What’s a radio astronomer’s job?

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Radio astronomers study celestial objects like any other astronomer, but they do it differently. Using a radio telescope, a radio astronomer monitors celestial objects that emit radio waves. Most astronomers mostly limit themselves to making observations at night, but radio astronomers can also work during the day. Visualization is important to these scientists, but not in the accustomed sense of looking through optical lenses. Instead, radio astronomers spend a lot of time watching and interpreting graphs.

Astronomy has a captivating history of reporting discoveries when exploring the cosmos. Many people don’t realize that radio astronomers are responsible for many of these discoveries. One of the most important discoveries in radio astronomy was the cosmic microwave background, which is often cited as evidence for the so-called “big bang” theory. Radio waves are not impeded by dust; therefore, radio astronomy is responsible for determining new objects that astronomers normally could not see but thought were there.

Completing these discoveries requires time and patience. The vocation starts with a radio telescope, which a radio astronomer uses to monitor radio waves passing through the universe. Functioning like a radio receiver, this type of telescope uses an antenna to capture radio waves. Radio waves are generally weak, so a receiver or amplifier is built into the radio telescope to amplify the signals. The recorders are connected to the telescope and will draw a representation of the radio waves, either on graph paper with ink or, more commonly, directly into a computer software program.

Listening, however, is not really part of the job, unless the radio astronomer needs to check for interference from artificial devices that emit radio waves. Instead of listening to static, a radio astronomer monitors the tape recorder’s output to observe the radio waves. By monitoring this output, a radio astronomer uses computer programs to create an image of the object he or she is observing. This sometimes involves taking multiple scans of an object and overlaying the graphics to create mosaic images.

Relying on radio waves rather than light, a radio astronomer is not limited to nocturnal observation. Radio waves penetrate the Earth’s atmosphere regardless of the time of day, while the light from most celestial objects is too dim to be seen during the day. The main problem a radio astronomer has to deal with is the radio waves emitted by human devices, regardless of what time of day he or she works. Successful radio astronomers learn to filter out this static and accurately measure the radio waves emitted by astral objects.

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