Astronomy Blog

The magic kingdom of marvellous things

It isn't every day that a ground-based astronomical telescope makes the front page of a UK national newspaper, gets a story inside and an analysis piece.

Further to my post from Monday, The Times are saying that Jodrell Bank Observatory may close over potential cuts of £2.5 million per year; an amount that was planned to fund the e-MERLIN project. This looks likely as a result of recent STFC Programmatic Review which has left many UK astronomers rather annoyed as several scientifically sound projects are scheduled to have their funding cut. The Times helpfully provide a list of other things the Government has spent £2.5 million on.

On the positive side of this, The Times's Nigel Hawkes wrote a whole article describing the significance of astronomy. I particularly liked his turn of phrase:

"They have found that there are stranger things in the Universe than ever were dreamt of. It is a laboratory where extreme physics impossible on Earth is an everyday affair. To blind ourselves to this is like choosing to shut a door on a magic kingdom of marvellous things."