Karl Jansky Monument

In 1931, Bell Laboratories physicist and radio researcher Karl Jansky set up a radio antenna on this site for experimental studies.

While gathering data, his results were affected daily by static. He concluded that this was originating from space due to the fact that the time of maximum static changed by four minutes from day to day. By locating the direction where the signal was largest, he discovered that it came from the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

With this first measurement, the field of radio astronomy came into existence. The name “Jansky” was given to the unit of radio flux density.