Astronomy, 20th Century, Radio Astronomy

Astronomy, Modern Era, 20th Century: Radio Astronomy

In 1931 Karl Guthe Jansky (1905-50) was researching radio interference for Bell Telephone Laboratories (est.1925). By 1932 he had accounted for all but one persistent signal coming from the direction of the centre of the Galaxy.

Grote Reber (1911-2002) built the first dedicated radio telescope in his backyard, Illinois, in 1937. He mapped the sky at radio wavelengths and detected many radio sources (radio stars) that did not correspond with visible stars.

Sir Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell (1913-2012) with funding by the University of Manchester (est.1903) was the guiding force behind the construction of the radio telescope at Jodrell Bank (est.1951) in Cheshire.

As radio telescopes improved in sensitivity and resolution, radio galaxies and quasars (1963) were identified. And a new understanding of the late stage rotating neutron stars of stellar evolution came with the discovery of pulsars (1967).

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