SPLATS about radio astronomy

SPLATS about radio astronomy

For an explanation, see the main splats page

The principles of radio astronomy

A radio telescope uses a large dish to collect and focus the weak radio signals from a distant star in much the same way that telescopes process visible light.
In 1933, Karl Jansky announced that he had detected radio waves coming from the direction of Sagittarius, after first thinking they came from the Sun.
In 1942, Grote Reber made the first radio map of the sky and J.S. Hey detected solar radio waves, while wartime radar operators were also detecting signals
The Square Kilometre Array radio-telescope or SKA, if it is built, would place about a thousand antennas in an array to give superb resolution.
The SKA would work on the principle of an interferometer, combining the separate signals from the many antennas to build up a single very clear picture.

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