Very Large Array

Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array

Alternative names	VLA
Named after	Karl Guthe Jansky
Part of	NRAO VLA Sky Survey
Location(s)	Socorro County, New Mexico
Coordinates	34°04′43″N 107°37′04″W / 34.0787492°N 107.6177275°W / 34.0787492; -107.6177275
Organization	National Radio Astronomy Observatory
Altitude	2,124 m (6,969 ft)
Wavelength	0.6 cm (50 GHz)–410 cm (73 MHz)
Built	1973–1981 (1973–1981)
Telescope style	location radio telescope combined facility radio interferometer
Diameter
Angular resolution	120 ±80 milliarcsecond
Website	science.nrao.edu/facilities/vla/
Location of the Very Large Array
Related media on Commons
[edit on Wikidata]

The Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) is a centimeter-wavelength radio astronomy observatory in the southwestern United States. It lies in central New Mexico on the Plains of San Agustin, between the towns of Magdalena and Datil, approximately 50 miles (80 km) west of Socorro. The VLA comprises twenty-eight 25-meter radio telescopes (twenty-seven of which are operational while one is always rotating through maintenance) deployed in a Y-shaped array and all the equipment, instrumentation, and computing power to function as an interferometer. Each of the massive telescopes is mounted on double parallel railroad tracks, so the radius and density of the array can be transformed to adjust the balance between its angular resolution and its surface brightness sensitivity.^[2] Astronomers using the VLA have made key observations of black holes and protoplanetary disks around young stars, discovered magnetic filaments and traced complex gas motions at the Milky Way's center, probed the Universe's cosmological parameters, and provided new knowledge about the physical mechanisms that produce radio emission.

The VLA stands at an elevation of 6,970 feet (2,120 m) above sea level. It is a component of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).^[3] The NRAO is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.