Jodrell Bank Radio Observatory
| Jodrell Bank Observatory | |
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UNESCO world heritage 
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| The Lovell telescope from the front |
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| National territory: |
 United Kingdom
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| Type: | Culture |
| Criteria : | (i) (ii) (iv) (vi) |
| Reference No .: | 1594 |
| UNESCO region : | Europe and North America |
| History of enrollment | |
| Enrollment: | 2019 ( session 43 ) |
The Jodrell Bank Radio Observatory (English Jodrell Bank Observatory , JBO for short ) is part of the Jodrell Bank Center for Astrophysics of the University of Manchester and is located in Lower Withington, Cheshire , England. It houses a radio telescope with a freely movable parabolic antenna 76 meters in diameter. The Lovell telescope with a total mass of 3200 tons was built in 1957 and modernized in the years 2000 to 2002. In July 2019, it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO .
It was originally called the Jodrell Bank Experimental Station, then from 1966 to 1999 Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories.
history
When radio astronomer Bernard Lovell came to the University of Manchester in 1945, he was looking for a quiet place to observe cosmic rays and found it in a former university botanical research station 20 miles south of Manchester (Jodrell Bank). Lovell designed the radio telescope named after him with the engineer Charles Husband. When completed in 1957, it was the largest radio telescope in the world and celebrated its first success in detecting the Sputnik-1 launcher in orbit. The telescope was considered a prestige object of British science.
purpose
In addition to general radio astronomical observations, the radio telescope is also used to track the orbit of interplanetary spacecraft and is used in the SETI project to search for radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations. The Jodrell Bank Radio Observatory also came into the public eye due to the unsuccessful search for radio signals from the European Mars land module Beagle 2 in late 2003 / early 2004.
In addition, the Jodrell Bank Observatory is also the centerpiece of the MERLIN (Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network), a network of radio telescopes in Great Britain , which are used together as radio astronomical interferometers . The radio telescope in Jodrell-Bank is also used for the Very Long Baseline Interferometry .
Trivia
When it was built in 1957, parts of the turret mechanics of the wrecked British battleships HMS Royal Sovereign and HMS Revenge were used.
The Lovell Telescope appears in the film adaptation of the novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy .
Visitor center
The Jodrell Bank Radio Observatory has a visitor center, the Jodrell Bank Discovery Center , which offers tours of the observatory.
literature
- Jon Agar: Science and Spectacle. The work of Jodrell Bank in post war British culture , Routledge 1998
See also
- Green Bank Observatory , largest, and
- Radioteleskop_Effelsberg , second largest radio telescope in the world
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Jodrell Bank Observatory. UNESCO World Heritage Center, accessed July 8, 2019 .
- ↑ Visitor Center “Jodrell Bank Discovery Center” (accessed on May 20, 2011)
Heritage: Durham Castle and Durham Cathedral (1986) | Ironbridge Gorgewith The Iron Bridge (1986) | Studley Royal Park with the ruins of Fountains Abbey (1986) | Stonehenge, Avebury, and Associated Monuments of Megalithic Culture (1986) | King Edward's castles and city walls in Gwynedd (1986) | Blenheim Palace (1987) | Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abbey with St Margaret's Church (1987) | Downtown Bath (1987) | Borders of the Roman Empire : Hadrian's Wall (1987) and Antonine Wall (2008) | Tower of London (1988) | Cathedral , St Augustine's Abbey and St Martin's Church in Canterbury (1988) | Edinburgh Old and New Town (1995) | Maritime Greenwich (1997) | The Heart of Neolithic Orkney (1999) | Old town of Saint George's (Bermuda) with fortifications (2000) | Blaenavon industrial landscape (2000) | New Lanark Industrial Model Estate (2001) | Saltaire industrial village (2001) | Derwent Valley Mills (2001) | Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew (2003) | Liverpool - Maritime Trade City (2004, R ) | Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape (2006) | Pontcysyllte Aqueduct and Canal (2009) | Forth Bridge (2015) | Gorham Cave (2016) | Lake District (2017) | Jodrell Bank Radio Observatory (2019)
Natural Heritage: Giant's Causeway and Coast (1986) | Henderson (Pitcairn Islands) (1988) | Gough Island and Inaccessible (1995) | Dorset and East Devon Coast (2001)
Cultural / Natural Heritage: St. Kilda (Scotland) (1986)
Coordinates: 53 ° 14 ′ 11.1 " N , 2 ° 18 ′ 31.1" W.