4 ms·

I have a hard time understanding how radio emissions can be visualised like that. The sensors are ground based, the emissions are detected on earth from a point

I have a hard time understanding how radio emissions can be visualised like that. The sensors are ground based, the emissions are detected on earth from a point source which given the distances are effectively parallel. Or is it a visualization of a circular cloud of point sources, in which case the detector resolution must be fantastic.

jlkasdfjkl 6y ago
They get that resolution by having a radio telescope array with many sensors spread over a wide area [0]. An incoming wavefront will hit the different sensors at slightly different times, depending on the direction the wave is coming from. By combining all the sensors' data, you can calculate the intensity of incoming radiation from every direction in the sky. The resolution increases as you increase the horizontal distance between the sensors, because that makes it easier to resolve the arrival time differences. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Square_Kilometre_Array_Pathfinder#/media/File:CSIRO_ScienceImage_2161_Close_up_of_a_radio_astronomy_telescope_with_several_more_in_the_background.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Square_Kilometre_Ar...