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

     Non-optical instruments utilize other forms of observing the skies instead of normal optical observatories. Some examples are infrared, x-ray, ultraviolet, and radio telescopes.
     Infrared telescopes, like one of the telescopes aboard the Hubble Space Telescope, can detect objects smaller and farther away than the human eye. Hubble is also equipped with an ultraviolet telescope, which is actually a mirror coated with special substances that reflect ultraviolet light. Some of the brightest and hottest stars are visible in the ultraviolet spectrum.
     The Very Large Array (or VLA), is the largest radio telescope in the world, and is made up of a group of 27 dishes, each being 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter, located near Socorro, New

Very Large Array

Mexico. The antennas located on each dish are synchronized together into a control room, where each small picture produced by the separate antennas is compiled into one large picture. This way of using many dishes and combining their picture produces the same result as an extremely large dish would produce.
X-ray telescopes were first developed in the 1960's, and were mounted on high-altitude rockets. When the rockets revealed that many objects in the sky emit x-rays, scientists were quick to assembled U.S. Explorer 42 (Uhuru) in 1970, that mapped the objects in the sky that emitted x-rays. A new x-ray telescope called the Chandra X-Ray Observatory was launched recently (7/23/99) 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.