A technique that combines observations from multiple smaller telescopes to simulate the resolution of a much larger single telescope. By mathematically processing the interference patterns between telescopes, astronomers can reconstruct high-resolution images equivalent to having a giant telescope with aperture equal to the maximum separation between instruments.
From Latin 'apertura' (opening) and Greek 'synthesis' (putting together). Coined by radio astronomer Martin Ryle in the 1950s to describe how arrays of small radio telescopes could be combined to achieve the resolution of impossibly large single dishes, revolutionizing radio astronomy and earning him the Nobel Prize.
Aperture synthesis is like solving a cosmic jigsaw puzzle - each pair of telescopes provides one piece of spatial frequency information, and combining all the pieces reconstructs a complete high-resolution image! This technique made it possible to build the Very Large Array, which has the resolution of a telescope 36 kilometers across but uses only 27 individual 25-meter dishes.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.