What Is a Radio Telescope?

Radio telescope (English name radio telescope) refers to the basic equipment for observing and studying radio waves from celestial bodies. It can measure the intensity, spectrum and polarization of celestial radios. These include directional antennas that collect radio waves, high-sensitivity receivers that amplify radio signals, information recording, processing, and display systems. In the 1960s, astronomy made four very important discoveries: pulsars, quasars, cosmic microwave background radiation, and interstellar organic molecules. All four findings are related to radio telescopes.

The basic principle of a classic radio telescope is optical
The objects studied by radio astronomy include a continuous spectrum radio source as strong as the sun, quasars with strong radiation but extremely remote and therefore small angular diameters, and small angular diameters and flow densities
1931 in the United States
According to the overall structure of the antenna, radio telescopes can be divided into continuous and discontinuous aperture radio telescopes according to design requirements.
Continuous aperture radio telescope
The main representative is to use
Radio telescope with
Scientists from China, Japan and South Korea are using their world's largest radio telescope array to jointly detect
Shanghai Laoshan 65m Rotatable Radio Telescope
In March 2012, the 65-meter rotatable radio telescope project was launched in Shanghai
Detecting distant "extraterrestrial civilizations"
The shape of this huge telescope is similar to that of a satellite antenna, with a single diameter of 500 meters. It looks like a huge "sky eye" and will detect distant and mysterious "extraterrestrial civilizations". For thousands of years, most people have observed the universe through visible light. In fact, the radiation of celestial bodies covers the entire electromagnetic wave band, and visible light is only a part of which humans can perceive.
This radio telescope can be used to monitor cosmic radio waves in outer space, including "artificial radio waves" that may come from other intelligent life; under the condition of sufficient power, this huge "sky eye" can also send radio signals, tens of thousands of light Young alien "alien friends" will likely receive greetings from China.
Find the first celestial body
According to researchers from the FAST Engineering Office, after the project is completed, it will extend China's astronomical observation capabilities to the edge of the universe, which can observe dark matter and dark energy, and look for first-generation celestial bodies.
It can find thousands of pulsars in one year and study the material structure and physical laws in extreme conditions. And without relying on the model to accurately measure the mass of black holes, you can hope to find exotic stars and quark stars; you can detect gravitational waves by accurately measuring the arrival time of pulsars; you may also find high redshifted giant pulsar galaxies, making it the first galaxy A breakthrough in the observation of methanol supermaser.
For space weather forecast
FAST will also extend China's space measurement and control capabilities from geosynchronous orbits to the outer edge of the solar system, increasing the downlink data transmission rate by 100 times. The pulsar chrono array produces pulsar clocks for this forward-looking study of autonomous navigation.
At the same time, it can conduct high-resolution microwave inspections, diagnose and identify weak space signals with a resolution of 1Hz, and serve as a passive strategic radar for national security services. It can also track and detect coronal mass ejection events to serve space weather forecasting.
Drive the development of Chinese manufacturing technology
FAST research involves many high-tech fields, such as antenna manufacturing, high-precision positioning and measurement, high-quality radio receivers, sensor networks and intelligent information processing, ultra-wideband information transmission, and mass data storage and processing. The key technical achievements of FAST can be applied to many related fields, such as large-scale structural engineering, high-precision dynamic measurement of kilometers, development of large industrial robots, and multi-beam radar devices. FAST's construction experience will have an impact on the development of China's manufacturing technology in the direction of informatization, limiting and greening.
Serving Chinese aerospace projects
The 65-meter radio telescope, as a backbone observation equipment in China and the world, will achieve first-class scientific results in radio astronomy, astronomical geodynamics, and space science.
Considering the combination of cost and efficiency, in the future, large radio telescopes such as 100 meters in diameter will probably only have a small increase, while the use of a single medium-aperture centimeter-wave radio telescope will become less and less. Major single parabolic antennas will be more commonly incorporated or expanded to work with very long baselines, wired interferometers, and integrated aperture systems. With the improvement of design, process and calibration technology, more and more precise millimeter wave telescopes will appear. Integrated aperture telescopes will be developed with a view to gaining greater space, time and frequency coverage. In addition to the increase in the number of very long baseline interferometry systems, it is expected that in the end, real-time data processing will be achieved using fixed-point satellites. The combination of the comprehensive aperture technology and the very long baseline independent local oscillator interferometer technology for the very long baseline interferometer network and interferometer array The experiment is likely to give birth to a new generation of radio telescopes.
Have you ever seen a telescope with a diameter of 500 meters that "crowded" the entire valley? This is the world's largest single-aperture radio telescope, the FAST telescope equivalent to 30 football fields, which was officially started in China at the end of December 2008.
Not only are Chinese astronomers inspiring, but astronomers all over the world are also keeping an eye on FAST-hoping that this largest "sky eye" may find aliens and solve the mystery of the origin of the universe.
The FAST design comprehensively reflects China's high-tech innovation capabilities, represents China's advanced level in the field of astronomy science, and will maintain a world-leading position in the next 20 to 30 years. [6]
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