6/20/2023 0 Comments Green bank observatoryWith its ability to move its large dish, GBT can cover 80 percent of the sky. It’s GBT’s steerability that sets it apart. Of course larger dish telescopes, like the a stationary 305-meter Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico, can do this as well. With its large 110-meter dish, GBT is able to “hear” incredibly faint radio waves emitted from the universe that smaller radio dishes wouldn’t be able to capture. These astronomers argue that because the GBT is both very large and fully steerable, it provides unique capabilities to researchers that aren’t available at other observatories, in operation or planned, today.Ī recent white paper written by scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Stanford, Harvard, the European Southern Observatory, and the California Institute of Technology argued for continued federal support of the GBT due to these unique capabilities. Now, four years later, NSF has announced their consideration to shut down the GBT completely, resurfacing those same frustrations from astronomers at universities and research organizations all over the world. Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia / Image courtesy of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory NSF ultimately continued to fund the telescope, albeit at much lower levels. The recommendation caused an uproar among radio astronomers. NSF’s consideration to shut down the GBT was prompted by a report issued in 2012 which included a recommendation for NSF to gradually stop funding the GBT over the course of five years. Commentary should be sent to with subject line “Green Bank Observatory” by November 25 th. NSF, which paid for the development of the GBT and owns the land it operates on, announced on October 19 th that they will consider various alternatives regarding the future of the GBT, including the option to deconstruct the facility altogether.īefore making a decision, NSF has asked for opinions from the public and scientific community regarding this decision. ![]() Members of the West Virginia community argue that the GBT is an irreplaceable research and education tool in a region that desperately needs more STEM resources. Located in Green Bank, West Virginia, the GBT was opened in 2001 and is a state-of-the-art radio telescope primarily used to study pulsars, identify asteroids, and – more recently – search for intelligent life in the universe.Īstronomers who use the telescope for research claim that it has unique capabilities not likely to be replaced by other telescopes any time soon. This consideration has caused controversy among astronomers and members of the general public alike. Tight budgets have forced the National Science Foundation to consider shutting down and deconstructing the Green Bank Telescope, the largest steerable telescope in the world.
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