Themes > Science > Astronomy > Equipment and Devices > Telescope > Kinds of  Telescope > Radio Telescope

Combination of radio receiver and antenna, used for observation in radio astronomy (see radio and radar astronomy). Radio telescopes vary widely but all have two basic components, a large radio antenna and a radiometer or radio receiver. Because some astronomical radio sources are extremely faint on earth, radio telescopes are usually very large, and only the most sensitive radio receivers are used. The first large fully steerable radio telescope was completed in 1957 at Jodrell Bank, England. The world's largest fully steerable radio telescope is the 100-m (328-ft) antenna operated by the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany. The largest single radio telescope in the world is the 1,000-ft (305-m) fixed spherical reflector at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Radio telescopes enabled investigators to discover intense radio emissions from Jupiter and have been used to measure the temperatures of all the planets.