Very Large Array

American

noun

Astronomy.

a set of 27 radio telescopes arranged in a Y -shaped pattern, each arm of which is approximately 13 miles (21 km) long, and located near Socorro, N.M.; computer-processed data from the set provide high-resolution images of distant astronomical objects. VLA

Example Sentences

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This includes teams working with China's Einstein Probe and the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array, which is widely recognized from its appearance in the science fiction film Contact.

From Science Daily • Mar. 30, 2026

The Very Large Array in New Mexico pools signals from 27 dishes spaced across tens of kilometers.

From Science Magazine • Mar. 19, 2024

Seti is building a parallel, AI-powered software system for the observatory's core facility, the Very Large Array.

From BBC • Feb. 21, 2024

The discovery was made by scientists collecting over 15 years of observations with the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia and the Very Large Array in New Mexico.

From Salon • Jun. 29, 2023

An upgraded “next generation” version of the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array of radio telescopes in New Mexico could begin operations toward the end of the 2020s and settle the debate.

From Scientific American • Apr. 5, 2022

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023