Mapping the Sky

Mapping the Cosmos

In 1930, communicating by radio over large distances was still very new. An engineer at Bell Telephone, Karl Jansky, was asked to find signals that might interfere with transatlantic communications.  Jansky detected a persistent hiss that swept across the sky each day.

He had inadvertently discovered radio waves originating from the center of the Milky Way.  Radio engineers called it “Jansky noise”. 

   Yes, that noise. 

As monumental as this discovery was, almost nobody rushed to follow it up.  A few did, but there was no funding to build the large antennas needed.  Had Jansky continued his work, he would have certainly been awarded the Nobel prize.  But he died.

Jansky’s discovery left mysteries that needed to be answered.

Here’s where our story begins.

Grote Reber, our 6th cousin, and true genius, would become the first, and for 10 years, only, radio astronomer.

Grote wanted to continue Jansky’s research.  He knew it would require technology that Jansky didn’t have.  He tried to get observatories and universities interested in collaborating. No one was interested.

So, he took a summer off and built a radio telescope, by himself, in a vacant lot next to his mother’s house. The 31-foot dish became something of a tourist attraction.  This was the world’s first radio telescope.  It was the prototype of the modern radio telescope. He realized you could collect radio waves in the same way that an optical telescope collects light. No one had conceived that before.

He would work all day, after dinner he would sleep until midnight, then sit in his basement all night, beside the receiver, recording the output readings at one-minute intervals. (picture Desmond, in the hatch, typing 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42 every 108 minutes…)

It took him 7 years, but he created the world’s first contour radio map of the sky.  His work revealed the existence of Cygnus A and Cassiopeia A for the first time.

Grote’s efforts also produced such discoveries as quasars, pulsars, the spiral arms of the Milky Way and the afterglow from the Big Bang.  His paper, “Cosmic Static”, was the catalyst in the formation of a new field of research dealing with the 21-centimeter hydrogen line. Which allows scientists to “see” through space dust.

It wasn’t until after Grote "literally drew them a picture" of the sky that astronomers began to appreciate what Jansky had started.  Before Reber, there was no radio astronomy, just 'astronomy' because people only used optical telescopes.

Grote Reber spent his life as an independent astronomer, researching super low frequency signals on telescopes in Hawaii and Tasmania.

An inquisitive and industrious man, he had other varied accomplishments too!

He built an experimental electric car named “Pixie”.

He built experimental gas-powered bikes.

He built an experimental home that was so well insulated when the oven was turned on, the house heated to 120º!! 

His carbon dating on aboriginal sites in Tasmania went back thousands of years, not the 300 assumed, completely upending archaeology in Tasmania.

He experimented in growing beans and was able to increase their production by “unwinding” their growth.

He coordinated with NASA and the Space Shuttle Challenger.  The shuttle released a quarter ton of fuel to create a hole in the ionosphere for a few hours while flying over Grote’s Tasmania home. Thanks to NASA, Grote was able to find cosmic radiation at a wavelength of 176 meters, the first-time waves of this length had ever been recorded.

Grote never worked as a professional astronomer. But he published writings in many prestigious journals and earned awards given to those in the highest levels of the field, including the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship, the Bruce Medal, the Elliot Cresson gold medal, the Jansky prize, and the Jackson-Gwilt medal.  An asteroid was named after him and the annual Grote Reber Medal is now awarded to scientists in radio astronomy.

The University of Tasmania School of Mathematics and Physics runs a museum that preserves his legacy.

His telescope still works and is located at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Virginia, next to the Karl Jansky replica antenna.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic places.

Grote died in 2002.  He was 91.  His ashes are scattered at 17 observatories around the globe.

There must be something in the genes, right?

And if that wasn’t cool enough:

Around 1900, Grote’s mother, Harriet, was an 8th grade teacher in Wheaton IL.  One student stood out from other students in her class, and Harriet thought he would go far.            His name was Edwin Hubble.

This is a nice video about Grote Rebers life, if you are interested.  I was. (40 mins)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0Yzx_w3nw8

This is a link to the museum:

https://www.utas.edu.au/groterebermuseum/about