It’s Orion Time

I’m in an Orion Mood

It’s getting to be that time again—when the constellation Orion starts making its annual appearance. It’s one of the coolest-looking constellations of the year, and for me it means one thing: the Orion Nebula is back!

To celebrate Orion’s arrival back in the pre-midnight skies, I’ve made a little video about it. It features some clips from the Space Telescope Science Institute (all used by permission), some of Mark’s nice, floaty space music (also used by permission), along with yours truly telling the story!

Click on the image below and let’s go to Orion!

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.

Doing Astronomy

High-stakes Astronomy and Risks

Not quite a year ago, I was invited to write an article for a book called State of the Universe 2008

I decided to write about low-frequency astronomy, that is–radio astronomy detections below about 400 Mhz (read more about radio frequency bands here). In it, I focused on some new arrays online, or coming online in the next decade. Some of the work has been done at Haystack Observatory, which is about 10 minutes away from where I live. The scientists there created an instrument that detected primordial deuterium in our galaxy, quite an accomplishment considering that the line it transmits at is 327 MHz, which is quite sensitive to such things as radio frequency interference from home stereos, microwave ovens, and so on.

Other arrays, such as LOFAR (for Low-Frequency Array), and the Murchison Wide-field Array (formerly known as the Mileura Wide-field Array), are springing up to detect frequencies as low as 80 MHz, which is smack in the middle of the radio and TV broadcast spectrum.

An artist’s concept of how the MWA will look.

There’s fascinating science to be done in such low-frequency regions of the spectrum, and I discuss that in the book, so I won’t repeat it all here. But, what I found equally fascinating was the danger (if you will) that the people who build these arrays face. For example, right now the folks building the MWA are working in the Australian Outback, in temperatures upwards of 45 degrees celsius (for you Fahrenheit fans, that’s about 140 degrees). I was over at Haystack the other day talking to one of the project scientists, and he showed me a picture of another hazard: giant lizards. Some of them are bigger than some of the detector array elements. And, he also pointed out that kangaroos can (and probably will) take interest in the array elements (which can’t hurt the roos or the lizards).

Chajnantor Plateau; site of the ALMA array.

The designers and builders of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile are facing risks of another sort: high altitude and maintaining the health and safety of the workers building the array, while at the same time protecting the high desert environment. I was talking to one of the public relations people for the project during a meeting last month, and he was describing the work conditions and the extreme precautions the workers have to take, since they are working at 2,900 meters (9,500 feet) at the operations support center and at 5,000 meters (16,500 feet) on the Chajnantor Plateau where the array is located. The risks are great, but so are the scientific rewards, provided everyone works carefully and deliberately.

Mauna Kea Observatories on the Big Island of Hawai’i.

Of course, since astronomers frequently work at high altitudes, many are familiar with the risks of such environments. Back when I was in graduate school, I did an observing run at the University of Hawai’i 2.2-meter (88-inch) telescope on Mauna

Kea, on the Big Island of Hawai’i. It’s located at about 4,200 meters (13,779 feet) above sea level, and is another beautiful but potentially risky environment. While there I watched the engineers building the Gemini North facility, and marveled at their ability to work at such high altitudes.

All astronomy, all science, comes with some risk. Look at what got risked to put the Hubble Space Telescope on orbit; it’s working well, but each time it is refurbished, humans put their lives at risk to go into space to do the work.

But, of course, risk is part of the success of any endeavor. The study of astronomy is worth taking some risks; after all, the evolution of the universe is not a planned event; since the moment of the Big Bang (at least) it has involved countless risks (large and small) for each moment that ultimately shape the stars, planets, and galaxies that we study.

High-stakes Astronomy and Risks

Not quite a year ago, I was invited to write an article for a book called State of the Universe 2008 I decided to write about low-frequency astronomy, that is—radio astronomy detections below about 400 Mhz (read more about radio frequency bands here). In it, I focused on some new arrays online, or coming online in the next decade. Some of the work has been done at Haystack Observatory, which is about 10 minutes away from where I live. The scientists there created an instrument that detected primordial deuterium in our galaxy, quite an accomplishment considering that the line it transmits at is 327 MHz, which is quite sensitive to such things as radio frequency interference from home stereos, microwave ovens, and so on.

An artist's concept of how the MWA will look

Other arrays, such as LOFAR (for Low-Frequency Array), and the Murchison Wide-field Array (formerly known as the Mileura Wide-field Array), are springing up to detect frequencies as low as 80 MHz, which is smack in the middle of the radio and TV broadcast spectrum.

There’s fascinating science to be done in such low-frequency regions of the spectrum, and I discuss that in the book, so I won’t repeat it all here. But, what I found equally fascinating was the danger (if you will) that the people who build these arrays face. For example, right now the folks building the MWA are working in the Australian Outback, in temperatures upwards of 45 degrees celsius (for you Fahrenheit fans, that’s about 140 degrees). I was over at Haystack the other day talking to one of the project scientists, and he showed me a picture of another hazard: giant lizards. Some of them are bigger than some of the detector array elements. And, he also pointed out that kangaroos can (and probably will) take interest in the array elements (which can’t hurt the roos or the lizards).

ALMA site on the Chajnantor Plateau in Chile

The designers and builders of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile are facing risks of another sort: high altitude and maintaining the health and safety of the workers building the array, while at the same time protecting the high desert environment. I was talking to one of the public relations people for the project during a meeting last month, and he was describing the work conditions and the extreme precautions the workers have to take, since they are working at 2,900 meters (9,500 feet) at the operations support center and at 5,000 meters (16,500 feet) on the Chajnantor Plateau where the array is located. The risks are great, but so are the scientific rewards, provided everyone works carefully and deliberately.

Mauna Kea Observatories on the Big Island of Hawai'i

Of course, since astronomers frequently work at high altitudes, many are familiar with the risks of such environments. Back when I was in graduate school, I did an observing run at the University of Hawai’i 2.2-meter (88-inch) telescope on Mauna Kea, on the Big Island of Hawai’i. It’s located at about 4,200 meters (13,779 feet) above sea level, and is another beautiful but potentially risky environment. While there I watched the engineers building the Gemini North facility, and marveled at their ability to work at such high altitudes.

All astronomy, all science, comes with some risk. Look at what got risked to put the Hubble Space Telescope on orbit; it’s working well, but each time it is refurbished, humans put their lives at risk to go into space to do the work.

But, of course, risk is part of the success of any endeavor. The study of astronomy is worth taking some risks; after all, the evolution of the universe is not a planned event; since the moment of the Big Bang (at least) it has involved countless risks (large and small) for each moment that ultimately shape the stars, planets, and galaxies that we study.

Stars and Veterans

Poppies for Armistice Day

My dad is a military veteran. He fought in the U.S. Army in the Korean War and was one of the lucky ones to come back alive. He was also the person who first got me started in astronomy, taking me out to look at the stars when I was probably just barely old enough to know what those lights in the sky were. He’s always been fascinated with space and astronomy and has a couple of telescopes and I don’t know how many books about the subjects. I can proudly say that if it wasn’t for him, as well as my mom’s push for me to get good grades (which I didn’t always do) and be a reader (which I DID do), my own interest in astronomy might never have bloomed.

Stars for Veterans Day

So, this one’s for you, Daddy, on Veteran’s Day—for coming home and making sure that I got bit by the star bug, and for being such a star-hopper yourself!

Veteran’s Day is the U.S. variant on celebrations like Armistice Day or Remembrance Day in other countries. It’s a time to thank the men and women who are in the armed services who have served their countries in times of peace AND war. Regardless of how you feel about war, soldiers (whether your own country’s or those of other countries), the day is there to remember their service and sacrifices. It’s a very human holiday and I can’t think of any country in the world that doesn’t owe at least some measure of thanks to those who served.

There’s an interesting connection between war and astronomy. In the really olden days, war planners consulted the stars for propitious times to do battle. Why, they even had Mars—their very own god of war. Later on, the development of the telescope (while not strictly a military invention) allowed ship captains to spy out their adversaries at sea, and land-bound armies to see their enemies coming long before battle.

Today’s astronomers (vet and non-vet alike) benefit from instruments that were developed for military use. These days, such things as adaptive optics and remote sensing are giving us unprecedented views of the cosmos. Those technologies were largely developed for military use (either during wartime or for “intelligence” purposes).

I kind of like to think that these technologies are transcending their warlike roots. At first they’re used by people who are awarded stars for bravery and valor. Now, they’re delivering the stars to everyone, a graceful and wonderful Veteran’s Day/Remembrance Day gift.

Wasting Money?

Depends on Which Side of the Pork Barrel You’re On

Arecibo

For the past several years, the radio astronomy facilities at Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico has been threatened with closure. It’s gotten so bad that many staffers have been laid off and the observatory is preparing to shut down a facility that only recently was refurbished at a cost of tens of millions of dollars. The reasons for the shutdown are diverse, but many of us think that they’re mostly political and not based on completely scientific grounds. Yes, Arecibo is getting old, but so are many very useful radio telescopes on this planet. Yet, it alone is threatened with extinction. The refurbishment costs will, essentially, have been wasted, while good science will be left undone.

Today the Planetary Society submitted a statement to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, asking Congress to stem the loss of Earth’s largest (and still scientifically useful) radio telescope.

There are a variety of scientific reasons why this facility should be kept open. It is making real contributions to the study of distant galaxies, pulsars in our own galaxy, the dynamics and chemistry of our own planet’s atmosphere, and—quite importantly— scanning (constantly) for incoming meteorites that might pose a danger to our planet. They’re out there and they’re real.

In addition to the Planetary Society, a number of scientists from Cornell and other institutions planned to testify as to the usefulness of Arecibo to the community. Given the ongoing onslaught of irrationalism in the U.S. and the continuing unwarranted attacks on science among politicos who seem to be more interested in bringing home the bacon to build bridges to nowhere and funding questionable pork barrels, it’s about time our country stepped back up to the scientific plate and started hitting some homers.

Arecibo is still useful. It should be kept alive.