James Stanley Hey facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Stanley Hey
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Hey, photographed in 1964
Copyright: QinetQ Limited |
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| Born |
James Stanley Hey
3 May 1909 Nelson, Lancashire, England
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| Died | 27 February 2000 (aged 90) |
| Alma mater | University of Manchester |
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| Spouse(s) | Edna Heywood |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Astronomy, physics |
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James Stanley Hey (May 3, 1909 – February 27, 2000) was an English physicist and radio astronomer. He used radar technology to study space, which helped create the field of radio astronomy. During World War II, he found that the Sun sends out radio waves. He also located the first radio source outside our galaxy, in a group of stars called Cygnus.
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Early Life and Learning
James Stanley Hey was born in 1909 in Nelson, Lancashire, England. His father worked in the cotton industry, which was very important in Lancashire at the time.
Hey studied physics at the University of Manchester. He earned his first degree in 1930. The next year, he got his master's degree. He studied X-ray crystallography with a famous scientist named Lawrence Bragg.
Amazing Discoveries in Science
After finishing university, Hey first worked as a teacher. He taught physics at Burnley Grammar School for several years.
In 1940, Hey joined a special group that worked on radar for the army. This group was called the Air Defence Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE). His main research area was in Richmond Park in Surrey.
Radar and the Sun
From 1942, Hey's job was to find ways to stop enemies from jamming Allied radar. Jamming means sending out signals to block or confuse radar. German forces had been jamming radar for a year. This problem became very clear when three German warships escaped through the English Channel. Enemy radar jamming from the French coast helped them.
On February 27 and 28, 1942, Hey received reports from all over Britain. Anti-aircraft radars were being jammed badly. He noticed that the strongest interference seemed to come from the direction of the Sun. He checked with the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. They told him that a very active sunspot was visible on the Sun.
Hey realized that this sunspot region could be sending out radio waves. This was a huge discovery! It was the first time anyone found a specific astronomical radio source. Later in 1942, another scientist, G.C. Southworth in the USA, also connected the Sun to radio noise.
Tracking Rockets and Meteors
Later, in 1944 and 1945, Hey used radar to track V-2 rockets. These rockets were flying towards London at about 100 miles high. He wanted to predict where they would land.
He noticed strange, short radar echoes. They came from about 60 miles high, about five to ten times an hour. When the V-2 attacks stopped, these echoes continued. Hey figured out that these echoes were from meteor trails. This meant radar could be used to track meteor showers, even during the day!
When Hey tried to make his radar more sensitive, he found something else. He rediscovered cosmic radio noise. This is a faint radio signal that comes from space. Other scientists, Karl Guthe Jansky and Grote Reber, had found it in the 1930s.
First Radio Observatory
Hey's discoveries from 1942 and 1944 could not be shared with the public until after the war ended. From 1945 to 1947, Hey continued his research in Richmond Park. He used the army's radars there. This made the Richmond Park site the first radio observatory in Britain.
Hey worked with a team of colleagues. In 1946, the Sun became very active again. Hey's group confirmed that sunspots and solar flares were the source of the radio emissions. They also confirmed radar echoes from meteors. They even found the first daytime meteor shower.
In 1945 and 1946, they mapped the intensity of cosmic radio noise across the sky. In February 1946, they found a very strong radio source in the constellation Cygnus. Hey realized this source must be very small and called it a 'radio star'. It was later shown to be Cygnus A, which is a radio galaxy. This was the second specific astronomical radio source ever discovered, after Hey's discovery of the radio Sun.
Many important scientists visited Hey at Richmond Park. These included Bernard Lovell and J. A. Ratcliffe. Hey helped Lovell set up his own radio observatory at the University of Manchester. Hey's observatory in Richmond Park closed in 1947.
Hey became the head of his research group in 1949. From 1952, he continued his radio astronomy work at the Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern, Worcestershire. He built a special radio telescope there. He retired in 1969.
Personal Life
Stanley Hey grew up in a church-going family. However, he became an agnostic in his teenage years. This means he believed that whether God exists is unknown. He held this belief for the rest of his life.
He met his wife, Edna Heywood, when they were both students at Manchester University. They got married in 1934.
After Stanley Hey retired in 1969, the couple moved to Eastbourne. Edna passed away in September 1998.
Awards and Honors
Stanley Hey received many awards and honors for his important work:
- 1945 – He was made a MBE for his work on army radar.
- 1947 – He became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.
- 1950 – He received a DSc degree from the University of Manchester.
- 1959 – He was awarded the Eddington Medal from the Royal Astronomical Society.
- 1975 – He received an Honorary Doctor degree from the University of Birmingham.
- 1978 – He became a Fellow of the Royal Society.
- 1977 – He received an Honorary Doctor degree from the University of Kent.
Legacy
An asteroid discovered in 1997 was named 22473 Stanleyhey in his honor.
Books
Stanley Hey also wrote popular science books to share his knowledge:
- Hey, J. S. (1971). The Radio Universe.
- Hey, J. S. (1973). Evolution of Radio Astronomy.
