NRAO: National Radio Astronomy Observatory

About this Image

The right-hand panel shows the active galaxy PKS1519-273 as imaged with HALCA satellite in conjunction with the VLBA and VLA ground-based radio telescopes. The left-hand panel shows the same active galaxy as seen with ground-only radio telescopes. This image is to the same scale as the space-ground image, showing the drastic improvment in resolution provided by the addition of an earth-space baseline. This is the first image ever made using a space-based radio telescope. The observations were conducted on May 22, 1997, approximately three months after the launch of the HALCA satellite. Astronomers and computer scientists used a special-purpose computer, the VLBA Correlator, to digitally combine the signals from the satellite and the ground telescopes to make them all work together as a single, giant radio telescope.

Investigator(s):  H. Hirabayashi and the VSOP team, Jim Ulvestad and Jon Romney

Alternate Resolutions

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This image is available in the following downloadable versions:

• 576 x 286 color JPEG
• 1200 x 595 color JPEG
• 3245 x 1610 color TIFF

If you would like to obtain a higher resolution version of this image, please contact Pat Smiley.

For More Information

• Read the Press Release
• Up one level for more info on Other_AGN
• For unfamiliar terms, visit the NRAO Radio Astronomy Glossary

Technical Data

Telescope	VLA, VLBA, and HALCA
Date of Observation	1997-05-22
Type of Observation	Continuum Observations
Band	L
Wavelength	18 cm
Frequency	1.6 GHz
Center of Image	RA: 15:22:37.67, Dec: -27:30:10.78 (J2000)
Field of View	0.0000 x 0.0000 degrees
Technical Caption



Astronomical database entries for PKS 1519-273
• Query NED for images of PKS 1519-273
• Query SIMBAD for more PKS 1519-273 data

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