Associated Universities, Inc
The National Radio
Astronomy observatory
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO)
is operated by the Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) under a
Cooperative Agreement with the National Science Foundation. NRAO
is one of the world's premier research facilities for radio astronomy.
NRAO operates powerful, advanced radio telescopes spanning the western
hemisphere. Scientists from around the world use these instruments
to probe fundamental questions in astronomy and physics.
Visit www.nrao.edu.
The National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense…"
Atacama Large Millimeter Array
ALMA — The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) Project is an international partnership to build a forefront instrument that will study the heavens in millimeter and sub-millimeter radio waves. The primary array will consist of up to 50 12-meter parabolic dish antennas. Additionally there will be a compact array of 12 7-meter antennas and 4 more 12-meter antennas. Astronomers using ALMA will study galaxy formation from the dawn of time to the present, and capture images of stars and planets forming in our own Milky Way.
Expanded Very Large Array
EVLA — The EVLA Project will provide a radio telescope of unprecedented sensitivity, resolution, and imaging capability by modernizing and extending the existing Very Large Array. When completed, the EVLA will provide the following capabilities: Sensitivity: Continuum sensitivity improvement over the VLA by factors of 5 to 20, to give point-source sensitivity better than 1 microJy between 2 and 40 GHz. Frequency Accessibility: Operation at any frequency between 1.0 and 50 GHz, with up to 8 GHz bandwidth per polarization.
Green Bank Telescope
GBT — Construction has been completed on the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope, the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), at the NRAO site in Green Bank, West Virginia. The telescope’s two-acre collecting dish has many novel features, including an unblocked aperture and an active surface, that promise such increased sensitivity to faint radio signals as to usher in a new eara of single-dish radio astronomy. The GBT is also an engineering marvel. At 485 feet tall, it is comparable in height to the Washington Monument. Despite its weight of 8,000 tons, it can be pointed anywhere in the sky with exquisite accuracy.
Very Large Array
VLA — The Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope, located on the Plains of San Agustin about 60 miles west of Socorro, New Mexico, is an exceedingly powerful scientific instrument and has transformed many areas of astronomy. Dedicated in 1980, it has been used by more astronomers and has produced more scientific papers than any other radio telescope in the world. Even today, the VLA exceeds all other radio astronomy facilities with its combination of sensitivity, flexibility, speed, and overall imaging quality. The VLA consists of 27 antennas arranged in a “Y” pattern.
Very Long Baseline Array
VLBA — The Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) is a continent-wide radio telescope system offering the greatest resolving power of any astronomical instrument operational today. It is a system of ten identical radio-telescope antennas, controlled from a common headquarters and working together as a single instrument. The VLBA’s 240-ton dish antennas, each 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter, are spread from St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, across the continental United States, to Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The radio signals received by each individual antenna contribute part of the information used to produce images of celestial objects with hundreds of times more detail that Hubble Space Telescope images. The VLBA can contribute to any astronomical research where quality, high-resolution radio images will advance knowledge of the field.