RADIO-SOURCE VARIABILITY AS A TOOL FOR VERY HIGH-RESOLUTION

If flux density variability is intrinsic to extragalactic sources, then the shortest time scale of the variability yields an extremely high angular resolution. There is, however, good evidence that some of the variability is due to refractive scintillation in our galaxy's interstellar plasma turbulence. The effect, initially discovered at low radio frequencies, is here shown to extend into the GHz band, which, up to now, has been assumed to display only the intrinsic variability. We conclude that further study in both the intermediate and high frequency bands needed to separate the intrinsic and extrinsic components of variability.