An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

A "Large Number of Small Dishes" (LNSD) array designed to be sensitive for → commensal surveys of conventional → radio astronomy projects and → SETI targets at centimeter wavelengths. The ATA will consist of 350 6m-diameter → dishes when completed, which will provide an outstanding survey speed and sensitivity. In addition, the many → antennas and → baseline pairs provide a rich → sampling of the → interferometer  → uv plane, so that a single pointing snapshot of the array of 350 antennas yields an image in a single field with about 15,000 independent → pixels. Other important features of the ATA include continuous frequency coverage over 0.5 GHz to 10 GHz and four simultaneously available 600-MHz bands at the → back-end which can be tuned to different frequencies in the overall band. The ATA is a joint project of the Radio Astronomy Laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley, and the SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA. The ATA is now complete to 42 antennas. Highlights of the system are the frequency agility, the low background and → side lobes of the antennas, the wideband feed and input receiver, the analog fiber optical system, the large spatial dynamic range, the back-end processing systems and the overall low cost (see, e.g., Backer et al., 2009, arXiv:0908.1175.pdf).

Named after Paul G. Allen (1953-2018), an American business magnate, computer programmer, researcher, investor, and philanthropist. A donation of $11.5 million by his foundation in 2004 contributed to the development of the project.

1) A system of telescopes coupled together, using → interferometric techniques, to increase the angular resolution or the sensitivity.
2) A two-dimensional detector comprising a large number of identical, individual detectors that can be used simultaneously, e.g. a → CCD.
3) A series of numbers or symbols arranged in some geometric pattern, as in a matrix.

Array, from M.E. arraien, from Anglo-Norman arraier, from V.L. *arredare.

Ârast "set in order," from ârastan, ârâstan "to set in order," Mid.Pers. ârây-, ârâstan, from â- + Av. râd- "to make ready, prepare;" PIE *ar- "to fit together."

One of the largest ground-based astronomy projects and a major new facility for world astronomy located on the plain of the → Chajnantor Chilean Andes, San Pedro de Atacama, some 5000 m above sea level. ALMA will initially comprise 66 high precision antennas, with the option to expand in the future. There will be an array of fifty 12 m antennas, acting together as an → interferometer to capture → millimeter and → submillimeter wavelengths of 0.3 to 9.6 mm. It will have reconfigurable baselines ranging from 15 m to 18 km. A compact array of 7 m antenna and few 12 m diameter antennas (ACA) will be used to measure the diffuse emission. Resolutions as fine as 0''.005 will be achieved at the highest frequencies. Construction of ALMA started in 2003 and will be completed in 2012. The ALMA project is an international collaboration between Europe, Japan, and North America in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded in Europe by the → European Southern Observatory (ESO). The first 12 m diameter antenna, built by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation for the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, was handed over to ESO in 2008. It will shortly be joined by North American and European antennas. ALMA will allow astronomers to study the cool Universe, i.e. the molecular gas and tiny dust grains from which stars, planetary systems, galaxies, and even life are formed.

Atacama the name of a desert, west of the Andes mountains in Chile, covering a 1,000 km strip of land on the Pacific coast of South America; → large; → millimeter; → submillimeter; → array.

A CCD detector having two dimensions.

→ CCD; → array.

A → radio interferometer array consisting of 27 25-meter diameter antennas located on the Plains of San Agustin in West-Central New Mexico. EVLA will operate at any frequency between 1.0 and 50 GHz and will have a continuum sensitivity improvement over the → VLA by factors of 5 to 20.The EVLA project is expected to be completed in 2012. See also the EVLA homepage.

→ expand; → very; → large; → array.

A two-dimensional infrared imaging device, consisting of an array of small, individual electronic detectors, each of which records a pixel in the image.

→ infrared; → array.

A system of several telescopes coupled together in a particular configuration to carry out → interferometry.

→ interferometric; → array.

An international project to construct a highly sensitive radio interferometer array operating between 0.15 and 20 GHz with an effective collecting area of one square kilometer. The number of individual telescopes will be 2000 to 3000. SKA will have a sensitivity 100 times higher than that of today's best radio telescopes and an angular resolution < 0.1 arcsec at 1.4 GHz. The site will be selected in 2012 and early science with Phase 1 is scheduled for from 2016 on. See also the SKA homepage.

→ square; → kilometer; → array.

A radio interferometer consisting of 27 antennas, each 25 m in diameter, in a Y-shaped configuration. It is located about 100 km west of Socorro, New Mexico, and is operated by the United States National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The VLA has the resolution of a single antenna 36 km wide and the sensitivity of a dish 130 m across.

→ very; → large; → array.

A network of ten 25-m radio telescopes for → very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI), operated by the U.S. National Radio Astronomy Observatory. Eight of the VLBA telescopes are distributed across the continental United States, while the other two are in Hawaii and the Virgin Islands, giving a maximum baseline of about 8,000 km and a resolution better than a milliarcsecond at its shortest wavelength.

→ very; → large; → baseline; → array.