Quasat - a 50,000 km-diameter quasar probe.
Abstract
Quasat is an Earth-orbiting radio antenna to be used in conjunction with ground-based Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) networks in Europe, the USA, the USSR and Australia to produce radio images at frequencies of 22, 5, 1.6 and 0.3 GHz. By combining simultaneous space and ground observations with baselines of up to 50,000 km, Quasat can provide radio images that are forty to two hundred times sharper than those from Earth-based VLBI networks, and one hundred thousand times sharper than those from the Hubble Space Telescope. The scientific research conducted with Quasat will address such problems as the physics of the central region of quasars and active galaxies, the distance scale and rate of expansion of the Universe, and star formation.
- Publication:
-
ESA Bulletin
- Pub Date:
- August 1988
- Bibcode:
- 1988ESABu..55...18F
- Keywords:
-
- Active Galactic Nuclei;
- Earth Orbits;
- Quasat;
- Radio Antennas;
- Star Formation;
- Very Long Base Interferometry;
- Angular Resolution;
- Hubble Space Telescope;
- Radio Astronomy;
- Astronomy;
- Artificial Satellites:VLB Interferometry;
- VLB Interferometry:Artificial Satellites