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Parts from the Cambridge Interplanetary Scintillation Array
Two posts plus copper wire, one of two sets from the interplanetary scintillation array (also known as the 4-acre array) built at Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory, Cambridge, 1967.
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This is part of the four-acre radio telescope used in one of astronomy’s most famous chance discoveries. In 1967, student Jocelyn Bell noticed a ‘bit of scruff’ on the telescope’s data charts. Astronomers realised that the unusual signal, which repeated regularly, came from a new class of cosmic object.
Initially, these objects were nicknamed LGM, for ‘little green men’. But rather than aliens, they are rapidly spinning dense stars. They are called pulsars and over 1800 are now known.
- Measurements:
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overall: 2800 mm x 950 mm x 455 mm,
- Materials:
- wood (unidentified) , metal (unknown) and copper (alloy)
- Object Number:
- 2009-43/1
- type:
- radio telescope and instrument component
- Image ©
- The Board of Trustees of the Science Museum, London
