26 CONTEXT 176 : JUNE 2023 he was recorded as saying: ‘We need a miracle to save us.’ In October that year, the miracle appeared with the launch of Sputnik 1 by the Soviet Union (USSR). The satellite itself was of no concern. However, the rocket that carried it into space was an intercontinental ballistic missile. At the time of launch, Jodrell Bank was the only facility on earth able to track it. Lovell called the workers back on to site and they finished the work in record time. On 11 October, the new telescope tracked the carrier rocket as it sped high above the English Lake District, and the future of Jodrell Bank was secured by its success. Today, Jodrell Bank Observatory is still part of the University of Manchester’s department of physics and astronomy. The research group attached to it numbers around 200 staff and post-graduate students, including engineers and support staff of all types, as well as the research scientists themselves. The Lovell Telescope is in operation both in its own right and as part of the ‘E-MERLIN’ array of telescopes, which together constitute the UK’s National Radio Astronomy Facility, hosted by Jodrell Bank. Jodrell Bank is now also home to the headquarters of the Square Kilometre Array Observatory, a transnational collaboration spanning many countries, which aims to combine arrays of telescopes so vast that they operate as if they were a telescope the size of our planet. Science in heritage and culture Jodrell Bank now has its own Centre for Engagement, which not only welcomes hundreds of thousands of visitors to the site, but also manages the elements relating to the Unesco World Heritage Site inscription. As well as its galleries and gardens, the centre runs a well-regarded schools programme. This hosts 200-300 school pupils per day during term time, and a host of public lectures and events such as stargazing nights. It explores the role of science in culture, and the ways in which people interact and engage with science. In order to bring new audiences to engage with the narrative of the site, the team set up a series of music/culture/science events, including launching the award-winning bluedot festival in 2016. This brings together musicians, scientists and artists, with up to 25,000 people at a camping festival weekend each July. In 2022, a new £21 million gallery, the First Light Pavilion, opened to the public, telling the story of Jodrell Bank and its place in humanity’s relationship with the sky. The architecture of the gallery itself aligns with the sky in ways that echo structures of the past. The sun creates a meridian line (and internal sundial) within the building during the day. At night the North Star sits directly above the centre of the gallery’s facade, indicating our own place in the universe. Bernard Lovell and his team in front of the Searchlight Telescope (Photo: University of Manchester) Teresa Anderson is director of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Engagement, University of Manchester.
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