radio astronomy
A radio telescope is an instrument capable of capturing radio waves from celestial objects, that is, from a part of the electromagnetic spectrum, not naturally perceptible by a human being; this is the fundamental difference with an optical telescope, since the latter capture light waves, which can mostly be perceived by a human being. Therefore, a radio telescope does not use mirrors or is mounted on a dome, but consists of a parabolic dish (also called "parabolic dish").antenna«) very large, which, analogously to the mirror of an optical telescope, concentrates and focuses the received radio waves and translates them into information, by means of devices that amplify and record these signals. Its resolving power is given by the relationship between the wavelength and the diameter of the parabola.
Main advantages
In 1932 Karl Jansky, a radio specialist, discovered that certain interferences picked up by radios had astronomical origins. Since then, radio astronomy has made great progress in capturing radio waves, since visible light only corresponds to a small part of the energy emitted by an astronomical object. The study of radio waves implies knowing processes that are imperceptible if we only limit ourselves to light emissions. Likewise, radio waves are associated with processes of stellar evolution and other very violent and energetic processes, such as radio galaxies; Radio astronomy is very useful in understanding how the large structures of the Universe are formed, and has played a leading role in discoveries of exotic objects such as quasars and pulsars, and cosmic background radiation as evidence for the Big Bang theory.
Radio telescopes vary from one another, but they all have two basic components: a large satellite dish, and a radiometer with a radio receiver. The sensitivity of the radio telescope depends on the area and efficiency of the antenna, the sensitivity of the receiver to amplify and detect the signal, and the duration of the observation. Radio telescopes have very large antennas and use the most sensitive receivers. Faint astronomical sources are easily masked by terrestrial interference, so great efforts are made to protect radio telescopes from human interference.
Utilization
Radio telescopes are very versatile and some allow them to operate at both millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths of the spectrum, which expands the amount of information that these devices can receive from different regions of space. It is expected that with the most modern radio telescopes the first moments of the Universe can even be captured, as well as objects that cannot be detected in optical astronomy. Currently, in modern radio telescopes, an interferometry technique analogous to optical astronomy is used (where the light received by several telescopes is combined to form a single image); Signals captured by arrays of radio telescopes can also be combined, to achieve unique high-resolution captures.
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