Holmdel Horn Antenna

The Holmdel Horn Antenna is a large horn antenna that was used as a radio telescope at Bell Telephone Laboratories in Holmdel Township in New Jersey. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1988 because of its association with the research work of two radio astronomers, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson. In 1965 while using this antenna, Penzias and Wilson discovered the microwave background radiation that permeates the universe. This was one of the most important discoveries in cosmology since Edwin Hubble demonstrated in the 1920s that the universe was expanding. It provided the evidence that confirmed George Gamow's and Abbe Georges Lemaite's "Big Bang" theory of the creation of the universe. This helped change the science of cosmology, the study of the history of the universe, from a field for unlimited theoretical speculation into a discipline of direct observation. In 1978 Penzias and Wilson received the Nobel Prize for Physics for their discovery.