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zuz
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Has anyone ever taken a "deep field" picture of the sky, like Hubble, but with a radio telescope?
All that exists at FAST but all publications I could find from them were pulsars and FRB and again pulsars, i.e. only the sources that were very bright for the telescope. I wonder whether this is for a reason or due to the relatively young age of FAST.Baluncore said:To get deeper detailed images of smaller areas, requires VLBI, with international collaboration. The construction of detailed radio images, from the VLBI time data, requires intensive numerical processing. An optical image can be accumulated, on an image sensor array, which is a faster parallel process.
Deep sky observations require high sensitivity and high resolution. Unfortunately, man-made interference, and nearby bright sources, raise the noise floor of the synthesised images.fresh_42 said:All that exists at FAST but all publications I could find from them were pulsars and FRB and again pulsars, i.e. only the sources that were very bright for the telescope.
A deep field picture is an image of a small region of the sky that is taken with the purpose of capturing very faint and distant objects. This type of observation requires long exposure times to collect enough light from these distant sources, revealing galaxies, stars, and other celestial objects that are not visible in shorter exposures.
Yes, deep field pictures of the sky have been captured using radio telescopes. One notable example is the Very Large Array (VLA) Sky Survey, which includes deep field observations. These radio deep fields help astronomers study the universe in radio wavelengths, revealing information about galaxies, black holes, and other cosmic phenomena that are not detectable in visible light.
Radio deep field images differ from optical deep field images in the type of electromagnetic radiation they capture. Optical deep fields, like the famous Hubble Deep Field, capture visible light, while radio deep fields capture radio waves. This allows radio deep fields to reveal different types of astronomical objects and phenomena, such as radio galaxies, quasars, and cosmic microwave background radiation, which are not visible in optical wavelengths.
Some notable radio deep field surveys include the VLA Sky Survey (VLASS), the Australia Telescope Large Area Survey (ATLAS), and the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS). These surveys have provided valuable data on the radio universe, contributing to our understanding of galaxy formation, evolution, and the large-scale structure of the cosmos.
Radio deep field images have led to several important scientific discoveries. They have helped identify and study distant radio galaxies and quasars, provided insights into the cosmic evolution of star-forming galaxies, and contributed to our understanding of the cosmic microwave background radiation. These observations have also shed light on the distribution and behavior of dark matter and dark energy in the universe.