Space technology: Sharper `eyes¿ for star gazers: A new submillimeter-wavelength radio receiver will allow astronomers to probe more deeply into the evolution of our galaxy

The radio astronomy receiver built at the European Space Research and Technology Center allows astronomers to study intergalactic molecules that emit radio signals of submillimeter wavelength. The receiver is basically a heterodyne frequency analyzer for detecting weak microwave signals of about 10^-20 W at 200 GHz to 400 GHz. Incoming signals are mixed with the signal from a local oscillator and downconverted to a lower frequency that can be amplified with low noise. The amplified signal is fed to a spectrometer, a bank of filters, and a minicomputer that yield the power spectra of received signals.