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TomClash

(11,344 posts)
Sat Oct 5, 2013, 07:47 AM Oct 2013

US goverment shutdown switches off radio telescopes

Source: Physics Today

US goverment shutdown switches off radio telescopes
Posted on October 4, 2013 by Charles Day

Science: Three radio telescopes in the US are going offline because the ongoing government shutdown has deprived them of operating funds. The shuttered telescopes are the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, which is the world’s most sensitive single-dish radio telescope; the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, a 27-telescope array in New Mexico; and the Very Long Baseline Array, a 10-telescope array in Hawaii that is used for high-resolution observations. A fourth radio telescope, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, has been spared for now, thanks its international partners, Chile, Europe, and Japan. Mothballing the telescopes is neither cheap nor trivial. Some of their electronic innards require continuous cryogenic cooling. If that fails, the telescopes could be damaged.

- See more at: http://blogs.physicstoday.org/newspicks/?p=22506#sthash.jNUvCPfx.dpuf

Read more: http://blogs.physicstoday.org/newspicks/?p=22506

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US goverment shutdown switches off radio telescopes (Original Post) TomClash Oct 2013 OP
Good time for ET's to attack Earth... Cooley Hurd Oct 2013 #1
"You rang?" - RepubliBaggers from planet DarkThrottle Berlum Oct 2013 #2
Don't worry TomClash Oct 2013 #3
The Tea Party already has! Octobrist Oct 2013 #4
Who needs an alien attack?... awoke_in_2003 Oct 2013 #5
This is a shame daleo Oct 2013 #6
"Hey, I'm getting a signal from the Milky Way Galaxy!!!" tonekat Oct 2013 #7

tonekat

(1,820 posts)
7. "Hey, I'm getting a signal from the Milky Way Galaxy!!!"
Sun Oct 6, 2013, 09:20 PM
Oct 2013

"Never mind, it disappeared, could have sworn there was something there. Oh well, where do you want to go for lunch, fellas?"

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