What is Radio Astronomy?

Abstract

In 1886, Heinrich Hertz accidentally constructed the first radio transmitter and receiver. In a darkened lecture theater at the Technical College in Karlsruhe, in Germany, Hertz had set up an experiment to test what happened when an electrical current flowed in an open circuit (that is, a circuit with a gap in it). As he explained the setup to his wife, Elisabeth, he switched on a spark generator, used to produce current, and one of them noticed a simultaneous spark that flashed in an unrelated piece of equipment at some distance away from his main experimental apparatus. Whoever noticed it first, Heinrich or Elisabeth, is unknownto us, but it was Heinrich who made the leap of curiosities that underscore the nature of scientific research. Hertz asked “Why?” and started a systematic search for an answer.