John G. Stevens, the UNCA chief research officer who led the multi-institution group that established PARSEC, said, "PARSEC's vision is to become a leading national/international observatory, with equal emphasis on research and education. UNC Asheville will take the leadership role in PARSEC's administration. As a designated inter-institutional center of the University of North Carolina, PARSEC will serve as the UNC system interface with PARI, providing research opportunities for students and faculty from all 16 campuses."

PARI, located on 200-acres north of Rosman in the Pisgah National Forest, was founded as a radio astronomy institute in 1998 by J. Donald Cline, an electrical engineer with Bell Telephone Laboratories. The site was originally a NASA tracking station built to communicate with Gemini and Apollo spacecraft. The station was closed with the introduction of the Space Shuttle, but taken over by the National Security Agency in 1981 as a listening post during the Cold War. Federal investment in the site is estimated to have exceeded $300 million, Stevens said. With the end of the Cold War, the site returned to the U.S. Forest Service and remained there until Cline established PARI. The facility has two 26-meter (85-foot) radio telescopes, several small radio and optical telescopes, and 31 buildings.

"PARSEC is a multiple win - a win for UNC Asheville, a win for the University of North Carolina system, a win for our region's teachers and children, a win for our collaboration with PARI, and a win for our place in the knowledge-based economy," said UNCA Chancellor Jim Mullen.

UNC Asheville has a long-standing relationship with PARI through faculty and student research projects. The PARSEC partnership will allow UNCA to develop additional student and faculty multidisciplinary research opportunities at PARI, and allow UNCA to enhance its astronomy curriculum and its multimedia arts and sciences program, Mullen said. PARSEC will benefit the region's schools by building on PARI's education efforts in secondary schools and UNCA's commitment to intergenerational learning.

"At PARI, our mission is to offer research and education opportunities in radio and optical astronomy, and in the related disciplines of physics, engineering, chemistry and computer science. We need a place where world-class researchers can try unconventional ideas; a place where pure research combines with practical application; a place where people can begin their education and be inspired to continue. PARI is such a place. It is an unparalleled opportunity to take research and education out of the classroom and into the realm of the imagination. PARI and PARSEC together can help accomplish this goal," said Cline, PARI president.

A collaborative team began serious discussions a year ago concerning the creation of PARSEC. Joining Stevens and Cline in the effort were Mike Castelaz, PARI director of astronomical studies and education; Christopher Brown, director of the North Carolina Space Initiative, and gravitation and space biology expert; and Wayne Christiansen, UNC-Chapel Hill astrophysics professor and director of the Morehead Observatory.

Christiansen noted Monday that the lack of university-affiliated radio astronomy facilities in the U.S. relegates aspiring radio astronomers who are undergraduate and graduate students to the farthest end of the bench, with little chance in getting into the "game."

"This is why PARI and PARSEC are so important. PARI will offer astronomers and their students throughout the state and the Southeast access to a facility that can support long-term projects, such a monitoring the radio emission from exotic objects like quasars and pulsar for months and perhaps even years. And, these same long-term, time-intensive projects can serve as the entry point for getting students in the UNC system and beyond into the fascinating and rewarding 'game' of observational radio astronomy. This exciting prospect exists nowhere else in the county."

One of PARSEC's first tasks will be to locate broader funding sources for its scientific and educational mission, since PARI operates primarily on private funding at this time. Members of the PARSEC team just returned from a three-day visit to Washington, D.C. where they had exploratory meetings with the National Science Foundation, NASA, the Library of Congress and congressional leaders concerning funding opportunities.

Radio astronomy, which is a way of seeing an invisible universe, began serious development as a scientific field after World War II. Radio waves, which were used to develop radio, television and telephone technology, are also emitted by billions of extraterrestrial sources. They are the longest waves in the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation that also includes visible light, x-rays (which have shorter wavelengths than visible light), and microwaves (which have longer wavelengths than visible light). Radio telescopes, which look like satellite dishes, can see farther into our galaxy than optical telescopes and make observations in the radio range instead of the visible range. The radio wave data that radio telescopes collect allow scientists to learn more about a range of processes, including star formation, and the evolution and life of quasars, molecular clouds, pulsars and radio galaxies. Visit www.pari.edu for more information about radio astronomy.

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