It’s every young astronomer’s dream: to make pioneering observations of the sky with the world’s most powerful telescope. And that dream came true for me in 1972, when I began research at Cambridge and had the chance to use the newly opened Ryle Telescope. Devised by Sir Martin Ryle, the astronomer royal, this was the most penetrating radio telescope of its time.
My research focused on radio galaxies, distant star-cities straddled by giant clouds of energy, that are emitting radiation at radio wavelengths. The big puzzle was to explain why these energetic clouds existed in the empty space outside the galaxy itself.
