SCIENTISTS are expected to delve further into space than ever before within the next two months.

Jodrell Bank hopes to receive the first results of its e-Merlin project before Christmas.

Dr Tim O’Brien said experts should eventually see the best ever pictures of far-off galaxies.

“We are going to see into a whole new world,” he said.

“This is the most powerful array of telescopes and should give us the sharpest pictures.”

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The e-Merlin array is so powerful that work which used to take three years will now be done in a day.

Its seven telescopes have unprecedented sensitivity – the equivalent of reading a 1p piece from 50 miles away.

Dr O’Brien, head of outreach at the observatory near Goostrey, said that would help scientists uncover new information about the universe.

“The most exciting thing is we will be seeing things we have not even imagined we would see before,” he said.

Earlier this year Jodrell Bank was threatened with closure because of Government cutbacks.

Bosses feared the observatory, which employs 200 staff, and its iconic Lovell Telescope could be scrapped.

But the importance of e-Merlin’s research helped convince ministers the centre was worth saving.

On Friday Dr O’Brien said it was right that the centre’s role in British science was questioned.

“We are always going to be asked to justify what we do and would never expect to be handed a blank cheque,” he said.

The Merlin array was developed in the late 1980s.

Scientists’ expectations of the equipment - both technically and astronomically - were quickly surpassed.

It became known as one of the best instruments of its kind.

And now Merlin, which used microwave signals, has been given a £8million upgrade. Experts installed optical fibre cables to connect the seven telescopes, which boosted the array’s sensitivity.

The investment in e-Merlin was one of the main reasons Jodrell Bank said it should be saved from closure.

And in July the Science and Technology Facilities Council said funding would be found because of the importance of e-Merlin to the future of British astronomy.

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