US telescopes faced with closure

A committee of the National Science Foundation (NSF) has recommended closing six major astronomy facilities in favour of building and supporting new telescopes. The observatories under threat include two leading radio telescopes – the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia and the Very Large Base Array (VLBA), which comprises 10 radio-dish antennas spread across the US from Hawaii to the US Virgin Islands. They are joined by four others based at Kitt Peak in Arizona – the Mayall Telescope, the Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-National Optical Astronomy Observatory, a 2.1 m telescope and the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope. US astronomers fear that if the telescopes close it will jeopardize the country's position as a world leader in astronomy.