Tech & Biz

Real 'Flash' Gordon Dies - Creator of Link to Deep Space

by Paul Conneally | February 28, 2010 at 10:57 am

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William E. Gordon creator of the world's largest radio telescope has died aged 92.

The telescope is a dish the size of 26 football fields and has been described as the telephone that would "allow E.T. to phone home".

The telescope is situated in Puerto Rico and is called the Arecibo Telescope after a nearby town and was featured in the 1997 film 'Contact' starring Jodie Foster as a scientist that uses the telescope to catch and decipher messages from aliens.

Dr. Gordon had no interest in military applications of his deep space link dish, only in the scientific possibilities it had, but managed to get funding for his dream of studying the ionosphere and beyond by selling the idea to the US Government as a way to listen in on Soviet messages.

Unlike other radio telescopes he designed the dish to fit directly into the ground. It was this deep dish technology that first proved Einstein's prediction that gravity waves must exist by actually detecting them in 1993.

Gordon's flash of inspiration and tenacity in seeing his ideas coming to fruition truly changed our view and understanding of deep space and our relationship with it.

William E. Gordon, 92, the engineer and scientist who designed and built the spectacular Arecibo radio telescope, one of the largest and most productive instruments for probing the secrets of the heavens, died Feb. 16 at his home in Ithaca, N.Y. He had recently undergone hip surgery.

William E. Gordon, an electrical engineer who conceived, designed, built and operated the world’s largest radio telescope, which has been described as Earth’s ear to outer space, died on Feb. 16 at his home in Ithaca, N.Y. He was 92.