Green Bank is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

in Pocahontas County in

West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...

's Potomac Highlands inside the Allegheny Mountain Range. Green Bank is located along WV 28. Green Bank is home to the

Green Bank Observatory The Green Bank Observatory (previously National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank) is an Observatory, astronomical observatory located in the United States National Radio Quiet Zone, National Radio Quiet Zone in Green Bank, West Virginia, G ...

and is also close to the

Snowshoe Mountain Snowshoe Mountain is a ski resort in the eastern United States, located in Snowshoe, West Virginia. The resort has skiable terrain across and covers a total area of in the Allegheny Mountains, which are a part of the vast Appalachian Mountain ...

ski resort. As of the 2020 census, its population was 141. The community was named for a green riverbank near the original town site.

National Radio Quiet Zone

Green Bank is located within the

National Radio Quiet Zone The National Radio Quiet Zone (NRQZ) is a large area of land in the United States designated as a radio quiet zone, in which radio transmissions are restricted by law to facilitate scientific research and the gathering of military intelligence. ...

, which means that radio transmissions are heavily restricted by law. This policy is enforced by a "radio policeman" who uses specialized equipment to detect signals from unauthorized electronics. Green Bank is home to the

Green Bank Telescope The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in Green Bank, West Virginia, US is the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope, surpassing the Effelsberg 100-m Radio Telescope in Germany. The Green Bank site was part of the National Rad ...

, the world's largest fully steerable

radio telescope A radio telescope is a specialized antenna (radio), antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the r ...

, which was operated by the

National Radio Astronomy Observatory The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is a federally funded research and development center of the United States National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. for the purpose of radi ...

(NRAO) until September 30, 2016. Since October 1, 2016, the Telescope has been operated by the

, which is no longer part of the NRAO. It was at the Green Bank Site in 1961 that

Frank Drake Frank Donald Drake (May 28, 1930 – September 2, 2022) was an American astrophysicist and astrobiologist. He began his career as a radio astronomer, studying the planets of the Solar System and later pulsars. Drake expanded his interests ...

presented the

Drake Equation The Drake equation is a probability theory, probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial life, extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy.Physics Today 14 (4), 40–46 (1961). The e ...

, which was developed to provide an estimate of the total number of detectable extraterrestrial civilizations in the

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

galaxy. As Green Bank is located within the

, many people who believe they suffer from electromagnetic hypersensitivity, a disputed medical condition, are finding new homes within its borders. Escape from cellular radiation is the main attraction to Green Bank for these people. , around 30 people had moved to Green Bank to escape the supposed effects of electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

Notable people

* Bruce Bosley (1933–1995), American football player

References

External links

* Gaynor, Michael J
"The Town Without Wi-Fi,"
'' Washingtonian'' (January 2015). * Kennedy, Pagan
"Opinion: The Land Where the Internet Ends: To find real solitude, you have to go out of range. But every year that’s harder to do, as America’s off-the-grid places disappear,"
''New York Times'' (June 21, 2019) * Frazier, Kylie
Broadband Comes To Rural America, But How Many Will Use It?
''Internet Providers by Zip News'' (August 18, 2014) {{Authority control Census-designated places in Pocahontas County, West Virginia Census-designated places in West Virginia