A trip to the top of the world’s largest fully-steerable telescope, located at the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Observatory at Green Bank, West Virginia–with Scientific Data Analyst Brenne Gregory. https://greenbankobservatory.org/
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The Green Bank Telescope – or GBT – is the most accurate large dish radio telescope on Earth. It has a fully-steerable base, an array of receivers, and a massive dish covering more than 2.3 acres, allowing researchers all over the world to study some of the universe’s great mysteries. In 2013, it discovered an important pair of prebiotic molecules, indicating that some key building blocks for life formed on dusty ice grains floating between stars. The GBT also hosts Breakthrough Listen, a project searching for intelligent extraterrestrial communications.
To learn how all this works, Brenne Gregory – a scientific data analyst at Green Bank – took me on a special insider’s tour to the top of the 485-foot telescope and, on our way there, patiently explained the fascinating field of radio astronomy.
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Intro:
This is one of the prettiest places on Earth.
The Green Bank Telescope, or GBT, is the most accurate large dish radio telescope on Earth. It has a fully steerable base, an array of receivers, and a massive dish covering more than 2.3 acres, allowing researchers all over the world to study some of the universe’s great mysteries.
In 2013, it discovered an important pair of prebiotic molecules, indicating that some key building blocks for life formed on dusty ice grains floating between stars.
The GBT also hosts Breakthrough Listen, a project searching for intelligent extraterrestrial communications.
To learn how all this works, Brian Gregory, a scientific data analyst at Green Bank, took me on a special tour to the top of the 485-foot telescope. On our way there, he patiently explained the fascinating field of radio astronomy.
So the best way to think about radio astronomy is to think about light as the electromagnetic spectrum. We see visible light — that’s about 380 to 700 nanometers — and that’s the wavelength that allows us to see optical light.
When we think about radio astronomy, we’re looking at wavelengths in the centimeter to millimeter range. A lot of people like to say radio astronomy is like listening, but it’s easier in my mind to conceptualize it like optical light — just at a different frequency. And because it’s a different frequency, we need to use different tools than optical telescopes to look at that light. Those tools are the receivers you’ll see up on the GBT. They allow us to “see” that light in a way our eyes can’t.
Being up in the mountains helps reduce radio frequency interference — or RFI. Everyone has cell phones, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi — all of these things that make modern life easier are extremely bright to our radio telescope. You can see an 8-watt lightbulb with our telescope from beyond Eris, past Pluto.
So being in the mountains blocks out signals from surrounding towns. That’s why you lost cell phone service on your way in. We’re inside the National Radio Quiet Zone, a large area extending into Virginia, and also within the West Virginia Radio Astronomy Zone, a stricter ten-mile radius around Green Bank where transmitters are tightly limited.
We have a program here called Breakthrough Listen — they’re searching the universe for signs of intelligent life. They point at certain spots in the sky, observe for a while, then come back to check again. So far, no signals. If we ever did find one, trust me, you’d know right away.
Interference — things on Earth mimicking what we’d expect from alien civilizations. That’s why RFI research is so critical.
Frank Drake wrote the famous Drake Equation here at Green Bank. The equation calculates the probability of life in the universe.
Pocahontas County
0:00 Welcome to the GBT
1:02 Radio Astronomy Explained
1:47 National Radio Quiet Zone
3:51 Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
5:14 Tour to the top
12:32 How the telescope works
15:25 Taking in the view
16:45 A long walk down
19:32 Getting time on the GBT
27:25 Engineering a moveable 17 million lb structure
31:25 Green Bank’s other telescopes
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