This antenna, known as “Jansky’s Merry-go-Round,” was designed to collect data on short wavelengths. The antenna was outfitted with Model-T wheels so that it could rotate around a concrete track.

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center.

Jansky’s colleagues at the field station in Cliffwood were studying antennas, receivers, and the behavior of radio waves.

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center.

Here Jansky records his findings and notes static from a thunderstorm.  At the 1932 International Scientific Radio Union, Jansky presented his findings, in which he described interference from storms, but also from “an origin from which is not yet known.” The next year was spent further investigating the cause of the “hiss.”

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center.

Throughout 1932, Jansky observed that the static source moved across the sky at night and changed throughout the months. By December 1932 after seeing his data plotted over the course of a year Jansky was convinced he was hearing signals from space.

Image Courtesy of AT&T Archives and History Center.

Today the unit of measurement used to convey the strength of a radio signal, a jansky (Jy), is named for him.  In 2012, the Very Large Array in New Mexico, a radio astronomy observatory, was renamed in Jansky’s honor. A lunar crater and asteroid also bear his name.

Image Courtesy of National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Papers of Karl G. Jansky.

Despite lifelong health issues, Jansky was athletic, even becoming the table tennis champion of Monmouth County. He lived in Little Silver, NJ with wife Alice and their children, where he built a ping pong table in the basement.

Collection of National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Jansky was described as a stellar father by those who knew him; sharing household and childcare duties with his wife Alice. He shared his passion for outer space with his children, waking them up at night to view cosmic events as a family.

Collection of National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

By 1934, Jansky’s focus shifted to other radio wave projects. He never returned to in-depth astronomy research due to several factors, including reduced resources during the Great Depression, changing priorities in the 1940s (like the war and different radio technology), and his untimely death at age 44. Today, Jansky’s name can be found as a unit of radio strength measurement, on a radio astronomy observatory in New Mexico, and as namesakes for a lunar crater and asteroid.

Collection of National Radio Astronomy Observatory.