The new telescope replaces the 300-foot telescope that collapsed in 1988 after 26 years of service. In 1989, I added $75 million to a federal appropriations bill for construction of the new telescope and, in 1991, I added another $5.4 million to build the joint Navy-National Science Foundation Operations Center at the observatory.
The 300-foot Green Bank Telescope specialized in discovering pulsars. While comets are remnants of the beginning of a star and its planetary system, a pulsar is all that remains after the star suffers a massive explosion that removes most of its surface in a phenomenon called a supernova. Pulsars emit regular pulses of radio waves that act as a type of "celestial lighthouse." These waves can be detected by a very large radio telescope, like the Green Bank Telescope, and may some day be used by space explorers as lighthouses to navigate our galaxy. The telescope will allow astronomers to search for pulsars in the very center of the Milky Way, a region so distant from the Earth that any pulsars there are too faint to be found by existing telescopes.
Working with the original telescope, astronomers made many significant discoveries. For example, it was the second telescope ever to detect a group of pulsars, and through its detection of another group of pulsars, astronomers realized the association between supernovas and pulsars. Additionally, a significant number of all pulsars detected to date were found with the original Green Bank Telescope. With all of that success, the doors that scientists and astronomers will be able to unlock with the new telescope are beyond imagination.
Because of its unique design, astronomers will be able to position the telescope with an incredible degree of accuracy, even though it is larger than a football field and taller than the Statue of Liberty. Scientists will begin aligning and adjusting the telescope later this year, and expect to dedicate it officially next spring. I look forward to the day when astronomers map the vast reaches of our galaxy and others after traveling no further than Green Bank, West Virginia.
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September 29, 1999