Radio Telescopes
Greg Arabia
TED 111
Dr. Kallis
What do radio telescopes do?
Track and collect data from satellites
Monitor radio signals from outer space
Detect weather, other planets, stars, and other astronomical objects
What can a small radio telescope do?
Detect stronger radio sources Look for high energy pulses Detect meteors Mapping
What is a radio telescope?
Very sensitive radio receiver
Measures the intensity of radio waves
Shoots a small beam to detect the signals
Image source (http://dvice.com/pics/VLA_telescope.jpg)
How are they made?
A parabolic shaped dish An antenna mounted on top of the dish An amplifier is used gain a stronger signal All the information is sent to a computer
Basic radio telescope
The dish reflects radio waves to the antenna
The antenna sends the signal to the amplifier
The information is recorded onto a computer
How do they work?
Uses a parabolic shaped dish that reflects radio waves to an antenna
The signal is sent to an amplifier to magnify the signal
The signal is processed by a computer to turn the signal into a picture
Radio telescopes vs. Optical telescopes
Radio telescopes are much larger due to wavelength size
Radio telescopes use lower energy than optical telescopes
Both use parabolic shaped dishes
The first radio telescope
Built by Karl Jansky Made on accident in
1931 He recorded
thunderstorms and categorized them in different categories
Image source (http://www.nrao.edu/jansky/jansky4_small.jpg)
Types of radio telescopes
There are many different sizes and designs of radio telescopes
A few different kinds are– Haystack radio telescope– Westford radio telescope– Arecibo radio telescope
Haystack radio telescope
Controlled by remote Used mainly for
education and space tracking
Usually smaller telescopes
Image source (http://www.haystack.mit.edu/edu/undergrad/srt/antenna/srtdecember.jpg)
Westford radio telescope
Dome shaped telescope
Made in 1961 Used in
communications technology
Image source:
http://www.haystack.mit.edu/obs/westford/pics/Westfordatnight.gif
The biggest radio telescope
Located in Arecibo, Puerto Rico
1,001 foot dish Has a remote antenna
Image source:
http://aboutfacts.net/Astronomy/Astronomy6/arecibo_naic_big.jpg
What does a radio telescope listen to?
If listened to a radio telescope all you would hear is static
Scientist listen for man made signals
Discoveries
Discovered that the sun and the center of the Milky way galaxy have strong radio waves
There are strong radio waves coming from black places in the galaxy
They helped discover the black places were exploded stars
Work Cited
Strobel, N. (2007, June 1). Radio telescopes. Retrieved from http://www.astronomynotes.com/telescop/s4.htm (Slides 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and picture on slide 6)
How Radio telescopes work. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.nrao.edu/index.php/learn/radioastronomy/radiotelescopes (slides 10, 11, 12, and picture on slide 2)
Schloerb, A. (n.d.). The Radio telescope. Retrieved from http://www.astro.umass.edu/~fcrao/education/report1.html (slides 8, 9, 13)
Frequently asked questions about radio astronomy. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.radiosky.com/faq.html (slide 14, 15)