RadioAstron

(ray-dee-oh-ass -tron, rad-ee-) An international collaborative mission to launch a 10-meter diameter radio telescope into an elliptical orbit (apogee 80 000 km, period 28 hours) around the Earth. The dish is made from 27 carbon-fiber petals with a surface accuracy of 0.5 mm. RadioAstron is designed to carry out VLBI observations in conjunction with ground-based telescopes, operating at wavelengths of 1.35, 6, 18 and 92 cm with an angular resolution of up to 30 milliarcseconds.

Initiated in the former Soviet Union, the project now has support from more than 20 countries and is planned for launch around 2003.

Collins Dictionary of Astronomy © Market House Books Ltd, 2006

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References in periodicals archive

The works are divided into two main parts: the first covers topics related to space projects such as Radioastron, Millimetron, and Submillimetron; the second addresses groundbased radio telescopes.

Radioastronomical tools and techniques

The Soviet Union plans to launch a satellite called RADIOASTRON for VLBI in 1992, and the report proposes German participation in the network that goes with it.

Astronomy in West Germany goes supernational: the science of astronomy virtually demands international cooperation

Observations are obtained regularly in conjunction with RadioAstron, a 10-meter radio telescope the Russian space agency launched into orbit in 2011, for example.

Arecibo under the gun: the future of this iconic radio telescope hangs in the balance

As a follow up to your article "Einstein's Shadow" (S&T: February 2012, page 18), I have the following question: the Russian radio telescope RadioAstron was recently launched into space and has started operations.

Another black hole spy?

Even higher resolution is eventually expected from Russia's Radioastron satellite, which is designed to go into a highly elliptical orbit that will yield baselines as large as 77,000 km.

Radio astronomy in the 21st century

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