science · 11 October 1957 · 67 years ago
In 1957, the Jodrell Bank radio telescope, the world's largest radio telescope, designed by Sir Bernard Lovell, began operating. Though the telescope is popularly known for tracking and communicating with man-made satellites, its prime function is the study of the universe by means of radio waves emitted by distatant stars. The radiation received from meteors, the moon, the Andromeda Galaxy, and the Milky Way offers new information daily about the origins of life on this planet and the possibilities of life on other worlds. The building of the telescope was fraught with mishaps and frustrations—financial, political, and otherwise—yet, through his perseverance, Sir Bernard Lovell made its creation a reality.
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