The Very Large Array

Drive west from Socorro on US hwy 60 for 50 miles. You'll climb gently past portions of the Cibola National Forest, through the village of Magdalena, then continue on until you reach a high flat area surrounded by distant mountains on all sides. This area is the Plains of San Agustin, and it's here you'll find one of New Mexico's most impressive man-made sights, the National Radio Astronomy Observatory's VLA, or Very Large Array.

"Very Large" is hardly adequate to describe the scale of the scene spread out across the plain. The array consists of 27 massive dish antennas, each one 81 feet across and weighing 230 tons, arranged in a giant "Y". Each arm of the Y is 13 miles long. Each antenna can be moved along the Y on a transporter which crawls along a double set of railroad tracks.
The 27 antennas of the VLA are connected together to form one of the world's most powerful radio telescopes.

A radio telescope gathers radio energy, instead of light, to analyze distant stars and galaxies. By using an array of many antennas, the VLA, with the help of sophisticated computers, can make detailed pictures of faint radio energy sources in the sky. Moving the individual antennas of the array to different spacings is similar to operating a zoom lens on a camera, allowing scientists to vary the resolution and sensitivity of the telescope as required by a particular project.

The VLA Visitor Center features interesting slide shows and displays about radio astronomy and about the VLA. A self-guided walking tour allows the visitor to get a closeup view of one of the massive antennas. Be sure to take along a jacket, as the 7,000 ft. altitude means it can sometimes be a little cool and breezy.
The altitude, as well as the absence of nearby cities, with their "radio pollution", were the primary reasons this site was chosen for the VLA, which was completed in 1982.

Movie fans may remember the film "Contact", released in 1997, starring Jodie Foster. Based on a novel by the late astronomer and author Carl Sagan, the story is about our world's first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Some scenes of the movie were filmed at the VLA, and indeed, if (or when) such contact ever actually takes place, radio observatories like the VLA will likely be the first ears to hear those messages from other worlds. Standing underneath one of the giant dish antennas pointed skyward, with the wind whistling through its massive framework, one can almost imagine hearing the faint call of distant worlds.

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