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A radio telescope is very different from an optic telescope. Optic
telescopes produce visual images by focusing light; radio telescopes
use large satellite dishes to catch radio waves which astronomical
bodies emit. Light is not the only energy source which stars and
astronomical bodies send out into space; longer wavelengths of
energy can be picked up by radio telescopes and provide astronomers
with very useful data.
Radio telescopes require very large satellite dishes,
or large arrays of them, in order to catch as many radio waves
as possible.
They were developed in the late 1930's, and now
Radio Astronomy represents its own sub-field in the study of the
cosmos.
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