Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA)

Since its dedication in 1993, the NRAO Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) has produced a wide range of scientific results and images of extraordinary detail, with fifty times the resolution of images from the Hubble Space Telescope.

The VLBA consists of ten, 240-ton, 25-meter diameter dish antennas spread across the Western Hemisphere, from Hawaii to St. Croix, Virgin Islands. These ten antennas work together to produce the VLBA's sharp radio "vision."

The VLBA has made landmark measurements of the distances to objects within our Galaxy and has refined the astronomical yardstick used to measure the entire Universe. Scientific research performed with the VLBA has revealed important new knowledge about magnetic fields, stellar winds, the motions of stars and galaxies, the jets of material emitted by black holes, the connections between black holes and orbiting accretion disks.