radiotelescopes

Radiotelescopes are specialized instruments used to detect and study radio waves originating from celestial objects. Unlike optical telescopes that gather visible light, radiotelescopes are designed to capture the longer wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum that are invisible to the human eye. These instruments typically consist of a large parabolic dish, known as an antenna, which focuses incoming radio waves onto a receiver. The dish acts much like a mirror for light, but for radio waves. These collected signals are then amplified and processed by computers to create images or spectra of the radio sources.

The discovery of cosmic radio waves in the 1930s by Karl Jansky marked the beginning of radio astronomy. Since then, radiotelescopes have become crucial tools for understanding a wide range of astronomical phenomena. They are used to observe objects such as pulsars, quasars, galaxies, nebulae, and the cosmic microwave background radiation, which is a remnant of the Big Bang. Radiotelescopes are sensitive to different wavelengths within the radio spectrum, allowing astronomers to study a variety of physical processes, including the motion of gas, the presence of magnetic fields, and the formation of stars and galaxies. Larger dishes or arrays of multiple dishes working together (interferometry) are needed to achieve higher resolution and detect fainter radio signals.