This summer my riding buddy Tom and I headed out to Virginia for a few days of back roads motorcycling. One of our destinations was the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Green Bank Telescope. It was a VERY cool place to visit.
Tom was channel surfing a few days ago and saw this great show about “The Quiet Zone” which he later dug up online…
The Quiet Zone is home to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Green Bank Telescope, a fully steerable 17,000-pound Goliath that captures radio waves from space with the precision of a Swiss watch. It’s capable of receiving the quietest radio signals in the universe. But it can’t do that if there are other devices broadcasting in the same frequencies - even signals too faint to interfere with anything else. The telescope is so sensitive that only diesel-fueled cars are allowed on the property because even spark plugs emit radio frequencies that can wipe out the signals from space.
If you are in the area (and it’s waaaaaaaaaay out there) I highly recommend stopping by and taking the bus tour!
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