The Jodrell Bank Observatory, which has housed the UK’s largest telescope for nearly 70 years, has lost its funding and could now close.
28 jobs are understood to be at risk at the site in Cheshire, although its closure would also affect the work of nearly 3,000 scientists who use it in their research.
The observatory and its network of telescopes have been pivotal to the country’s study of distant galaxies and training future astronomers, but all scientific observations at Jodrell are expected to cease on the 1 April 2028 unless alternative funding can be found.
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The funding body, the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) agency, said it had to focus investment on projects that deliver “the greatest long-term impact”.
The site was first established in 1945 and pioneered radio astronomy and the study of galaxies beyond our own.
It was also pivotal during the Cold War, when it was used to monitor Soviet missiles during the height of nuclear tensions between the USSR and NATO powers.
Its contribution to global scientific efforts earned it Unesco World Heritage status in 2019.
But the UKRI, which has an annual budget of just under £10bn, says it has had to cut the observatory’s annual £2.8m budget because planned research costs for physics and the running of its labs had escalated.
The announcement is part of a broader 2.7% cut to astronomy, nuclear and particle physics research over the next four years which will also impact on other projects.
The UK will no longer participate in research at the James Clark Maxwell Telescope in Hawaii, which scientists are using to image supermassive black holes at the centre of galaxies; UKRI has also cut funding for the UK’s involvement in two instruments on the Extremely Large Telescope which is being built in Chile to search for signs of life on other Earth-like worlds, and there will be a 20% cut in funding that supports UK participation in the Vera Rubin Telescope in Chile, which is creating the first movie of the Universe and only launched last year.
Prof Michele Dougherty, executive chair of the science and technology branch of UKRI, said: “After listening to our community we have protected core discovery research. However, the situation does require some tough, but necessary, decisions.”
Prof Simon Garrington, associate director of the Jodrell Bank Observatory, told BBC News that everyone at Jodrell Bank was “devastated” by the decision.
“It’s not just because of the fantastic science that we do, but Jodrell Bank and its telescope network [have been] a national capability for nearly 70 years and a beacon for science in the north-west [of England], attracting young people into science and engineering careers,” he added.
The importance of the site to science and the community has seen it immortalised in popular culture from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy to Doctor Who.
Garrington said the UKRI’s decision would be challenged, but added that if those discussions failed the leadership team would do all it could to find alternative funding to keep the iconic Lovell Telescope, which is at the heart of the observatory and the network of telescopes it supports, continuing in some form.
Also speaking to BBC News, Scotland’s Astronomer Royal, Prof Catherine Heymans described the decision by UKRI as “a real act of national self-harm”.
Despite its age, continuous upgrades have kept the Lovell telescope at the cutting edge of astronomical research. It is the third largest steerable radio telescope in the world, and its science was supercharged when it was connected to six other telescopes across central England, to create the e-Merlin network.
Joined together these UK telescopes can zoom into objects in deep space and see them in incredible detail, with similar resolution to the sector-leading Hubble Space Telescope.
Photograph by Mike Peel / Creative Commons
