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| EVLA image of supernova G55.7+3.4 Bhatmagar et al. |
The electromagnetic spectrum is the realm of astronomers. From high energetic X-Ray photons to the the long wavelength radio photons. So how do we detect these radio photons? The answer is: radio telescopes. Why are they called telescopes anyways? Well, they let us "see" into the universe at frequencies where our eyes can't see. But more impressive, we can take pictures of the night sky so that we can see what our eyes couldn't otherwise. Radio telescopes have been around for a long time now. The largest single dish Radio telescope in the world is in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. If you have ever seen the movie "Contact", then you have seen this excellent facility. Another entertaining sci-fi movie is "The Arrival". On this movie we see a telescope facility of 27 white dishes. These dishes are the famous Very Large Array telescope in New Mexico.
The Very Large Array has recently been beefed up and renamed the EVLA or Expanded Very Large Array. The image above is supernova G55.7+3.4, the remnant of a star that blew up to smithereens. The filamentation seen on this radio image was not visible until the EVLA was upgraded to be 10 times more sensitive that in the past. So what was changed in VLA? Well it was pretty much gutted out of the 1970's electronics and added new 2000 tech to it. This new and improved electronics makes the VLA so much more sensitive than before. So why the image of a supernova remnant? Can't we already see these objects in the sky? Sure we can! But not like this. Imagine that you are watching your favorite movie on your old TV without high definition. Now erase that memory and imagine your favorite movie in HD (high definition). The difference is like night and day! That is a good analogy to the new revamped EVLA. We will be able to see fainter and deeper into our galaxy and detect until now unseen objects and reveal new details on existing ones.
The Very Large Array has recently been beefed up and renamed the EVLA or Expanded Very Large Array. The image above is supernova G55.7+3.4, the remnant of a star that blew up to smithereens. The filamentation seen on this radio image was not visible until the EVLA was upgraded to be 10 times more sensitive that in the past. So what was changed in VLA? Well it was pretty much gutted out of the 1970's electronics and added new 2000 tech to it. This new and improved electronics makes the VLA so much more sensitive than before. So why the image of a supernova remnant? Can't we already see these objects in the sky? Sure we can! But not like this. Imagine that you are watching your favorite movie on your old TV without high definition. Now erase that memory and imagine your favorite movie in HD (high definition). The difference is like night and day! That is a good analogy to the new revamped EVLA. We will be able to see fainter and deeper into our galaxy and detect until now unseen objects and reveal new details on existing ones.
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