Description: Radio telescopes receive radio waves from space. Depending on the observing wavelength they may have a parabola shape, similar to a satellite dish with a receiver at the focal point, or may have metal rod-like figures sometimes referred to as dipole antennas. The signals are then amplified and processed by computer. A radio telescope can be a single dish or a number of antennas linked together to form an interferometer where a special computer called a correlator combines signals from the different radio telescopes to yield information that can then be processed into an image. They mostly observe radio waves, with frequencies ranging from about 30 megahertz to 300 gigahertz, or 10 meters to 1 millimeter in wavelength. Individual telescopes and receivers are optimized for specific regions within this band. Some radio dishes are optimized to observe light with slightly shorter wavelength in a region of the electromagnetic spectrum known as the submillimeter.

Related Terms:

• Electromagnetic Radiation
• Radio Astronomy
• Radio Waves

Term and definition status: This term and its definition have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher

The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".