Big Reber

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Big Reber
Rebuilt 9 meter telescope from Grote Reber

Grote Reber (born December 22, 1911 , Wheaton near Chicago ; † December 20, 2002 , Tasmania , Australia ) was an American radio astronomer. He was one of the pioneers of radio astronomy and carried out the first sky survey in the radio frequency range.

Born in suburban Chicago, Reber graduated from the Armor Institute of Technology (later the Illinois Institute of Technology ) with a degree in communications engineering in 1933 .

From 1933 to 1947 he worked in various radio factories in Chicago. From 1933 he was occupied with the work of the astronomer Karl Jansky on telescopes that detect high-frequency radiation and decided to work in this area. He joined Bell Labs , where Jansky was employed during the Great Depression . Reber also built his own radio telescope in Wheaton near Chicago until 1937 . The telescope was later dismantled and rebuilt at the Green Bank Observatory . The telescope is now a National Historic Landmark.

With this telescope he scanned the observable sky at different frequencies in the radio range. He was able to complete the survey by 1941, and finally published his data in 1943 with a few additions.

Until the 1950s, the high energy range was still counted as blackbody radiation , although Reber's data showed otherwise. But in the 1950s, due to Reber's publication, the field of radio astronomy expanded and the theoretical models were further developed. Most of the knowledge of modern radio astronomy and radiation astrophysics was initiated by Reber.

Honors

literature

  • Herbert Yahraes: Static from the stars: Because a radio ham heard strange sky noises, we may get better FM and television - and learn more about our universe. In: Popular Science, January 1948, pp. 148-154.

Web links

Commons : Grote Reber  - collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Reber, Grote
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American radio astronomer
DATE OF BIRTH December 22, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Wheaton, Illinois near Chicago
DATE OF DEATH December 20, 2002
Place of death Tasmania , Australia