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To: Texaggie79
"... It revealed details in the observed objects more than 100 times finer than the Hubble Space Telescope can see."

Ok... for a standard telescope (approximately):

. resolution (theta) = 1.22 Lambda/Diameter

where theta is the angle of resolution,
Lambda is the wavelengh in meters
and Diameter is the telescope's diameter in meters.

So, the Hubble has an average wavelength (lambda) of half-micron, and a diameter of 2m. (rounded).

Then, if VLBI has an effective diameter (baseline) is 30,000,000 meters (30k km) and the wavelength is decimeter, then it would have 100 times the resolution of Hubble @ half micron wavelength and 2 meter diameter.
Works out to a good approximation.

Amazing... a radio telescope system with 100 times the resolution of Hubble....
Then imagine a visual interferometer system with Earth-moon baseline!!
Images of extra-solar planets.

40 posted on 04/03/2002 3:21:49 PM PST by edwin hubble
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To: edwin hubble
Then imagine a visual interferometer system with Earth-moon baseline!! Images of extra-solar planets.

Ah, you beat me to it by 24 minutes!

42 posted on 04/03/2002 3:48:34 PM PST by longshadow
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