...Fields, Telescopes and Black Holes Astronomy is defined as the scientific study of the universe and the objects in it, including stars, planets, nebulae, and galaxies. Astronomy deals with the position, size, motion, composition, energy, and evolution of celestial objects. Astronomers analyze not only visible light but also radio waves, x-rays, and other ranges of radiation that come from sources outside the Earth's atmosphere (American Heritage Dictionary, 2002). This particular assignment required we visit an institution that specializes in the education of astronomy so that we, as students, could delve deeper into the world of astronomy through hands on experience. I elected to visit the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on the 4th of July 2012. I also viewed the film Black Holes the Edge of Infinity in addition to the hands on exercise. I feel a new appreciation for astronomy through the interactive learning experience because it put how very far we’ve come to understanding our universe into perspective. The first exhibit I visited had to do with the four nonvisible wave lengths of light and telescopes. I integrated the two exhibits so that I can elaborate on them in a way that culminates the experience. For every nonvisible wave measured there is a corresponding telescope. These are radio waves, infrared, ultraviolet, and gamma ray. Because radio waves are larger than optical waves, radio telescopes work differently than optical telescopes. Radio telescopes are dishes...
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...The extent to which new, or complex, technologies impacted upon the project. The Channel Tunnel project would have been built two centuries ago if it was technically feasible. In 1802, the idea of a road tunnel was suggested to Napoleon during a brief peace between France and England. French engineer Albert Mathieu Favier gave Napoleon details of a scheme involving two tunnels, one which would be candle-lit for horse-drawn carriages and the second acting as a sort of drain to take away water seeping into it (Anderson & Roskrow 1994). However the scheme existed only on paper due to the absence of appropriate tunneling techniques. Digging a tunnel under ground is not a novel technology; however, the geology is, especially under the sea. Engineers had to check and hoped to find that a suitable rock for tunneling stretched in an unbroken bed across the channel. Building a tunnel doesn’t require innovative technology, otherwise the government would not approve the project go ahead. However, the actual construction of a 50 km-long Channel Tunnel up to 50 meters below the sea tested the ingenuity and skills of the top minds in the European and American construction industry (Anderson & Roskrow 1994). There were 11 specialized boring machines have been used in total on both, the British and the French sides, to work their way through the chalk marl stratum, which is between the gray chalk and glauconitic layer. The ground condition on the UK side had caused problem. The machine...
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...Asif Bajwa Astronomy 101 Professor Houser 12/11/2014 James Webb Space Telescope Since the first astronomers pointed telescopes at the sky, they have sought to see more. See farther and deeper. Space astronomy changed on April 24th 1990 with the launch of the space shuttle Discovery carrying aboard it the Hubble Space Telescope. A lot of people think we launched Hubble into space to get it closer to the stars but the real reason is the Earth's atmosphere both distorts and blocks light coming in from space. In space, beyond the atmosphere, the stars don't twinkle, instead they shine firm. That allows for the sensational images we've become accustomed to seeing from Hubble. But that wasn't Hubble's only benefit, it was also one of NASA's great observatories. There are many of these observatories in space but most are outfitted to answer one or two specific questions. Hubble was designed to be as inclusive as possible, it was supposed to answer as many questions as you could ask. At least as far as its design allowed. And Hubble succeeded very well at that. The Hubble Deep Field, perhaps the most important image ever taken by Hubble, shows us galaxies stretched all the way across the universe, up to ten billion light years away. Light that has taken billions of years to reach us in our corner of the universe, so we see these galaxies not that as they are today but as they were when the light left them. And in the end, after zooming in as much as possible, we see nothing...
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...road to discovery started with a man named William Herschel. Born in Germany, to a family of a musical background, he often felt drawn to other arts, and gained many interests, one of which was astronomy. He read books, did some research, and then began using a small telescope to better see the skies. William was infatuated with the skies, the telescopes of his time were not enough, leaving him to make his own. In time he was making some of the best telescopes in the world, his interest had led to the greatest telescopes of his day, that's powerful! Herschel was different from other scientists in many respects, he looked at the skies not to map them, but to explore them from his vantage point. He sought signs of life beyond Earth, and so his focus was the Sun, moon, and planets, he...
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...Have you ever looked through a telescope at the night sky? You can thank Galileo for that. Galileo was a devoted Catholic, but, he was charged for heresy by the church twice. Albert Einstein said “In advocating and the Copernican Theory Galileo was motivated by a striving to simplify the representation of the celestial motions.” which shows how much Einstein respected he. Galileo Galilei was the first person to turn a high powered telescope to the stars which allowed him to discover many things about space, however, it sets him on a course contrary to the Catholic Church.(Galileo) Galileo Galilei was born in Pisa, which in now Italy on February 15th, 1565, to Vincenzo Galilei and Giulia Ammannati. He had six brothers and sisters. When he was 8 him and his family moved to Florence. His family was poor, but, was still able to send him to school. In 1591 Galileo’s dads died and left him in charge and, he had to take care of the family.(Galileo) He studied mathematics and mechanics. He met Maria Gamba at The University of Pisa where he was teaching. He had there bastard children with her and they were two girls and one boy. The girls names where Maria Celeste and Livia...
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...the land could be resumed by the government of Mysore at the end of 1941, if it remained unused. Therefore, in 1941, Raman as President of the IAS held an extraordinary meeting of the academy and proposed that a research institute (to be named after himself) be build on the land. This proposal was sanctioned and a stone was laid on the ground, signifying that the land was now in use. However, it was not until 1948 that the institute could be inaugurated. Raman had planned the institute much before he retired as the head of the Physics Department of the Indian Institute of Science. His idea had been to walk straight into his newly-founded institute when he retired from IISc. This happened in 1948. Thus, the Raman Research Institute began under the umbrella of the Indian Academy of Sciences. During Raman's own time, the presidency of...
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...Telescopes in Astronomy Jennifer Boyer SCI/151 June 12, 2015 Robert Austin Telescopes in Astronomy What people currently know about the universe, along with all of its contents, is due in large part to the invention of telescopes. This paper discusses the science of sunlight and stars by explaining how the telescope has changed people’s view of the universe, as well as their place in it. This essay also discusses the major designs of telescopes, provides a list of each design’s strengths and weaknesses, describes the best places to build ground-based telescopes and why astronomers choose those places, and contrasts the strengths and weaknesses between building telescopes on Earth, in orbit, or even on the moon. Additionally, this paper explains how different frequencies of light tell more about the birth, life, and death in the nature and properties of the Sun, stars, and the universe. Lastly, this essay explains how telescopes operate in wavelengths of light that range from radio waves to gamma rays. How Telescopes Changed People’s View The invention of the telescope significantly impacts the way people in the past and present view the Earth, other planets and solar systems, as well as the universe as a whole (Bennett, J., Donahue, M., & Schneider, N., & Voit, M., 2015). Until the invention of Galileo Galilei's (1564-1642) simple telescope, many people thought that the earth was the center of our solar system (Bennett, J., Donahue, M., & Schneider...
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...Galileo Sir Galileo Galilei (also known as the “Father of Modern Science”) was an Italian scientist, astronomer, and mathematician of the Renaissance era whose methodical discoveries and principles changed our interpretation of the world around us. Galileo was born in Pisa, Italy to Vincenzo Galilei and Giulia Ammannati on February 15, 1564, their eldest child. His father, a musician, had wanted his son to study in medicine because of the financial benefits. In 1581, Galileo went off to study medicine at the University of Pisa where he took an interest in physics and mathematics. At his time at Pisa, Galileo made a scientific discovery that would change our view of time. At cathedral, Galileo noticed a chandelier swinging over him. His curiosity of how long it swings, being timed by his pulse, led to a realization that the periods were all similar. This became known as the Law of the Pendulum which is used to control clocks. In 1585, Galileo left the University of Pisa due to financial troubles. To make ends meet, he took various teaching jobs educating mathematics. A lecture he made about the position and size of Dante’s Inferno received praise and Galileo received re-entrance to the University of Pisa. While there, Galileo took interest in Aristotle’s laws of nature that stated that heavier objects drop at a rapid speed than lighter objects. This law has been accepted by many and few have tried to experiment. Galileo decided to experiment by going to the top of the Tower...
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...microscope. There are many types of microscopes. The most common (and the first to be invented) is the optical microscope, which uses light to image the sample. Other major types of microscopes are theelectron microscope (both the transmission electron microscopeand the scanning electron microscope), the ultramicroscope, and the various types of scanning probe microscope. The first microscope to be developed was the optical microscope, although the original inventor is not easy to identify. Evidence points to the first compound microscope appearing in the Netherlands in the late 1500s, probably an invention of eyeglassmakers there:[1] Hans Lippershey (who developed an early telescope) and Zacharias Janssen (also claimed as the inventor of the telescope). There are other claims that the microscope and the telescope were invented by Roger Bacon in the 1200s,[2] but this is not substantiated. Giovanni Faber coined the name microscope forGalileo Galilei's compound microscope in 1625 [3] (Galileo had called it the "occhiolino" or "little eye"). 2nd Century BC - Claudius Ptolemy described a stick appearing to bend in a pool of water, and accurately recorded the angles to within half a degree. 1st Century - Romans were experimenting with glass and found objects appeared larger when viewed through this new material. 1590 - Two Dutch spectacle makers, Zacharias Jansen and his father Hans started experimenting by mounting two lenses in a tube, the first compound microscope. 12th Century -...
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...path would change to a parabola or hyperbola and it would escape the gravitational pull of the sun. It would then leave the solar system. Parabolas are the orbital paths of objects in the form of an open curve. If one cuts out an angle in a circular cone, it would follow this path parallel to the sides of the cone. Hyperbolas occur when a plane cuts across two parallels half-cones. Kepler’s laws applies to any situation where two bodies in the universe orbit each other due to their mutual gravitational attraction, not just two planets. For example: Moon’s that orbit planets, such as the four Galilean Moons that orbit Jupiter. #2)(A) The reflecting telescope, which uses a mirror to attract light was perfected by Isaac Newton in 1668 although it was developed by John Gregory in 1663. The refracting telescope, which uses a lens to attract light was developed by a Dutch optician in 1608 named Hans Lippershey. Two...
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...effects they produce mainly on the star around which they are rotating. It is because planets look like just a dull spec of light through a telescope. The distance between us and a nearby planet is very large. In our scale model it will be like looking at a dust particle in Thunder Bay Ontario if we are sitting in Halifax with our telescope. That’s why astronomers have adopted various techniques to find extra-solar planets. In most of the techniques we focus on the star around which planets are rotating and by noticing the changes occurring in star we can decide whether that star has planet(s) or not. The following methods are used for that purpose. 1. Astrometry 2. Radial Velocity Method 3. Pulsar Timing 4. Transit Method 5. Gravitational Microlensing Astrometry: This is the oldest method used to search extra-solar planets. This planet is basically used to find the mass of thee planet. This method is based on the gravitational effect of planet on its host star. As the planet rotates around its star, it applies gravitational force on the star and makes the star to move under the effect of its (planet) gravity. Thus, both the star and the planet revolve around a common center of mass also called center of gravity. Thus, the position of star always keeps on changing, which we can notice by using sensitive telescopes and thus by drawing 2D or sometimes by 3D graphs of position of star and measuring how the x and y intercepts are changing. How much the...
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...Galileo Galilei Galileo Galilei was considered the central figure of the scientific revolution of the 17th century. His role in the history of science was a critical one. He revolutionized the way in which science was conducted, and performed experiments to test his ideas, which led him to be regarded as the father of experimental science. Galileo was born on February 15th, 1564 in Pisa, and was the oldest of seven children. His father, Vincenzo Galilei was a famous composer, lutenist, and music theorist. In 1572 at the age of eight, Galileo’s family moved to Florence, however Galileo stayed behind in Pisa and lived with Muzio Tedaldi who was related to Galileo’s mother for 2 two years. By the age of ten, Galileo joined his family in Florence and was tutored by Jacopo Borghini. By the age of eleven Galileo was sent off to study in a Jesuit monastery, the Camaldolese Monastery at Vallombrosa. Galileo soon found the life of a monk appealing and considered joining the Monastery. After four years of education in the Monastery he informed his father that he wanted to become a monk, which was not agreed upon by his father who had already decided that Galileo should become a medical doctor. Galileo was immediately ejected from the monastery and entered The University of Pisa to study medicine in 1581, at the age of 17. However his medical courses in the university never interested him and he did not take them seriously. Galileo was much more interested in attending mathematics and...
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...a collapsing cloud of hydrogen; helium and some other elements are pulled inwards by its own gravity, forming a core. Through nuclear fusion, most of the hydrogen is converted into helium and this is what keeps the star constantly burning for billions and billions of years. A star’s internal pressure is what keeps it from collapsing under its own massive gravity. However, if a star becomes too massive, and the internal pressure can no longer support itself, the star will collapse, receding into a black hole. Until recently, astronomers had observed that there were young stars in the universe, but had never quite exactly understood how they entered into our realm of existence, until now. The Herschel space telescope was launched on May 14, 2009 and is the largest, post powerful infrared telescope in space, to our knowledge. In 2010, Herschel made two unrelated discoveries that were equally as astounding to astronomers. The first challenged our previous beliefs about star birth and the second provided a backbone to some evidence that had already been recognized. Almost a year after its launch into space, on May 6, 2010 The Herschel space telescope discovered the birth of a star that is so impossibly massive, that it would dwarf our own sun. For a long time, it was thought that stars could not exceed eight solar masses. This star, located in star forming cloud RCW 120, already contains eight to...
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...The following are US space programs, stations and objects (telescope) that had provided Earth with outstanding accomplishing, information and improvements. Provided below are descriptions of each program, followed with the goals included in them. “Project Mercury was the United States' first man-in-space program.” It was brought upon in 1958 and completed in 1963. Six manned flights were conducted under this program from 1961 to 1963. The life of Project Mercury was about 4 2/3 years. The goals of Project Mercury included research and successful travelling. One goal was to orbit a manned spacecraft around Earth. Another included an investigation of man’s ability to function in space. Another objective was to recover both man and the spacecraft...
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...hole forms when any object reaches a certain critical density, and its gravity causes it to collapse to an almost microscopic small point. Stellar-mass black holes form when a massive star can no longer produce energy in its core but may still produce some light but not as much as a sun. With the radiation from its nuclear reactions to keep the star "puffed up," gravity causes the core to collapse and become that point. The star's outer layers may blast away into space or they may become pulled back into the black hole to make it denser. Astronomers aren't certain how super massive black holes form. They may form from the collapse of large clouds of gas, or from the mergers of many smaller black holes, or a combination of events. The telescopes used by astronomers do not just study star they also look for Visible light. Visible light is a type of (electromagnetic radiation) that our eyes can see. However, black holes in the Universe do not emit any detectable type of light. Astronomers can still find them and learn a lot about them, they do this by measuring the visible light, X-rays and radio waves emitted by material in the immediate environment of a black hole. When a normal star orbits around a black hole, we can measure the speed of the star by studying the visible light that it emits. Knowledge of this speed can be combined with the laws of gravity to prove that the star is in fact, orbiting, a black hole. When gas orbits around a black hole, it tends to get very hot because...
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