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What Does the VLA See or Hear?

-- | February 24, 2016

Question: What do the VLAs actually “see” or “hear?” A recent report states Apollo 10 astronauts “heard” strange music in their radio systems on the dark side of the moon, where they were isolated from the interference produced on Earth. Would that not be similar to what VLAs “hear?” — Richard

Answer: The VLA, and all telescopes that operate at radio wavelengths, collect information from the part of the electromagnetic spectrum which corresponds to radio frequencies. Recall that “light” also comes from that same electromagnetic spectrum, but from a higher-frequency end of this spectrum of energy. Light corresponds to the wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum that our eyes are tuned to receive. Therefore, radio telescopes like the VLA observe and study the very same objects that we can with our eyes or with optical telescopes, except that radio telescopes are looking at them at longer wavelengths.

Jeff Mangum

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