radio telescope

noun, Astronomy

a system consisting of an antenna, either parabolic or dipolar, used to gather radio waves emitted by celestial sources and bring them to a receiver placed in the focus.

Origin

1925-30

Examples from the web for radio telescope

Their definition of intelligent life is creatures that can build a radio telescope.
So if a photon strikes our radio telescope it has a quantum amplitude for traversing one path or the other.
Consequently it is an ideal radio telescope for accurate measurements of low levels of weak background radiation.

British Dictionary definitions for radio telescope

radio telescope

noun

an instrument consisting of an antenna or system of antennas connected to one or more radio receivers, used in radio astronomy to detect and analyse radio waves from space

radio telescope in Science

radio telescope
An instrument that consists of a radio receiver and antenna system mounted on a wide, bowl-shaped reflector, used to detect radio-frequency emissions from astronomical objects. The reflector and receiver form a parabolic antenna; incoming radio waves are focused by the reflector onto the receiver, where the radio signals are translated into electrical signals for further processing or electronic display. Due to the long wavelengths of radio waves, the reflectors of radio telescopes must be very large to focus the waves at a good resolution. Separate reflectors are sometimes linked in fixed arrays to act as a single collector.