Very Long Baseline Interferometry combines data from multiple telescopes around the world. Once collated and compared, the data can be processed into images that exceed those available at any of the individual telescope sites. In fact, the resulting image has a resolution equal to that of a telescope as large as the maximum antenna separation.
Now becoming available is the digital version — call it e-VLBI — where data from the various observatories are routed through the Internet and combined at a center in the Netherlands. The result: real-time long-baseline interferometry. No more waiting as data tapes are shipped around the world to be combined at a central processing facility, a wait that in the past has taken weeks or months. For more, see this Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council page.
