TOW (& Answer)…

This week’s question revolved around the radio interferometer.  A radio interferometer is an astronomical instrument involving several radio telescopes controlled by computer.  It was developed by Sir Martin Ryle (and team) in 1955.  This method allowed astronomers to get the results the would get from a very large telescope by combing the observations of a number of smaller ones.

The question, and answer, were taken from p. 628-229 of Great Scientific Achievements of the Twentieth Century volume 6.  The work was published by Salem Press in 1994.