Few scientists get the chance, at a relatively young age, to open up vast new areas of research.
By Christmas, Lovell's radar equipment was operating at Jodrell Bank, but the radar echoes were coming not from cosmic rays but from meteors. For the next few years, meteor astronomy was to be a major concern at Jodrell Bank, and many important discoveries were made, including the existence of daytime meteor showers and confirmation that meteors were members of the solar system. The transit telescope Lovell realised that much larger aerials were required if the detection of cosmic rays was ever to be achieved and in 1947 the Jodrell Bank group constructed a huge paraboloidal reflector from scaffolding poles and many miles of steel wire. In fact, no cosmic rays were ever detected. Instead, Lovell and his colleagues were drawn to the mysterious sources of radio waves far out in the universe, and eventually used the transit telescope to make the first detection of radio waves from the Andromeda galaxy.