This year, we commemorate a quarter-century of the Global BOOTES Network, a network of robotic telescopes that has revolutionized the way we observe and understand the universe. Since its inception 25 years ago, BOOTES has been a pillar in the field of astrophysics, contributing a wealth of significant knowledge in areas as diverse as the Solar System, extragalactic astrophysics, and gravitational waves.
BOOTES, which has closely collaborated with organizations such as the Spanish Patrol Meteor Network and the SMA-UMA Meteor Detection Network, has enabled remarkable discoveries. Some of the most notable achievements include the detection of a multitude of meteor activities, bolides, and star occultations by Pluto to characterise its atmosphere, as well as the characterization of very short duration radio burst sources in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. It has also contributed to the study of pulses in the so-called giant magnetar of a neutron star in the Sculptor Galaxy.
However, perhaps BOOTES’s most impactful field has been the study of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), where its rapid follow-up observations have helped constrain the models of such phenomena. In 2017, BOOTES-5 was the only observatory in the northern hemisphere that managed to observe the GW170817 event, the fifth detection in the history of gravitational waves and associated with a very low intensity GRB, laying the foundation for a new era in astronomy.
But BOOTES is not limited to research: the network has also made significant contributions to education and outreach. Through projects like GLORIA and ScienceIES, BOOTES has brought astronomy and science to a wider audience, fostering citizen science and providing high school students with a unique opportunity to engage in astronomical research.
These 25 years of BOOTES have been possible thanks to the tireless dedication of a highly committed human team. Despite financial and logistical challenges, the Network has grown to include seven stations worldwide, ensuring continuous sky coverage and demonstrating its ability to detect and study transient astronomical phenomena.
We celebrate BOOTES’s journey and look forward to the wonders the next 25 years hold. As an observatory that spans the entire planet, BOOTES remains a constant source of discovery and wonder, and a shining example of what is possible when dedication, perseverance, and collaboration come together in the pursuit of knowledge.
See the BOOTES 25th anniversary contribution written by its founder and IP, Alberto J. Castro-Tirado, at the Summer Solstice (#48) Bulletin of the Spanish Astronomical Society BOOTES SEA23 with the following two links (PDF and HTML respectively):
https://www.sea-astronomia.es/sites/default/files/bv2023_bootes.pdf
https://www.sea-astronomia.es/boletin/la-red-global-bootes-de-telescopios-roboticos
