NEW RADIO TELESCOPE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28551, 2 April 1958, Page 7

NEW RADIO TELESCOPE

Ruby Amplifies Signals (N.Z. Press Association—Copyright NEW YORK, March 30. A new kind of radio telescope with a ruby “eye" which might permit man to see far into the universe, had been developed, Columbia University said today. The core of the new telescope was an amplification device, using a synthetic ruby and developed by Columbia University and the United States Naval Research Laboratory, the university said. The device, called Maser, had been installed on the Naval Research Laboratory’s 50-fooii radio telescope in Washington. Maser telescopes, the announcement said, were expected to have as much as 100 times the sensitivity of electronic radio telescopes now in use. Its name came from “microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation.” The ruby heart of the telescope received radio signals from planets and galaxies in outer space at the extremely high frequency of 9000 megacycles. When struck by these signals, the ruby emitted some of its own internal energy at the same frequency, thus greatly amplifying the tiny signals. Dr. Charles Townes, professor of physics at Columbia University, who helped work on its development, said Maser amplifiers on radio-telescopes would enable them to probe 10 times further into space than at present possible.