The new name should clearly reflect the VLA's leading role in the future of astronomy, while honouring its multitude of past achievements.

BBC: Very Large Array telescope in public call for new name

The Very Large Array (VLA) is a bank of radio telescopes in New Mexico, US, and has appeared in a number of films including Contact and Independence Day.

BBC: Very Large Array telescope in public call for new name

The VLA was constructed in the 1970s, and much of the electronics that collect and process the radio signals from its 27 gigantic antennas date from that era.

BBC: Very Large Array telescope in public call for new name

The VLA is an agency of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), and reports to the Environment Secretary, Margaret Beckett, who is answerable to Parliament for it.

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At the VLA (that centre of government radio telescopy) they will tell you that around the time of the crash, the US government was sending up special high-altitude weather balloons made of a then-classified material.

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"Though the giant dish antennas, the unique machines that move them across the desert, and the buildings on New Mexico's Plains of San Agustin may appear much the same, the VLA truly has become a new and different facility, " said NRAO director Fred Lo.

BBC: Very Large Array telescope in public call for new name

The astronomy community has a long history of descriptive yet fairly unimaginative names - including the VLA itself, the Very Large Telescope in Chile, and the yet-to-be-built European Extremely Large Telescope (the design for which was chosen over the alternative Overwhelmingly Large Telescope).

BBC: Very Large Array telescope in public call for new name