: Athabasca Oil Sands, Alberta, Canada

This is the large tar sand mining operation in Alberta, Canada, run by the Syncrude company.

Basically what is happening here is that crude oil is reclaimed from the bituminous sand that is at lying the surface of the earth. This location is supposed to be the largest tar sand reservoir in the world with an estimated 170 billion barrels of crude oil.

syncrude1

These operations are heavily criticised because of the environmental impact as of toxic waste and CO2 emissions.

syncrude2

Right answers this week from:

  • ACG
  • Sarah G
  • Milosh, Serbia
  • Steve Jaycocks
  • Andy M, USA
  • David Kozina
  • hhgygy
  • Paul Franson
  • Taliesin