Officially, it’s the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope, standing 485 ft. high, and weighing 17 million pounds. More importantly, the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) is one of the largest moving objects on Earth. Its dish measures 100 x 110 meters, and the unique, asymmetric shape prevents the receiver’s support structure from obscuring the mirror, itself composed of more than 2000 aluminum surface panels.
By adjusting the dish on its massive wheel-and-track assembly, as well as tweaking the shape of the mirror with actuators attached to each panel, scientists can use GBT to acquire a full view of the sky above 5 degrees elevation. The instrument also has an extremely high sensitivity to incoming radio signals. The GBT, which is named for Green Bank, West Virginia, a federally mandated radio-free zone, has made strides in the study of distant pulsars. Its latest mission? Tracking NASA’s Phoenix Lander, which just landed on Mars
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