Remember the contest to rename the Very Large Array? (I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that it resulted in one of the best BoingBoing comment threads ever.) The good news: A name has been chosen! The bad news: It's not "Emily". But it's still nice. Starting March 31, the Very Large Array will become the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array, in honor of the father of radio astronomy. (Thanks Tim Heffernan!)

  • planettom

    Well, a gentleman never brags about the size of his array…

    • Donald Petersen

      Yeah, no kidding.  They stopped a hairsbreadth from calling it the Karl G. Jansky’s Very Large Array, which if nothing else sounds like a dig at Mr. Jansky’s own waistline.

      For what it’s worth, she’ll always be “Emily” to me.

  • OohErMissus

    I guess they disqualified my entry (Giant INterferometric Observatory Of Radio-source Mapping Array System – GINOORMAS) either because it was too silly, too so-not-to-the-point-ish, or for the primary fact that they didn’t allow enough space in the entry blank for it to be entered properly…..

  • Timothy Reeves

    Jansky was also at Bell Labs before Penzias and Wilson. I guess Penzias and Wilson get a  Bigger Than Average Array named after them.

  • RJ

    Huh! Well, keep your eyes open for an NRAO-themed adult film named “The Quite Substantial Instrument.”

  • emo hex

     OK, so now I’ll think of it as Jansky’s Kitchen!

  • Tim Samson

    Yes! I’m glad they kept the Very Large Array. 

  • nemryn

    The Twilight Sparkle Very Large Array.