British dignitaries to honor Sen. Domenici's dedication to scientific collaboration

SOCORRO – On May 30, in Socorro, New Mexico, senior representatives of the British Government will attend a commemoration ceremony for retiring U.S. Senator Pete V. Domenici.

Her Majesty’s Consul, Kevin Lynch and Science Consul, Dr. May Akrawi will be in New Mexico to honor Senator Domenici’s commitment to UK/US scientific collaboration with Professor Peter Littlewood (Chair, Physics Department) and Dr. Dave Buscher from the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory visiting from the UK for this occasion. At the May 30 event, the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology will rename the National Radio Astronomy Observatory’s Array Operations Center as the “Pete V. Domenici Science Operations Center”.

In recent years, Sen. Domenici has championed many cutting edge scientific projects, including the Magdalena Ridge Observatory, a collaborative project between the University of Cambridge in England and the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

"On behalf of the British Government and our science community, we would like to thank Senator Domenici for all his support for this historic scientific project. With his help and support for the Magdalena Ridge Observatory, US and UK scientists will be able to continue in the footsteps of their predecessors in transatlantic collaboration and together make discoveries to benefit mankind," said Her Majesty's Consul General, Paul Lynch. He added that “The Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge is one of the world’s leading institutions in Physics and Astronomy and was home to one of our greatest transatlantic collaborations, the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953”.

The Magdalena Ridge Observatory (MRO) is primarily intended for astronomical research and will be composed of two facilities; a single 2.4-meter telescope and an array of optical/infrared telescopes called an interferometer.

The University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Laboratory has devoted two full-time researchers to the project, as well as its expertise and experience with interferometers. Since 2002, Cambridge has invested about $16 million (£8M) in-kind in building a world-class instrument in New Mexico.

With full funding, the interferometer will be composed of six 1.4 meter telescopes. These telescopes will be spaced by distances of up to 340 meters and optically linked to create images of astronomical objects – the detail of which will be unprecedented. The array telescopes will simulate the resolving power of a single telescope up to 340 meter in diameter and thus will be able to resolve objects with 100 times the resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope.

The Cavendish Laboratory pioneered applications of interferometry in the radio spectrum in the 1960’s and developed this into the visible spectrum with a prototype small telescope called COAST – the Cambridge Optical Aperture Synthesis Telescope – a decade ago.

After three years of operation, COAST had only a handful of nights with clear skies.

“We get 300 nights of clear skies every year,” said Dave Westpfahl, deputy principal investigator for the MRO. “They brought the expertise and we had the site.”