From: LARRY KLAES (ljk4_at_msn.com)
Date: Tue Jun 26 2007 - 07:12:06 PDT
>From: "AAS Press Officer Dr. Steve Maran" <Steve.Maran_at_aas.org>
>To: "AAS Press Officer Dr. Steve Maran" <steve.maran_at_aas.org>
>Subject: NRAO: 50th Anniversary Science Meeting Conclusion
>Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2007 15:59:34 -0400
>
THE FOLLOWING RELEASE WAS RECEIVED FROM THE NATIONAL RADIO ASTRONOMY
OBSERVATORY, SOCORRO, NEW MEXICO, AND IS FORWARDED FOR YOUR INFORMATION.
(FORWARDING DOES NOT IMPLY ENDORSEMENT BY THE AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL
SOCIETY.) Steve Maran, American Astronomical Society maran_at_aas.org
1-202-328-2010 x116
For Immediate Release: June 25, 2007
Contact: Dave Finley, Public Information Officer
(505) 835-7302
dfinley_at_nrao.edu
NRAO Salutes Past, Looks to Future
In 50th-Anniversary Science Meeting
Radio telescopes now in operation or under construction will
be indispensible to scientists wrestling with the big,
unanswered questions of 21st-Century astrophysics. That was
the conclusion of a wide-ranging scientific meeting held
in Charlottesville, Virginia, June 18-21, to mark the 50th
anniversary of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO).
Nearly 200 scientists from around the world heard presentations
about the frontiers of astrophysics and how the challenges
at those frontiers will be met. In specialties as disparate
as seeking the nature of the mysterious Dark Energy that is
speeding the Universe's expansion to unraveling the details
of how stars and planets are formed, more than 70
presenters looked toward future research breakthroughs.
"NRAO's telescopes have made landmark contributions to the
vast explosion of astronomical knowledge of the past half-
century, and we look eagerly to making even more important
contributions in the coming decades," said Fred K.Y. Lo,
NRAO's director.
Over the four days of the meeting, discussions ranged from
recollections of radio astronomy's pioneering days of
vacuum-tube equipment and paper chart recorders to the
design of telescopes that will produce amounts of data that
will strain today's computers. Presenters pointed out that,
in the coming decades, radio telescope observations will
advance not only astronomy but also fields of basic
physics such as gravitational radiation, particle physics,
and the fundamental physical constants.
"This meeting provided a great overview of where astrophysics
stands today and where the challenges and opportunities of
the future lie. We had a good mix of veterans from the
early days of radio astronomy and the young researchers
who will carry the science well into the observatory's next
half-century," said NRAO astronomer Jim Condon, who
organized the scientific program.
In addition to the presentations, meeting participants
got an in-depth tour of the NRAO Technology Center, where
the observatory is developing and building state-of-the-art
electronics for radio astronomy.
A half-century ago, NRAO staffers were preparing to break
ground for the observatory's first telescope at Green
Bank, West Virginia. That telescope was dedicated the next
year. It was followed by ever more capable telescopes,
culminating in the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope,
the largest fully-steerable dish antenna in the world.
Work at Green Bank laid the technical foundation for the
Very Large Array, near Socorro, New Mexico, which was
dedicated in 1980. The continent-wide Very Long Baseline
Array was dedicated in 1993.
NRAO, along with partners in Europe and Japan, is constructing
the Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) in northern Chile, a
facility that will bring entirely new observing capabilities
to the world's astronomers. ALMA is expected to provide the
opportunity for major advances in the understanding of how
stars and planets are formed, and to reveal some of the first
stars and galaxies that formed in the early Universe, among
other achievements.
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of
the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative
agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.
###
ON THE WEB
This Release:
http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2007/anniversary/
NRAO Fact Sheet:
http://www.nrao.edu/pr/newsroom/factsheet.shtml
NRAO 50th Anniversary Homepage:
http://www.nrao.edu/50/
Complete NRAO Timeline:
http://www.nrao.edu/archives/Timeline/timeline.shtml
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