In 1955, a pair of researchers from the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C. named Bernard Burke and Kenneth Franklin were working in a relatively new area of astronomy when they made an unexpected discovery. Researchers had already discovered several sources of radio waves in the sky, and the two were using a sophisticated antenna called the Mills Cross Array to build upon existing knowledge. The Mills Cross Array was developed by Australian radio astronomer B.Y. Mills and Martin Ryle of England. It consisted of legs of 66 unpainted poles connected…