How do radio waves detect signals from other parts of the Universe?

Question

please help if you can!

Answer 1

Radio waves don't do the detecting; they are what is detected. This detection is accomplished by means of large, dish-shaped antennas called radio telescopes.

Answer 2

I think you answered your own question there !

We detect radio waves from other parts of the universe,the radio waves are the signals.

Answer 3

Radio waves are the signals. LOLz

Just like radio signals are detected in your car by you antenna

Answer 4

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&...

Answer 5

Well the radio waves don't detect anything.  I believe we are trying to detect the radio waves using big satellite dishes and such.

Answer 6

I think what you might be wondering is, "how do we learn about other parts of the universe by detecting radio waves?"  As others have already said, radio waves are signals themselves and how and where they originate from is what makes them interesting.  There are basically two ways we "learn" about our universe with radio waves.

First, the more mainstream science, is radio astronomy.  This is the use of radio telescopes (large dishes or arrays of dishes) to detect radio waves emitted by objects in space like pulsars and black holes (there are also many other types of objects that emit radio waves).  Visible light is only a narrow band of the electromagnetic spectrum.  Radio waves are on the low frequency end while x-ray and gamma ray is on the high frequency end.  So in a way, by using radio telescopes, we can observe the universe around us with a much broader lens, so to speak, instead of limiting our vision to a narrow band.  It's like wearing red tinted glasses vs normal full color vision.  You will miss a lot of detail if you don't use the full range of color to observe the world.  As an example, astronomers have used radio astronomy to detect black holes which are normally not visible and also objects that are visually obscured by galaxies, nebulas, or star clusters.

The second use of radio telescopes is SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence).  This project sounds like some sci-fi fiction but it's a real project with growing scientific backing.  It's goal is to detect and collect (i.e. record) radio waves to look for patterns that don't occur in nature.  If we found a signal with such a pattern, then it would be "proof" that there was intelligent life out there.  That life would likely be long dead but it would be quite extraordinary to know that there was once something/someone else out there.