I’ve looked it up and there’s lots of things telling me what interferometry is but not how it works. Interference waves doing magic?
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Well, think of an optical telescope that uses a mirror. Why should light bouncing off of the left side of a mirror combine seamlessly with light bouncing off of the right side of the mirror without revealing that big ol’ hole in the center of the mirror? The hole *isn’t in focus*; it’s so blurry it can’t be seen.
Now imagine covering most of that mirror except for a few spots. The telescope will still produce a correct image because the “gaps” in the data you introduced will still be absurdly out of focus. But the image will be dimmer because the telescope collected less light.
An array of radiotelescopes focused on infinity similarly cannot “see” the gaps between them. Just like the mirror you covered except for a few spots. As long as the precise timing of the incoming data is managed well, and you observe longer to make up for the “dimness” inherent in a virtual BIG dish with many gaps, a computer can assemble the data into a useful picture.
I interpret your question to be about the importance of the distance between the individual telescopes. That improves the angular resolution, which is “a major determinant of image resolution”. (Wikipedia)
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