Karl Jansky and his radio telescope

It’s the very place where, in 1931, the world’s first radio telescope recorded signals from extraterrestrial origins—from a point in space beyond our solar system. On a half acre amid the landscaped fields of the 472-acre Bell Telephone Laboratories campus in Holmdel, N.J., physicist Karl Guthe Jansky set up an antenna to measure static coming from space that he thought might interfere with long-distance radio signals. He soon noted, though, that some radio waves picked up by his antenna came from beyond Earth’s atmosphere, and this realization marked the beginning of the field of radio astronomy.

Several Nobel Laureates credit Jansky with starting the research that led to their own work—and discoveries such as quasars, pulsars, and black holes, as well as the formulation of the big bang theory. They say he would almost certainly have won the Nobel Prize himself if he hadn’t died, in 1950, at the young age of 44, before the significance of his discovery was understood. Bell Labs erected a monument in 1998 on the field where Jansky worked. But now the memorial, including a 4-meter-long stylized replica of his original 30-meter-long antenna, which resembled a box kit lying on its side, and a plaque noting the significance of what occurred on the spot, is in danger of being torn down.

Alcatel-Lucent, Bell Labs’ owner, sold the Holmdel campus to a real estate developer in March 2006. The developer, impressed with the significance of the Bell Labs site—and of Jansky's role as well—has said that its plans to tear down the lab structures and erect office buildings and residential units won’t threaten the Jansky Monument.

“That hardly settles the matter,” says IEEE 2001 Medal of Honor winner Herwig Kogelnik, aware that the property may be resold after it’s developed and that a new owner would not be obligated to uphold the company’s promises.

SAVING THE MONUMENT Now Kogelnik and former Bell Labs researchers, astrophysicist Tony Tyson, and astronomer Robert Wilson—who did years of detective work to pinpoint the spot where the first radio antenna sat—are heading a grassroots movement of scientists and engineers to save the Jansky Monument. A year ago, more than 100 National Academy of Sciences members, including 15 Nobel Laureates and seven recipients of the IEEE Medal of Honor, petitioned the governor of New Jersey, the mayor of Holmdel, and the new owners of the labs to secure Jansky’s site for the public. They want a federal or state historical marker placed at the site and an assurance that the place will remain publicly accessible.

The Jansky Monument at the former Bell Labs property, in Holmdel, N.J.

Failing that, they also asked the developer to donate the half-acre parcel to the local township but have received no response. They’re also looking for a generous benefactor to buy the land and transfer it to the city of Holmdel, but again, no one has yet stepped forward.

In June, Preservation New Jersey, a private nonprofit that pushes for laws to protect historic sites, cited Jansky’s accomplishment among the reasons it named the Holmdel campus No. 1 on its list for 2007 of the state’s 10 Most Endangered Historical Places. The New Jersey Historical Commission, which could offer protection, says its hands are tied because the campus is private property; it could be designated a protected historical landmark only if the owner agreed.

THE RIGHT SPOT At the 1998 ceremony dedicating the Karl Jansky Monument, Wilson, noting the effort he and Tyson put into finding the exact coordinates for the world’s first radio telescope, said, “It didn't seem right to just go out there and pick a spot.” He, along with Arno Penzias, another Bell Labs scientist, won the 1978 Nobel Prize in Physics for their 1964 discovery of waves that were remnants of the big bang. “Because Jansky's antenna was the start of our science, we wanted to mark it appropriately,” he said.

To make people aware of the preservation effort, Tyson, Wilson, and Kogelnik have set up a Web site at http://www.lsst.org/jansky.shtml. It links to facts about Jansky and the birth of radio astronomy, a 1933 New York Times news story reporting the discovery, photos of the monument and the memorial plaque, and a copy of the scientists’ petition.