Experimental radio, microwaves and gravitation
Instrumental activity at radio wavelengths involves two, partially overlapping, scientific communities in Italy, with different scientific objectives. Radio astronomy uses, above all, coherent receivers connected to digital electronic systems for the analysis of the converted signal, on ground-based telescopes with ever larger collecting areas. To increase further the baselines of interferometric systems, possible space missions are being studied.
The study of the CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background), that is, the first light in the Universe, is today carried out using coherent (radio), incoherent (bolometers) and cryogenic quantum receivers, for ground-based telescopes, balloons (Boomerang), and space missions (Planck). Lastly, gravitational experiments using radio science are carried out with interplanetary probes, using, above all, precise radio tracking measurements.