Through radio astronomy, we see the universe in a completely different way, revealing extreme events in space that would otherwise remain invisible: spinning pulsars tearing up space and time; jets of plasma spewed away from supermassive black holes at close to the speed of light.
Radio astronomy can study these objects to test Einstein’s theory of gravity and to see how galaxies have evolved over the history of the universe. Radio waves also track magnetism across cosmic scales and can even trace the hydrogen gas that made up the first stars: through radio astronomy, we have a time machine that we can use to see the universe light up during the cosmic dawn.