Nobeyama Radio Observatory


Nobeyama Radio Observatory

(no-bay-yah -mah) A Japanese observatory run by the University of Tokyo and situated in the Nobeyama highland. It is concerned mainly with millimeter astronomy. Its 45-meter parabolic dish became operational in 1982 and was the first antenna of this size to be used efficiently at millimeter wavelengths. Other instruments include the Nobeyama Millimeter Array (NMA), an array of six movable antennas separated over a maximum baseline of 600 meters forming an aperture synthesis telescope of 600 meters or more; the Nobeyama Radioheliograph, an 84-antenna array aligned in a T-shaped configuration devoted to highly detailed solar observations; and a Very Long Baseline interferometer called VSOP, consisting of both satellites and groundbased instruments, that achieves angular resolutions equivalent to a single telescope with an aperture of 30 000 km. The Nobeyama Radio Observatory is one of the scientific institutions involved in the international Atacama Large Millimeter Array.