We went there, and we saw it—The Very Large Array—
In the Plains of San Agustin,
On a warm and sunny day.
A group of radio antennas
Many miles across—
It's a synchronized data collector,
With high-tech staff as its boss.
Each VLA antenna
Has a dish 82 feet wide
(That moves on a tripod mount),
With eight receivers tucked inside.
It's discovered ice on Mercury—
And even a dwarf galaxy—
And many more phenomena
We would never get to see
This massive radio telescope
New roads in science will pave 
As it works at a narrow frequency,
Picking up cosmic radio waves.
And though it goes over my head
In more ways than I can say,
I'm grateful to Karl G. Jansky
For inventing the VLA.
© 2024 Teresa Miles Kephart
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