Russian Space Telescope Lifts Off, Will Be Biggest Telescope Ever: (Man they are moving ahead quickl

A new Russian space telescope that will work in concert with radio telescopes on the ground launched earlier today, capping an effort that germinated during the Cold War. It will be the biggest telescope ever, with an effective antenna size spanning 30 times the diameter of the Earth.

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RadioAstron Flight Model Astro Space Center, Russian Academy of Science

The RadioAstron telescope has a 10-meter antenna, a tenth of the size of the biggest radio telescopes on Earth, but when combined with ground-based observatories it will be huge — with a resolution up to 10,000 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope.

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The telescope is designed to unfurl in orbit, with 27 carbon fiber petals unfolding to form a 10-meter-wide dish. It will have a highly elliptical orbit, allowing the moon’s gravitational pull to shift its path. This highly variable orbital route, along with more powerful computers on the ground, will allow Russian scientists to develop high-resolution images of distant galaxies, according to a report by the South African press agency.

Source: www.popsci.com...

Well now, isn't that special. I hate to say it but... Good for them. Well, actually good for Mankind.

I am a little disappointed that it is the Russians doing this and not the USA but... I guess it is all possible due to the USA blowing it's bucks on other things.

I won't mind so much IF the Russian give the rest of the world unfettered access but...... I don't think that will happen.

Maybe this is one of the reasons the Webb telescope is going to be scrapped? Hmm?

Pretty impressive looking thing. The Russian will be leaping light years ahead of the USA at this point. May as well include the Chinese with them.

It's amazing what you can do when you don't have to spends hundreds of billions on wars and welfare.

Man, we continue to fall behind in everything.

We cut our space programs, while everyone else is making leaps.

Thanks for the link. S&F

Now its just waiting on the photos it will return, hope the russians dont know photoshop

with a resolution up to 10,000 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope

Thats promising

Thanks for the information OP

Hope all goes well and they get it up there safely. Can't wait to see the crazy # it captures.

reply to post by TheodoreBundy

If it captures anything too cool, I'm sure it will find a way to accidentally explode, lol....

Seriously, come on all you people bitching we're falling behind, i love the fact that you don't specify which country is falling behind, its obvious you mean us U.S.A, but cant you just shut up and relax there is a whole world out there, i'm glad for the russians we should be working together not, My country is better than your country, cause we has more missles and we also has, better telescopes, *ne ne nene ne*...

Seriously this is why we have such a bad name.

reply to post by Alkimyst

Seriously this is why we have such a bad name.

When you say "we" who are you referring to exactly? I mean I can only assume you mean those in the U.S.A. C'mon relax, there's a whole other world out there!

Wow, very cool news! I find it surprising to read this only two weeks after the ESA revealed their 1 billion pixel camera which is going to be used for the Gaia mission. Talk about timely.

I can only hope the resulting photos will be shared with the rest of the world as they have the potential to be quite amazing.

reply to post by Wookiep

its obvious you mean "us" U.S.A

It's ok with me that NASA's budget is cut. They don't want to build any TR-3B antigravity spacecraft.

Originally posted by anon72

effective antenna size spanning 30 times the diameter of the Earth.

Why don't people actually read what they post before they post??



?

Слава России!

Originally posted by prof7

Originally posted by anon72

effective antenna size spanning 30 times the diameter of the Earth.

Why don't people actually read what they post before they post??



?

Interferometry?

Amazing, really amazing! I was hoping someone would do this for who knows how long...
I can't even start to picture what sort of readings we'll get, I can't apprehend such resolution...
Let's point that to the galactic core! Yeeaa!!
Scieeence woohooo!
(I just got a xkcd moment)

EDIT: It should be noted that this is an interferometry-based RADIO-telescope. Not visible light range.


And (FTFA):

RadioAstron will be able to resolve celestial objects separated by an angle of 7 microarcseconds, which is 10,000 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope, New Scientist notes. Scientists hope it will be able to peer at the event horizon of a black hole at the center of the galaxy M87; study radio waves emitted by water masers, which are clouds of water molecules found in galaxy discs; and study pulsars, among other missions.

Looks like my old analog satellite dish that I used to watch scrambled porn on.


Good ol' Russian Science, the only Science in the world that can get 150% molar yield chemical reactions...

reply to post by boncho

the only Science in the world that can get 150% molar yield chemical reactions...

Could you please elaborate on this please.

Thank you.

reply to post by prof7


I am almost sure that is talking about its range: how far it can detect things with the actual antenna. Not how big the antenna is hahahaha

Then again, hey maybe I'm wrong.... or just read the thing correctly, one of the two I 'spose

Originally posted by PhysicsAdept
reply to post by prof7

 

I am almost sure that is talking about its range: how far it can detect things with the actual antenna. Not how big the antenna is hahahaha

Then again, hey maybe I'm wrong.... or just read the thing correctly, one of the two I 'spose

No, it's actually the virtual size of the "antenna", look:
(FTA)

Interferometry is widely used to create huge telescope arrays on Earth, connecting individual observatories into a larger network with a much higher effective resolution.

Basically, they take two (or more) different shots one away from the other and then they analyze the interference pattern. And the farther away (and the more you have, off course) the two antennas are of each other, the greater the resolutive power of the Interferometer.

Drakus

reply to post by drakus


I am very glad someone will actually challenge a comment like that, however, I was basing what I said off of this:

The RadioAstron telescope has a 10-meter antenna, a tenth of the size of the biggest radio telescopes on Earth

I wish I was more of an astronomer... My physical knowledge right now is limited in the oposite direction I'm afraid. What I'm trying to say is that I am finding it difficult to see the correlation between your addition to the post and the antenna being so much larger than the diameter of the Earth.

I wish to understand, so if possible, please try to put it just a bit simpler so I can understand, and I will continue to listen.