page_title: Green Bank Telescope
section_title: Discoveries
hierarchical_section_title: Green Bank Telescope / Discoveries
caption_attribution_description: English: Composite Image of Green Bank Radio Telescope and astronomical ammonia image produced with the 18-27 GHz Focal Plane Array Receiver. The telescope image is from a time lapse film. The red lights illuminate only the top of the 485ft tower and the surface of the 2.3 acre collecting 'dish'. The strong bright white lights were momentarily turned on for repair work and saturated the image below the dish. The red and orange image above the telescope was edited in, showing the structure of star forming region W51. The images shows the distribution of ammonia in the 23.723 GHz transition. The optical image of this field is from the Digital Sky Survey. The telescope colors are from the original image, all other colors are digitally enhanced.
context_page_description: The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia, US is the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope. The Green Bank site was part of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory until September 30, 2016. Since October 1, 2016, the telescope has been operated by the independent Green Bank Observatory. The telescope's name honors the late Senator Robert C. Byrd who represented West Virginia and who pushed the funding of the telescope through Congress.
  The Green Bank Telescope operates at meter to millimeter wavelengths. Its 100-meter diameter collecting area, unblocked aperture, and good surface accuracy provide superb sensitivity across the telescope's full 0.1–116 GHz operating range. The GBT is fully steerable, and 85 percent of the local celestial hemisphere is accessible. It is used for astronomy about 6500 hours every year, with 2000–3000 hours per year going to high-frequency science. Part of the scientific strength of the GBT is its flexibility and ease of use, allowing for rapid response to new scientific ideas. It is scheduled dynamically to match project needs to the available weather.
context_section_description: In 2002, astronomers detected three new millisecond pulsars in the globular cluster Messier 62.
  In 2006, several discoveries were announced, including a large coil-shaped magnetic field in the Orion molecular cloud, and a large hydrogen gas superbubble 23,000 light years away, named the Ophiuchus Superbubble.
  Since 2006, numerous discoveries have been made, including the most massive neutron star detected so far, a cloud of primordial gas which surrounds other galaxies, vast molecular clouds surrounding other galaxies, and complex molecules, such as sugar, in space.
caption: Composite image of a spectral line observation of star forming region W51, showing the distribution of ammonia in the region. The image of the telescope from a time lapse film of a night of observations
exif: {}