Beyond optical telescopes, astrophysicists use very different detector geometries to catch different messengers from the cosmos: radio dish arrays for radio waves, laser interferometers for gravitational waves, and buried sensor lattices for neutrinos.
SNR = (signal × sensitivity) / (noise + ε)
detection event when SNR × random() > threshold
- Radio array / GW detector / Neutrino array — switches the observatory type and its detection geometry.
- Signal strength — intensity of the astrophysical source being observed.
- Background noise — instrumental and environmental noise competing with the signal.
- Detector sensitivity — amplifies weak signals relative to noise, raising the detection rate.
Real use: Facilities like the VLA (radio), LIGO/Virgo (gravitational waves) and IceCube (neutrinos) each trade signal type for sensitivity and background rejection using exactly these geometries.