Author Question: Gravitational _______________ can be used to detect dark matter. Fill in the blank(s) with ... (Read 61 times)

DyllonKazuo · **on:** Jul 27, 2018

Gravitational _______________ can be used to detect dark matter.

Fill in the blank(s) with correct word

Question 2

Explain interferometry and provide an example of an observatory that uses this technique.

What will be an ideal response?

al · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 27, 2018

Answer to Question 1

lensing

Answer to Question 2

Astronomers have been able to achieve very high resolution by connecting multiple telescopes together to work, in a sense, as if they comprised a single, very large telescope. This method of synthesizing a large virtual telescope from two or more smaller telescopes is known as interferometry. The images from such an interferometric telescope are not limited by the diffraction fringes of the individual small telescopes but rather by the diffraction fringes of the much larger virtual telescope.

In an interferometer, light from the separate telescopes must be brought together and combined carefully. The path that each light beam travels must be controlled so that it is known to a precision of a small fraction of the light's wavelength.
Some examples include the Very Large Array in New Mexico, Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array in northern Chile, the European Very Large Telescope in Chile, and the Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona.