30th of May 2016 |
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Milky Way above the Compact Array |
Photo by Alex Cherney (Terrastro) |
CSIRO's Australia Telescope Compact Array
(ATCA) as photographed by Alex Cherney. The ATCA (6 x 22-m dishes) is a
synthesis telescope, using Earth rotation to form a 6-km diameter radio
telescope. Its five receiver systems cover the frequency range from 1.1
to 105 GHz. At the low end, we use the 1.42 GHz spectral line of hydrogen
to map the atomic gas in galaxies, while at the high end we observe the
spectral lines of many molecules, including red-shifted CO, which traces
some of the extremely cold molecular hydrogen gas. Photo credit: Alex Cherney (Terrastro) |