Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics

The centre was formed after the merger of the Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST which brought two astronomy groups together.

The Jodrell Bank site also hosts the headquarters of the SKA Observatory (SKAO) - the International Governmental Organisation (IGO) tasked with the delivery and operation of the Square Kilometre Array, created on the signing of the Rome Convention[1] in 2019.

The SKA[2] will be the largest telescope in the world - construction is expected to start at the end of this decade.

[3] The research at the Centre focuses on:[4] The Jodrell Bank Observatory, located near Goostrey and Holmes Chapel in Cheshire, has played an important role in the research of meteors, quasars, pulsars, masers and gravitational lenses, and was heavily involved with the tracking of space probes at the start of the Space Age.

Jodrell Bank Observatory is also the base of the Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network (MERLIN), a National Facility run by the University of Manchester on behalf of UK Research and Innovation.