Penn State Abington students traveled to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, one of the premier study locations in the world for astronomers, last fall to collect data for their research projects.
Three days in a remote West Virginia mountain town learning to use and tune enormous telescopes led to months of number crunching and sometimes frustrating issues with software and equipment - in other words "a real science experience," according to faculty mentor Ann Schmiedekamp.
"They compared some data from one telescope and realized there were equipment problems and a lot of noise," Schmiedekamp, professor of physics, said. "The software was giving the wrong part of the sky for part of the data acquisition, and the students had to quickly take more data on the robotic scope."
The Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and other radio telescopes enable researchers like the Abington students to detect and study objects in space that give off little visible light but emit naturally occurring radio waves from objects such as pulsars, gas clouds, and distant galaxies. The complex is located inside the National Radio Quiet Zone, a 13,000–square-mile area where most types of electromagnetic radiation on the radio spectrum are banned to minimize disturbance around the home of the world’s largest steerable radio telescope.
The Abington students and their two faculty mentors couldn't use cell phones, televisions, or WiFi to avoid skewing data relayed through the highly sensitive equipment. One student said the computer lab, which like the microwave ovens were encased in copper housing, resembled a bank vault.