Back to the future: science and technology directions for radio telescopes of the twenty-first century

Details Back to the future: science and technology directions for radio telescopes of the twenty-first century Back to the future: science and technology directions for radio telescopes of the twenty-first century

Aug 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009exa....26...79c&link_type=abstract

Experimental Astronomy, Volume 26, Issue 1-3, pp. 79-94

Biology

Astrobiology, Cosmology, Galaxies, General Relativity, Radio Telescopes, Digital Processing

Scientific paper

The early days of radio astronomy showed incredibly diverse experimentation in ways to sample the electromagnetic spectrum at radio wavelengths. In addition to obtaining adequate sensitivity by building large collection areas, a primary goal also was to achieve sufficient angular resolution to localize radio sources for multi-wavelength identification. This led to many creative designs and the invention of aperture synthesis and VLBI. Some of the basic telescope types remain to the present day, now implemented across the entire radio spectrum from wavelengths of tens of meters to submillimeter wavelengths. In recent years, as always, there is still the drive for greater sensitivity but a primary goal is now to achieve very large fields of view to complement high resolution and frequency coverage, leading to a new phase of experimentation. This is the “back to the future” aspect of current research and development for next-generation radio telescopes. In this paper I summarize the scientific motivations for development of new technology and telescopes since about 1990 and going forward for the next decade and longer. Relevant elements include highly optimized telescope optics and feed antenna designs, innovative fabrication methods for large reflectors and dipole arrays, digital implementations, and hardware vs. software processing. The emphasis will be on meter and centimeter wavelength telescopes but I include a brief discussion of millimeter wavelengths to put the longer wavelength enterprises into perspective. I do not discuss submillimeter wavelengths because they are covered in other papers.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Back to the future: science and technology directions for radio telescopes of the twenty-first century does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Back to the future: science and technology directions for radio telescopes of the twenty-first century, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Back to the future: science and technology directions for radio telescopes of the twenty-first century will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-832421