Orolia Technology Synchronizes Black Hole Photo Telescopes

Lanham, MD, April 15, 2019 – Orolia, through its joint venture company T4Science Inc. in Switzerland, is proud to support the ground-breaking scientific initiative to capture the world’s first photo of a black hole, conducted by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project. As the world leader in maser atomic clock technology, Orolia provided the critical timing solution to synchronize telescopes around the world and create a virtual telescope the size of Earth to observe this deep space, supermassive object.

Some of the world’s most advanced telescopes, located at challenging high-altitude sites, were synchronized with T4Science Masers to capture the sharpest image possible. Locations included volcanoes in Hawaii, Arizona mountains, the Spanish Sierra Nevada, the Chilean Atacama Desert and Antarctica. T4Science masers deliver ultra-precise time synchronization in the most challenging environments on Earth and in Space.

The EHT project uses Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). This technology requires synchronization, phase stability and phase coherence between different telescopes within a few femto-seconds, and leverages the Earth’s rotation to form one Earth-size telescope. VLBI enables the EHT to achieve an angular resolution of 20 micro-arcseconds — enough to read a newspaper in New York from a sidewalk café in Paris.

Orolia delivers this critical VLBI technology through its T4Science iMaser-3000 hydrogen masers. The iMaser-3000 is the world’s leading VLBI atomic clock, supporting other mission critical timing programs such as military and commercial satellite applications.

“Orolia has been a proud supporter of space research and missions for more than forty years,” said Orolia CEO Jean-Yves Courtois. “As the world leader in resilient positioning, navigation and timing solutions, we develop precise, ultra-reliable technology for environments where failure is not an option.”

Orolia’s proven timing solutions support many space agencies and research institutes worldwide, including ESAThe European Space Agency is a group of countries in Europe and Canada dedicated to the exploration of space as well as other scientific space missions. As of 2022 there are 22 member states that make up this intergovernmental organization., NASANational Aeronautics and Space Agency - responsible for the policy, strategy and operations of US space missions., Jet Propulsion Labs, Space-X, the Centre National d’Étude Spatiales (CNESCNES is the French Government Space Agency. France), the National Physics Laboratory (UK), Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR Germany) and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXAJAXA refers to the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency which is responsible for the exploration and coordination of space missions launching from Japan.), among others.

About Orolia
Orolia is the world leader in Resilient Positioning, Navigation and Timing (PNTPosition, Navigation, and Timing: PNT and map data combine to create the GPS service.) solutions that improve the reliability, performance and safety of critical, remote or high-risk operations. With locations in more than 100 countries, Orolia provides virtually failsafe GPSGlobal Positioning System is a navigation satellite system. See also/GNSS and PNT solutions to support military and commercial applications worldwide. www.orolia.com

Press Contact:
Jennifer Hewitt, (571) 388-8671, jennifer.hewitt@orolia.com