NRT Team Meets NAOC to Explore Future Collaboration

The New Robotic Telescope (NRT) team recently met online with colleagues from the National Astronomical Observatories of China (NAOC) to discuss both the NRT project and the exciting Global Open Transient Telescope Array (GOTTA) initiative, as well as opportunities for future collaboration.

The meeting featured presentations from project leads and representatives across partner institutions, including the PI and Co-PIs at LJMU, IAC, and UoO. The NRT partners presented the following overview topics about the project;

• Prof. Iain Steele introducing the NRT project
• Dr. Helen Jermak outlining NRT’s science goals
• Mr David Copley sharing technical details of the NRT telescope design
• Prof. Carlos Gutiérrez summarising IAC’s role in NRT and the optical manufacturing plans in particular

The NAOC team presented the Global Open Transient Telescope Array (GOTTA) project. GOTTA aims to deploy a global network of over 100 wide-angle optical telescopes to capture fleeting cosmic events, such as supernovae and gamma-ray bursts, during their critical early stages. This “golden window” for observation could revolutionise our understanding of extreme gravitational forces and the evolution of the universe.

The session concluded with a lively discussion on next steps for collaboration between NRT and GOTTA teams which will take place throughout 2025 and beyond.

More information about NAOC and GOTTA in particular can be found here -  https://english.cas.cn/research/highlight/astronomy/202505/t20250513_1043564.shtml

The workshop agenda as part of the NRT and NOAC online meeting