Anthony Fea, age 10, of Staten Island, N.Y., for his question:

WHAT IS RADIO ASTRONOMY?

    An ordinary telescope gathers and concentrates lightfrom the faraway stars. Light is one form of electromagnetic energy  and radio is another form. Both of these energies travel in pulsing wavelengths. But the wavelengths of radio systems can translate them into sounds. A radio telescope gathers these longer radio waves from the distant stars,somewhat as an ordinary telescope gathers light waves.

The radio telescope must be much larger to capture the longer radio waves. It also can reach farther into outer space.

This branch of astronomy is called radio astronomy. Its listening telescopes can bring in radio sounds from 13 billion light years away, which is much farther than ordinary telescopes can see. They discovered the strange pulsars and quasars, plus many more galazies beyond the range of ordinary telescopes.