The mystery of radio astronomy

Learn a brief overview of the non-visible spectrum that is the home of radio astronomy.
Watch the Hartiverse radio astronomy video here: https://youtu.be/jMJbCvwJjn4
For more information about the awe and mystery of radio astronomy, follow these Amazon affiliate links:
Radio and Radar Astronomy Projects for Beginners (The Patrick Moore Practical Astronomy Series)
An Introduction to Radio Astronomy
The Radio Sky and How to Observe It (Astronomers’ Observing Guides)
Listen Up!: Laboratory Exercises for Introductory Radio Astronomy with a Small Radio Telescope
The Invisible Universe: The Story of Radio Astronomy
RF Explorer and Handheld Spectrum Analyzer 3G Combo with Aluminium Case

For most of us, the idea of astronomy is something we directly connect to stargazing through telescopes at magnificent displays in the heavens. That is certainly an exciting area of astronomy, but it’s just part of a larger field. The idea of radio astronomy may seem strange because humans are far more visual than audio oriented. Also, radio astronomy doesn’t really involve listening to the cosmos except to the extent that scientists who use this sophisticated form of stargazing do not rely on visual study to conduct their work.

To appreciate what is really exciting about radio astronomy, first we have to shift how we view astronomy. That is because to professional astronomers, studying the universe is more about frequencies than it is about visual documentation of phenomena. Let’s take a quick look at the physics of radio astronomy.

Light is the physical phenomenon that empowers our ability to use our eyes to appreciate what we see when we look at the stars. Although the sun and the moon are much closer to us in our perception of time, if we see a faraway star, we are seeing how it looked in the distant past, as it takes up to hundreds or thousands of years for the light we see to cross the universe and be visible in our sky. That alone is impressive.

Light itself seems like a strange substance, but really, it’s just another form of energy that exists in a certain frequency band. When we think of frequencies, we usually mean sound waves, but in scientific terms, light, energy and sound are just a few forms of the same thing: frequencies of energy that are emanating from a source.

Now we get to why radio astronomy is so necessary. The range of frequency that light occupies in the big spectrum of frequencies is really pretty small. We can only see a tiny part of the universe that is actually there. The remaining frequency bands are part of radio astronomy.

Radio astronomy uses sophisticated sensor equipment to study all of the frequencies of energy coming to us from the cosmos, not just the narrow band of visual light seen through regular telescopes. Using radio astronomy, scientists can see the non-visible parts of the spectrum, gathering a more precise idea of how the stars look, behave now and will behave in the future.

Because of the word “radio” in the name, radio astronomy is often thought of in terms of “listening” for signs of life in the universe. And yes, the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence, also called SETI, is a part of radio astronomy, but just a small part. Of much greater importance is how radio astronomy has empowered professional astronomers to study stars many light years away, including black holes, which we can’t see with visual telescopes, and to gather research and data about the whole of the universe that otherwise would be impossible to know and understand.

This is important work that is constantly ongoing in the world of astronomy. It’s worth reading when an item about radio astronomy finds its way into the news. This brief discussion barely scratches the surface, but it was only meant to give you a general overview of the subject. Understanding how important radio astronomy is will only deepen and make more meaningful your love and grasp of this big field of knowledge known as astronomy.

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