Members of Marshall University’s Society of Physics Students (SPS), accompanied by faculty advisor Dr. Sean P. McBride and several SPS alumni, recently traveled to Green Bank Observatory for a weekend of hands-on learning and exploration.<\/p>\n
Located within the National Radio Quiet Zone, Green Bank Observatory is home to the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope, the world’s largest fully steerable radio telescope. During the visit, students operated the observatory’s 40-foot radio telescope under the guidance of SPS alumna Ellie White and Green Bank Observatory Education Specialist Noreen Prestage.<\/p>\n
By collecting observations at different telescope orientations and times throughout the weekend, participants measured the spectrum of neutral hydrogen in the Milky Way at its characteristic frequency of 1420.4 MHz. In addition to their radio astronomy activities, students explored the observatory’s scenic nature trails and learned more about the facility’s research and educational programs.<\/p>\n
The trip was supported by the Dr. Frederick W. Smith SPS Endowment Fund and provided students with a memorable opportunity to connect classroom concepts with real-world scientific research. The Society of Physics Students expressed its appreciation to the Green Bank Observatory staff, Ellie White, and Noreen Prestage for helping make the experience possible.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Members of Marshall University’s Society of Physics Students (SPS), accompanied by faculty advisor Dr. Sean P. McBride and several SPS alumni, recently traveled to Green Bank Observatory for a weekend of hands-on learning and exploration. Located within the National Radio Quiet Zone, Green Bank Observatory is home to the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":5662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[47,53,70],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-math-physics","category-physics","category-science-abstracts"],"acf":[],"fimg_url":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/460\/2026\/10\/physics-green-bank-observatory-2026.jpg?w=640","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/460\/2026\/10\/physics-green-bank-observatory-2026.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5663,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5661\/revisions\/5663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/cos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}