Off to the Green Bank Radio Telescope!

This past summer, I spent an incredible 11 days exploring some of the most advanced telescopes in the world, high in the Andes mountains in Chile. Being a part of the Astronomy in Chile Educator Ambassador Program has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I am overjoyed to get to meet up with most of the wonderful folks in my cohort this week at the Green Bank Telescope in West Virgina! 

The massive Green Bank Radio Telescope! Image Credit: Wikipedia Commons.

The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope is an enormous radio telescope. Its dish covers about 2.3 acres, and has a 328 foot (100 meter) diameter. It stands 485 feet tall (taller than the Statue of Liberty!). It is huge for a good reason. This hyper-sensitive radio telescope makes observations for about 6,500 hours every year. It studies the faintest, youngest, most distant objects in our Universe. For example, it allows scientists to study pulsars and look for signs of dark matter and dark energy. Its newest project is searching for signs of extra terrestrial intelligence as part of the Breakthrough Listen initiative! 

Image Credit: Wikipedia Commons

Breakthrough Listen is a part of the Breakthrough Initiative funded by Yuri Milner, a Russian physicist and entrepreneur. Breakthrough Listen is a 100 million dollar endeavor, and will be the most comprehensive and intense search for intelligent life in our Universe ever attempted. Astronomers will use the Green Bank Telescope and the Parkes Radio Telescope in Australia to listen for radio signals (signs of intelligent life) coming from the 1,000,000 closest stars to Earth. They will also scan the center of our galaxy and the entire galactic plane. Beyond the Milky Way, they will listen for messages from the 100 closest galaxies. Can you imagine finding evidence of other intelligent life in the Universe? How would the human perspective of the Earth and Universe and our place in it change? I think the prospect is very exciting. 

ACEAP family at ALMA. Image Credit: AUI/NRAO, Carlos Padilla

We are having a mini ACEAP family reunion at Green Bank, to learn more about radio astronomy and brainstorm ways to continue teaching about all the amazing astronomy that is being done in Chile. I'll post pictures of Green Bank when I can - it is in the National Radio Quiet Zone, so I won't have much internet connectivity, and am not allowed to use a digital camera. The radio dish is so sensitive that even the slightest radio signals from our personal devices could interfere with the science being done. I can't even wear my activity tracker! I'll be taking a film camera and will have to wait until the pictures are developed to share. 

Check back for an update on this next ACEAP adventure! Also, don't miss Relax Under the Stars, always on the first Wednesday of the month in the Dome Planetarium, and always free.