Radio observatory · est. 1971
The dark is
not quiet
{Somewhere past the edge of the map, a dead
star turns once every 1.3373 seconds. We hear
every turn. From November to March, so can you.}
{What we do/}
000% {decoded}
A pulsar is a dead star the size of a city, spinning. Each time its beam sweeps past the Earth, our dish hears one click. Some of them have been keeping time, to the millionth of a second, since before there was anyone to listen. We keep a room where you can.
{How we listen}
The instrument
-
[01]
The dish
Thirty-two metres of aluminium panels, set to within 0.4 mm of a perfect parabola. It turns on a rail in the snow, about one degree a second, with the sound of a ship coming about.
- Diameter
- 32 m
- Surface
- 0.4 mm rms
- Slew
- 1°/s
- Built
- 1971
-
[02]
The receiver
At the focus hangs a feed horn and an amplifier cooled with helium to 15 kelvin. Warm electronics hiss; cold ones hear a signal a billion billion times weaker than a phone call.
- Band
- 0.3–1.8 GHz
- System temp.
- 15 K
- Dipole field
- 64 × 20.1 MHz
- Clock
- H-maser
-
[03]
The room
A control room with eight chairs, four screens, a plotter from 1978 and a kettle. The quiet zone means no phones for forty kilometres. It is the quietest room you will ever sit in, full of the loudest things in the sky.
- Chairs
- 8
- Screens
- 4
- Plotter
- HP 7221, 1978
- Phones
- 0
{What we hear}
Six stations, one night
001 / 006
-
PSR B1919+21 · Pulsar
CP 1919
The first pulsar anyone ever heard. For a few weeks in 1967 it was filed as LGM-1: little green men.
- Freq.
- 81.500 MHz
- Period
- 1.3373 s
- Distance
- ≈ 2,300 light-years
- Sounds like
- A slow knock, like someone patient at a door.
-
PSR B0329+54 · Pulsar
B0329+54
The brightest pulsar in the northern sky, and the one we use to prove the receiver is awake.
- Freq.
- 408.000 MHz
- Period
- 0.7145 s
- Distance
- ≈ 3,400 light-years
- Sounds like
- A heartbeat, a little faster than yours.
-
PSR B0531+21 · Pulsar
The Crab
The heart of a star that Chinese astronomers watched explode in 1054. It turns thirty times a second.
- Freq.
- 1400.000 MHz
- Period
- 33.7 ms
- Distance
- ≈ 6,500 light-years
- Sounds like
- A low buzz, like a moth against glass.
-
PSR B1937+21 · Millisecond pulsar
B1937+21
The first millisecond pulsar: 642 turns a second, and for years the most precise clock known.
- Freq.
- 1400.000 MHz
- Period
- 1.5578 ms
- Distance
- ≈ 11,000 light-years
- Sounds like
- A thin, steady whine, close to the note E5.
-
H I · 21 cm line · Spectral line
Hydrogen
The quiet glow of cold hydrogen gas. Tune to 1420.405 MHz and you are listening to the galaxy itself.
- Freq.
- 1420.405 MHz
- Period
- No period
- Distance
- Everywhere in the Milky Way
- Sounds like
- A hiss, like surf heard through a wall.
-
Decametric emission · 10–40 MHz · Planet
Jupiter
The loudest radio source in the sky after the Sun, and it is right next door.
- Freq.
- 20.100 MHz
- Period
- Bursts, paced by Io
- Distance
- 35 – 52 light-minutes
- Sounds like
- Surf on a shingle beach, then popcorn.
{19:00 → 07:00}
A night
at Stille
Twelve hours, eight guests, one astronomer. Everything below happens in the dark, and most of it happens very quietly.
- (a.)19:00ArrivalPhones go into a copper-lined box at the gate. Inside the quiet zone they would be the loudest thing for forty kilometres.
- (b.)19:30DinnerReindeer broth, flatbread, cloudberries. The astronomer on duty eats with you and answers the first hundred questions.
- (c.)21:00The dishA walk under the 32 m dish with red headlamps. It turns above you, slowly, with the creak of a ship's hull.
- (d.)22:00Cold startThe receiver goes down to 15 kelvin. Everything warmer than that is noise, including you.
- (e.)22:30ListeningPulsars, the hydrogen of the Milky Way, and Jupiter if it is up. You choose the order. Headphones, blankets, coffee.
- (f.)04:30Your printoutThe 1978 plotter draws the night's strongest pulsar, one pulse per line. You take it home. No two are alike.
- (g.)07:00BreakfastThen sleep in the guest house until the sky lightens, around eleven in January.
{Dish}
32m
Collecting area the size of two tennis courts.
{Receiver}
15K
−258 °C. Colder than the far side of the Moon.
{Quiet zone}
40km
No masts, no Wi-Fi, no microwaves. By law.
{Nov — Mar · 8 guests · from 4 900 NOK}