Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Images of New Mexico


The Very Large Array, one of the world's premier astronomical radio observatories, consists of 27 radio antennas in a Y-shaped configuration on the Plains of San Agustin fifty miles west of Socorro, New Mexico. Each antenna is 82 feet in diameter. The data from the antennas is combined electronically to give the resolution of an antenna 22 miles across, with the sensitivity of a dish 426.5 feet in diameter. Techie "gee-whiz" facts aside, the site is visually impressive beyond belief. Did you see the movie "Contact?" Then you've seen the VLA.

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