A Mystery of Space: S T A R S- [Non-Optical Telescopes] U12

Optical telescopes aren't the only kind of telescopes. Other Non-optical instruments use other forms of observing the skies. They observe things like infrared, x-ray, ultraviolet, and radio waves. Infrared telescopes, like one aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, can "see" objects that are smaller and farther away then optical telescopes can see. Hubble is also equipped with an ultraviolet telescope, which is really a mirror coated with special substances that only reflect ultraviolet light. Some of the hottest and brightest stars can be seen with ultraviolet telescopes.

the Very Large Array

The Very Large Array (or VLA), is the largest radio telescope in the world. It is made up of a group of 27 dishes. Each dish is 82 feet (25 meters) in diameter. The VLA is located near Socorro, New Mexico. The antennas located on each dish are synchronized by a control room, where each small picture produced by the separate antennas is made into one large picture. This process of using many dishes and combining their pictures produces the same result as a very large dish would produce.
X-ray telescopes were invented in the 1960's, and were mounted on rockets that went very high. When the rocket telescopes showed that many objects in the sky emit x-rays, scientists quickly assembled U.S. Explorer 42 (Uhuru) in 1970. Uhuru mapped the objects in the sky that emitted x-rays. A new x-ray telescope called the Chandra X-Ray Observatory was launched recently (July 23, 1999) by NASA, on a five year mission to give scientists a better understanding of the structure and evolution of the universe. It will provide x-ray images of violent, high-temperature events and objects.