Only four hours west of Washington, D.C., there is a town where cell phones and wireless Internet are outlawed. Commercial radios are banned, and microwaves aren't welcome either.
Green Bank might sound like a Luddite's dreamscape, but the West Virginia hamlet's self-imposed blackout is being done all in the name of science: Green Bank is home to the world's largest radio telescope, a 100-meters-in-diameter dish that is the crown jewel of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
By measuring radio waves emitted from objects in space, the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope can go where optical telescopes can't. It lets scientists "see" parts of the universe that are invisible to the human eye, giving them the power to study far-off galaxies and the lives of stars and discover new planets.
Policing interference requires constant vigilance, cooperation, and creativity. When a crew sees a spike, they hop in a diesel truck equipped with antennas to track down the culprit.But to do its job, the telescope needs complete radio silence—a tall order in the digital age, even in a town with only about 150 residents.
And so, within a 10-mile radius of the observatory, Wi-Fi, cell phones, and radios are flat-out banned. And the zone extends further into a 13,000-square-mile area in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Virginia where the use of airwaves is heavily restricted. The restrictions are part of Congress's 1958 decision to build the National Radio Quiet Zone to protect the NRAO.
