Photo – Page 98 – National Radio Astronomy Observatory

Bigger than a Barn

The Green Bank Telescope is 485-feet tall and weighs 17 million pounds. The GBT is the largest moving object on land, and is an unmistakable landmark in West Virginia.

GBT at Night

All 2.3 acres of the Green Bank Telescope surface shine under the bright maintenance lights.

Green Bank, West Virginia gets a lot of snow, and this tipped view of the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) is a familiar sight to those who live here. In this position, the 100-meter dish of the world’s largest steerable telescope is less likely to accumulate snow.

Grote Reber in 1975

A radio astronomy pioneer, Grote Reber was inspired by Karl Jansky’s discovery of radio waves coming from the center of our Galaxy in the 1930s. Reber was only in his twenties when he built a 31-foot dish antenna in his backyard in Wheaton, Illinois. With it, he mapped the sky in radio waves, giving more detail to Jansky’s detections, while also discovering more radio sources in space. Reber moved to Hawaii and later Tasmania to build antennas to pick up the hard-to-detect long wavelength radio waves coming from the Universe. He died in 2002.

The Atacama Millimeter/submillimeter Array

ALMA in its Compact Formation

ALMA’s antennas can be rearranged to simulate a single, big telescope or a very widespread array. In this smaller configuration, 12-meter antennas join the 7-meter antennas that are always in a compact formation. ALMA, when it is in its compact formation, sees the faintest objects in the radio Universe.

Atacama Compact Array

The heart of ALMA is the Atacama Compact Array. These smaller 7-meter dish telescopes, flanked by a few larger 12-meters, are practically touching each other to simulate a single telescope. When their views of the sky are combined, they can see the very faint radio-wave objects in space.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the U.S. National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
	Founded in 1956, the NRAO provides state-of-the-art radio telescope facilities for use by the international scientific community. NRAO telescopes are open to all astronomers regardless of institutional or national affiliation. Observing time on NRAO telescopes is available on a competitive basis to qualified scientists after evaluation of research proposals on the basis of scientific merit, the capability of the instruments to do the work, and the availability of the telescope during the requested time. NRAO also provides both formal and informal programs in education and public outreach for teachers, students, the general public, and the media.
	The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 "to promote the progress of science; to advance the national health, prosperity, and welfare; to secure the national defense..."
	AUI collaborates with the scientific community and research sponsors to plan, build, and operate cutting-edge facilities. We cultivate excellence, deliver value, enhance education, and engage the public.