World's most sensitive radio telescope array set to be built in Nevada desert

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC News

June 21, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT


Nestled in the Great Basin, a remote stretch of the Nevada desert is set to become home to the world’s most sensitive radio telescope array.

The California Institute of Technology, which is leading the project, announced last week that it is moving ahead with the telescope’s construction after securing enough funding. Known as the Deep Synoptic Array, the project calls for 1,650 individual radio dishes that together will study supermassive black holes, spinning dead stars known as pulsars and fast radio bursts, which are brief, intense explosions of radio waves that often originate from deep space.

“It’s the sheer number of antennas that makes this completely unique and unlike other existing telescopes,” said Gregg Hallinan, a professor of astronomy at Caltech and a principal investigator for the Deep Synoptic Array.

Radio telescopes detect naturally occurring radio waves emitted by stars, planets, galaxies and other celestial objects. Astronomers can analyze the unique patterns of radio emissions from these sources to understand their structure, composition and other characteristics such as temperature. Radio telescopes don’t snap photos in the same way as optical observatories, but the trove of resulting radio signals can be converted into data and turned into images.

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/radio-telescope-array-nevada-desert-rcna350710

[tfury653]

1. future

This project is the best way for humans to explore space. With mankinds current limited knowledge of space travel and using fuel propelled rockets, this use of money is a better choice then Musk's city of space travel exisiting down in Texas. Until someone can discover how humans can travel at the speed of light, we are limited in our explorations

[LudwigPastorius]

2. Will it be able to "see" anything through Musk's trash field of Starlink satellites?

https://www.science.org/content/article/worst-nightmare-elon-musk-s-starlink-satellites-could-blind-radio-telescopes

Note: This is an old article. There are currently 10,400 active Starlink satellites in orbit.

[Igel]

3. They're radio telescopes.

They don't much care about time of day or the optical spectrum. They're after the long-wavelength part of the spectrum and what's important when they look away from Earth is what radio-emitters are 'out there'. Starlink probably uses specific microwave frequencies and most radio other sources are similarly well tuned to specific frequencies that don't usually overlap with the emission-line wavelengths that radio telescopes.

[Igel]

4. So ALMA's getting competition.

I wonder if they can link the proposed Nevada site with other radio telescopes imaging the same parts of the sky for some interferometric hijinks to improve resolution?