Science: Radio Eye

Keeping an eye on the stars for navigation purposes is an old Navy custom. Last week the Navy announced that it has nearly completed a radio telescope to watch stars in another way. The reflector, an aluminum “dish” 50 feet in diameter and weighing 14 tons, is supported by a mounting made for a 5-in. gun. It will watch the sky from the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington.

The apparatus is designed to detect radiation from outer space in three wave lengths: 3, 10, and 30 centimeters. All these penetrate the atmosphere, which is opaque to all other waves except those in the neighborhood of visible light.

No one can be sure as yet what the new telescope will see in the sky. When tuned to 30-cm. waves, it may be able to pick out individual “flares” on the sun, which are believed to send out short radio waves as well as sharp bursts of light and ultraviolet. Such information should help in long-range weather predicting and in forecasting solar effects that interfere with radio communication.

So far, no radio telescope has detected waves shorter than 60 cm. that come from the depths of space beyond the sun. The mysterious “radio stars” (TIME, April 24) have been picked up only on wave lengths much longer than the Navy will use. This does not prove that they send out no shorter waves. Perhaps the new precision-built, delicately sensitive telescope will find new constellations of stars that shine by radio “light.”