Space telescope to create radio 'eye' larger than Earth

Miranda B. -- One of the more interesting tools in astronomy is interferometry- a method by which data can be collected from two radio telescopes and analyzed in a way that yields data as detailed as the data from a single telescope with a dish size as large as the distance between the two would be. On July 18, the Russian space program launched RadioAstron, a radio telescope intended to go almost as far out as the moon’s orbit, creating a dish of effectively thirty times the earth’s diameter. The resolution of this telescope is going to be over ten times as high as the previous standard in radio interferometry (HALCA), and over ten thousand times as fine as Hubble’s resolution. RadioAstron was launched by a Zenit-2SB rocket, which pushed it into orbit at ten thousand kilometers, but it will be pulled the moon to three hundred ninety thousand kilometers over the course of five years. The radio itself is only ten meters wide and composed of 27 carbon fiber panels. One of the more interesting objects that the telescope will focus on is the black hole in the center of galaxy M87, which will offer data on the mechanics of black holes and also pictures of its event horizon. Other data from the telescope will be used to learn more about the rotation rates of galaxies, how dust is distributed around stars, expansion rates of space, and the effects of dark energy. RadioAstron collects one hundred forty four megabits per second of data, though, so many more earth-based telescopes need to be equipped to collect data soon, or else crucial information will be lost.

It seems something of a waste that the telescope is going to reach its much-touted distance in about five years, and that the project will end at that point. HALCA lasted from 1997 to 2005 after a projected lifespan of three years and an altitude control failure in 2003, though, so maybe there is some hope for more than five years worth of data. With HALCA down, it becomes more critical for the earth-based telescopes to start collecting data as soon as possible, since RadioAstron will soon be the only functioning space-based radio interferometry telescope and we all know that VSOP-2 isn’t going to get funding to launch in 2013. The part of the project that I am most interested in is the black hole pictures, I must admit. The M87 black hole apparently is particularly flashy, radio wave-wise, so it should generate desktop-worthy photos sometime in the next five years. The other projects are probably all going to shed light on the nature of the universe and so on, and maybe there will be a few more documentaries on dark energy. It seems like this launch is the superbowl for certain astronomers, but the article just wasn’t able to describe the goals of the project in the vernacular.

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