www.science.org/content/article/u-k-physics-cuts-may-force-iconic-1950s-telescope-close
Jodrell Bank Observatory is one of several projects to lose funding following a review by the cash-strapped Science and Technology Facilities Council
The famed Jodrell Bank Observatory and its 69-year-old Lovell Telescope in Cheshire, England, appear set to close in 2 years following funding cuts announced by the Science and Technology Facilities Council yesterday.
In response to a flat budget and rising costs from international subscriptions and facility operations, the agency is eliminating its £2.8 million annual contribution to e-MERLIN, the United Kingdom’s network of seven radio telescopes, including Lovell.
The observatory is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, known for its breakthrough detections of bright radio objects such as quasars and for tracking early U.S. and Soviet probes to the Moon, Venus, and Mars.
More than two dozen other existing projects will also have their funding reduced after their current grant period expires, including XLZD, an international consortium searching for dark matter with underground detectors; the BiSON solar monitoring network; and the Next-Generation Transit Survey, a robotic observatory looking for exoplanets. Some, like e-MERLIN, will lose funding entirely. Scientists and researchers’ unions have pledged to fight the cuts.
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