Wendy Perry, age 15, of Middletown, Ohio, for her question:

WHAT GOES ON AT THE JODRELL BANK OBSERVATORY?

Jodrell Bank Observatory, near Manchester, England, is one of the world's largest radio astronomy observatories in she world. Astronomers at Jodrell Bank pioneered in radar studies of meteors and the moon.

At Jodrell Bank, astronomers have discovered and studied several celestial objects called pulsars. They also have mapped sad studied cosmic radio sources.

Jodrell Bank serves as a research and teaching department of the University of Manchester. The main radio telescope at the observatory has a dish shaped antenna that is 250 feet in diameter.

Man's first giant radio telescope began operating at Jodrell Bank in 1957. The observatory attracted worldwide attention by tracking the first apace satellite, Russians Sputnik I. The observatory later tracked many United States and Soviet spacecraft.