California Institute of Technology, at Pasadena, Calif.; originally for men, became coeducational in 1970; founded 1891 as Throop Polytechnic Institute; called Throop College of Technology, 1913–20. The institute's research facilities, principally in science and engineering, include the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (operated in conjunction with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration), the Palomar Observatory, the Guggenheim Aeronautical Laboratory, and a cosmic ray laboratory. With the Univ. of California at Berkeley and the Univ. of Hawaii, it operates the W. M. Keck Observatory at Mauna Kea, Hawaii, which houses the world's largest reflecting telescopes.
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