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Very Large Array

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Very Large Array (VLA)

Radio telescope system consisting of 27 parabolic dishes. The most powerful radio telescope in the world, it has been operated on the plains of San Agustin near Socorro, N.M., U.S., by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory since 1980. Each dish is 82 ft (25 m) in diameter and can be moved independently by transporter along rails laid out in an enormous Y pattern whose arms are about 13 mi (21 km) long. The radio signals received by the dishes are integrated by computer, so the entire array acts as a single radio antenna (an interferometer). The VLA, which has a maximum angular resolution better than a tenth of an arc second, has been responsible for producing many of the most detailed radio images of quasars; galaxies; supernovas; and the Milky Way Galaxy's nucleus.


Very Large Array [¦ver·ē ¦lärj ə′rā]
(astronomy)
An array near Socorro, New Mexico, of 27 separate radio telescopes on movable platforms, arranged along the arms of a Y, designed to provide radio pictures which have an angular resolution comparable with that of the best optical telescopes. Abbreviated VLA.


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The radio supernova was discovered on April 8 in M82, a small irregular galaxy located nearly 12 million light years from Earth in the M81 galaxy group, by the Very Large Array, a New Mexico facility operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).
VERY LARGE ARRAY LOCATION: SOCORRO, NEW MEXICO TYPE OF WAVE DETECTED: RADIO The Very Large Array (VLA) is not just one telescope--it contains 27
VLA scientists find water in distant galaxy Astronomers using the Very Large Array near Socorro and a 100-meter radio telescope in Effelsberg, Germany, have found the most distant water yet seen in the universe.
 
 
 
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