Introduction to Radio Astronomy

Introduction to Radio Astronomy What is Radio ? Radio is part of the Electromagnetic Spectrum (EM) along with Light. The Electromagnetic Spectrum Whenever an electric charge changes speed or direction it gives off an electromagnetic (EM) wave. How fast the wave wiggles' determines what kind of EM radiation is created. EM can be placed in order from lowest energy to highest energy as follows: Radio , Infrared, Visible Light, Ultraviolet, X-Rays, and Gamma Rays. The chart below also shows Frequency and Wavelength as well as Energy.

The EM Spectrum - Radio Radio signals are able to reach Earth and so many large radio observatories have been built to look at objects through this large portion of the EM spectrum. The pictures above shows the Milky Way galaxy in a 360 degree map view in both visible light (left) and radio radiation (right - 408 MHz). Remember that radio

Tags:

  Radio, Astronomy, Radio astronomy, Radio radio

Information