極大電波望遠鏡陣列

影像提供: Dave Finley, AUI, NRAO, NSF

Explanation:
The most photogenic array of radio telescopes in the world has also been one of the most productive. Each of the 27 radio telescopes in the Very Large Array (VLA) is the size of a house and can be moved on train tracks.

The above pictured VLA, inaugurated in 1980 is situated in New Mexico, USA. The VLA has been used to discover water on planet Mercury, radio-bright coronae around ordinary stars, micro-quasars in our Galaxy, gravitationally-induced Einstein rings around distant galaxies, and radio counterparts to cosmologically distant gamma-ray bursts. The vast size of the VLA has allowed astronomers to study the details of super-fast cosmic jets, and even map the center of our Galaxy. An upgrade of the VLA is being planned.

說明:
世界上最上鏡頭的電波望遠鏡陣列，同時也科學生產量最高的陣列之一。極大陣列 (Very Large Array, VLA)的二十七座電波望遠鏡，每一座的大小都和房屋相當，他們都可以藉著軌道來移動位置。上面照片中的VLA座落於美國的新墨西哥州，它是在1980年啟用。科學家已藉由VLA發現水星上的水、正常恆星周圍會輻射出明亮電波的日冕、銀河系中的微類星體、遙遠星系周圍經重力作用產生的愛因斯坦環、以及遙遠伽瑪線爆發的電波同位對照影像。

龐大的VLA讓天文學家得以研究超高速宇宙噴流的細微結構，以及探索銀河系的中心。一項VLA的升級計畫正在規畫之中。

資料來源：Scientific American
　　　　　Department of Physics, NCKU