Horn Antenna In Holmdel A 'Shrine To Cosmology,' Scientist Says

HOLMDEL, NJ — Another voice has been added to those supporting the preservation of the historic Horn antenna on Holmdel's Crawford Hill.

Fred Carl is a Simons Observatory project controls specialist at Princeton Physics, Princeton University.

And he spoke at a recent Holmdel Township Committee meeting to present his vision for what he called a "shrine of cosmology."

As a founder and trustee of the InfoAge Science & History Museums in Wall, Carl offered his expertise to help create an education center for astronomy and cosmology right at the Horn antenna location, he said.

Carl, now an Ocean Grove resident and formerly of Wall, told the committee "I laud you for taking the right steps to save this shrine of cosmology."

Now, he said, the committee can take the next steps to create an educational center at the site, with the microwave antenna as the centerpiece.

The property at 791 Holmdel Road is home to the Bell Labs Horn Antenna, once used by Bell Labs scientists Dr. Robert Wilson, who still lives in the township, and Dr. Arno Penzias to study microwave radiation from beyond the Milky Way.

Citizens for Informed Land Use In Holmdel (CILU), and other groups, support the preservation of the antenna and the protection of its site.

The Horn antenna is the symbol of the scientists' research that "confirmed evidence of the Big Bang Theory as the origin of the universe and earned both men a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978," the land use group said in a news release last month.

Currently, the township Planning Board has voted to study reclassifying the former Bell Labs/Nokia site - which includes the site of the historic Horn Antenna - as an "area in need of redevelopment." The property is now privately owned and can potentially be developed.

The board voted late last year to undertake the study in the hopes it could better control the future of the 43-acre site in the Crawford Hill section of Holmdel, board members said.

But preserving this landmark of scientific discovery will be an issue not just for Holmdel, or even the United States, but " for scientists around the world," said Regina Criscione, co-president of CILU along with Karen Strickland.

The organization has a petition online to support the preservation effort. In 1989, the Horn Antenna was named a National Historic Landmark, the organization said.

"As of today, we have more than 6,000 signatures and it is still going strong," she said.

As for Carl’s suggestion for an education center, Crisicone said that CILU "applauds any efforts to preserve the Horn antenna and the land on which is sits.

"We think a museum at that site would be a wonderful asset that will highlight the scientific legacy of Holmdel," she said.

Criscione said signatures on the petition are coming from around the world: United Arab Emirates, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Australia, Great Britain, Germany, Denmark, Spain and Hong Kong, to name a few countries.

The petition to save the Horn antenna and the grounds it sits on has been signed by supporters from 48 states and 55-plus countries, including multiple Nobel Prize winners and professors from major U.S. universities, she said.

Other signers represent "numerous national and international scientific laboratories, observatories, and organizations such as the National Academy of Science, NASA, The American Physical Society and the American Astronomical Society,” Criscione said.

Many organizations are now writing about the movement to save the the Horn antenna and its site. Sky & Telescope.org recently wrote a summary of the efforts with more scientific background about the site.

As with these scientists, Fred Carl of InfoAge says he is passionate about the unique place the Horn antenna holds in science history.

Based on the success in transforming the Camp Evans site in Wall into the InfoAge museums, Carl said he sees a similar prospect for the Horn antenna site - and one that is not "such a heavy lift."

For example, there is already a former research building at the Horn site that can house a future educational center.

Carl said he envisions an astronomy and cosmology center there. Astronomy, he explained, is the study of visible stars. Cosmology looks into the past to see how galaxies were formed, he said.

The Nobel-prize-winning scientists who did their work under the auspices of Bell Labs in the 1970s did so using that particular antenna on that particular site, so both are linked in history.

Carl emphasized that their work resulted in the discovery of "the first concrete evidence of the Big Bang theory."

He said the Horn antenna is bound to its original site because of its history - and it should remain there.

"It should be kept in place. Moving it will not help save it," he said.