04/13/2026
Why did the radio telescope go up the mountain? To look out into space, of course.
A German-made DSA-2000 radio telescope, weighing in at 5,000 pounds with a dish 5 meters in diameter, journeyed to the University of Virginia’s Grounds on March 31 following three weeks at sea.
The crate arrived at the University Cemetery parking lot off Alderman Road, where a crane lifted it from the truck. University personnel and the manufacturer’s representatives uncrated it and sent it on its way to Fan Mountain, where it trekked up the mountain to the observatory.
It was not an easy trip. The nearly 3-mile road to the observatory is a rugged one-lane track. It’s shift-into-first-gear steep, with drop-offs on one side and rocks and forest on the other, punctuated by sharp switchbacks. The trip took about three hours with Allen Arnst, a field technician for telescope manufacturer Mtex Antenna Technology USA, driving the radio telescope dish slowly and delicately on board a very large forklift.
Brad Johnson, an associate professor of astronomy; Mallory Helfenbein, a post-baccalaureate researcher in the Astronomy Department; and Dillion Bass, a first-year astronomy graduate student, walked alongside, using hand signals to direct Arnst past leaning trees, soft spots in the road, dangling vines and other hazards.
Once operational, the telescope, funded by a $249,850 grant from the Jefferson Trust, will begin its search for the invisible dark matter that astronomers believe links the universe together and could be detected using strong magnetic fields.
“The universe is made up of particles,” Johnson said. “We call one of these particles ‘dark matter,’ and it’s intentionally provocative. We don’t know what it is, but it acts gravitationally, influencing the universe in a detectable way. But it doesn’t interact with light in the same way that the protons, neutrons and electrons do. We can’t see dark matter with our eyes or with light, but we can see it gravitationally.”
Johnson said particle physicists have been looking for axions, which have properties similar to those of dark matter.
While axions are invisible, Johnson said, a strong magnetic field can cause them to decay into microwaves. Johnson wants to hunt them in the wild, using the natural magnetic fields generated by neutron stars.
“Neutron stars are high-mass stars, and when they die, they explode,” Johnson said. “You’re left with this ball of neutrons and some plasma around it, and that creates a gigantic magnetic field. We know these giant magnets are there, and we think the axions are there.”
A radio telescope, when pointed at populations of neutron stars, could detect axion-decay signals.
“We know where some neutron stars are, so we can observe those for sure. We can also look in places where they should be, given our understanding of star formation,” Johnson said. “It’s kind of like fishing. You can’t see all of the fish, but you can guess where they are if you know the lake well enough.” https://uvatoday.me/41UdzX3
