RadioAstron - the largest radio telescope - begins its orbit
25. 07. 11
The Russian radio telescope - RadioAstron - was launched on Monday 18 July 2011, and has now entered into its large elliptical around Earth. The telescope is part of a Russian space observatory called Spectrum-R, and despite being only 10m across is the biggest radio telescope in space. It is able to claim this title, because its signals are meant to be combined with those on the ground, hence giving it such a large size.
RadioAstron, now in orbit, will take a further three months to prepare, following which it will begin its practical work. RadioAstron is designed to complement the optical telescope Hubble, and will offer incredibly high resolution. One of RadioAstron's primary goal is to focus in on the neighbouring galaxy M-87, to confirm the existence within that galaxy of a suspected black hole.
The telescope is expected to remain in operation for at least five years, and will also offer detailed data regarding pulsars and interstellar plasma and neutron stars in the Milky Way.
Story first appeared on the BBC News website
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