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Does a Radio Telescope Collect Sound Waves?

-- | September 11, 2012

Question: I would like to ask two questions. If a radio telescope works like a radar, and a radar uses microwave radiation to detect the range, speed and other characteristics of remote objects (humans for instance), does radar receive sound or voice communications? Does a radio telescope receive sound or voice communications? — R Feenstra

Answer: In general, telescopes, including radio telescopes, do not work like radar. The exception is a type of radio telescope observation that one can make where we can bounce a signal off of another object, like a planet or the Moon, and receive the reflected signal at another radio telescope to produce a picture of what the object looks like at radio wavelengths. These measurements are not done at the low frequencies typical of sound waves, though. Also, radar and radio telescopes do not receive sound or voice communications. Radar uses the reflected signal from objects to discern their physical properties.

Jeff Mangum

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