Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2020 October 9 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. The Very Large Array at Moonset Image Credit: Jeff Hellermann, [3]NRAO / [4]AUI / [5]NSF Explanation: [6]An inspirational sight, these giant dish antennas of the [7]Karl G. Jansky [8]Very Large Array (VLA) rise above the New Mexico desert at moonset. Mounted on piers but transportable on railroad tracks to change the VLA's configuration, its 27 operating antennas are each house-sized (25 meters across) and can be [9]organized into an array spanning the size of a city (35 kilometers). A prolific radio astronomy workhorse, the VLA has been used to discover water on [10]planet Mercury, radio-bright coronae around stars, micro-quasars in our Galaxy, gravitationally-induced Einstein rings around distant galaxies, and radio counterparts to cosmologically distant gamma-ray bursts. Its vast size has allowed astronomers to study the details of radio galaxies, super-fast cosmic jets, and map the center of our own Milky Way. [11]Now 40 years since its dedication the VLA has been used in more than 14,000 observing projects and contributed to more than 500 Ph.D. dissertations. On October 10, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory will host a day-long [12]online celebration of the VLA at 40 featuring virtual tours and presentations on the history, operations, science, and future of the Very Large Array. Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend __________________________________________________________________ [13]< | [14]Archive | [15]Submissions | [16]Index | [17]Search | [18]Calendar | [19]RSS | [20]Education | [21]About APOD | [22]Discuss | [23]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [24]Robert Nemiroff ([25]MTU) & [26]Jerry Bonnell ([27]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [28]Specific rights apply. [29]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [30]ASD at [31]NASA / [32]GSFC & [33]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2010/VLA_Moonset_NIK_0991.jpg 3. https://public.nrao.edu/ 4. https://aui.edu/ 5. https://www.nsf.gov/ 6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contact_(1997_American_film) 7. https://phys.org/news/2012-04-karl-jansky-large-array-famous.html 8. https://public.nrao.edu/telescopes/vla/ 9. https://public.nrao.edu/vla-configurations/ 10. https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/planets/mercury/overview/ 11. https://beta.nsf.gov/science-matters/vla-turning-40 12. https://public.nrao.edu/event/vla-virtual-tours-2020-10-10/ 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201008.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 17. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 22. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=201009 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201010.html 24. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 25. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 27. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 29. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 30. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 31. https://www.nasa.gov/ 32. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 33. http://www.mtu.edu/