The Decade of Discovery in Astronomy and Astrophysics (1991) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
8. Astronomy as a National Asset
8. Astronomy as a National Asset
Pages 121-134
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 121... ...
Society invests in astronomical research and receives an important dividend in the form of education, both formally through instruction in schools, colleges, and universities, and more informally through television programs, popular books and magazines, and planetarium shows. Astronomy introduces young people to quantitative reasoning and helps attract them to scientific or technical careers.
|
From page 122... ...
Astronomy and astrophysics have an important role to play in maintaining and restoring American leadership in science and technology by raising the level of scientific literacy among the general public and students at all levels, by inspiring students to become scientists, and by training scientists for other technical careers. Astronomical concepts are usually included as part of the physical sciences courses taken by elementary and junior high school students and occasionally appear as parts of high school curricula.
|
From page 123... ...
The daily radio feature "Stardate," produced at the University of Texas, is broadcast by about 200 stations and has attracted half a million letters from listeners in the past decade. While astronomers make up only 0.5 percent of the scientists in the United States, science magazines such as Scientific American, Discover, and Science Digest devote about 7 percent of their pages to astronomy.
|
From page 124... ...
One of the most intriguing problems in high-energy physics originated in an attempt to use neutrinos to look into the nuclear-burning core of the sun and thereby test directly the theories of stellar evolution and nuclear energy generation in stars. As a result of the discrepancy that arose when observations disagreed with predictions, many new testable ideas regarding neutrinos were developed.
|
From page 125... ...
Photograph courtesy of Technical Information Department, Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, University of California.
|
From page 126... ...
Most models suggest that such changes should cause a minor global temperature change of less than 0.1°C. However, the integrated solar activity, smoothed over several cycles, has increased roughly in phase with the apparent 0.5°C warming trend of the past century; the Little Ice Age in the 1600s coincided with an extended period of exceptionally low solar sunspot activity.
|
From page 127... ...
Automatic millimeter wave instruments built by a commercial company founded by astronomers will measure both ozone and C10 as part of a worldwide network. Atmospheric ozone also varies significantly due to natural causes.
|
From page 128... ...
28 a x a' a I 0.10 CD 7 I I 0 0.09 o I b THE DECADE OF DISCOVERY 1.374 1 .373 cam ° 1.372 x cam ~ 1.371 111 1.370 cr: 1.369 1.368 Changes in Solar Brightness: 1979-1988 .
|
From page 129... ...
Astronomers are currently working on infrared imaging devices suitable for low light levels, special-purpose computers for following simultaneously the motions of thousands of particles, and low-noise radio receivers for submillimeter wavelengths. No one can state for certain what these new devices will be good for, but as Michael Faraday replied, when questioned by the then British Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone about the utility of his new theories of electricity, "Why, Sir, there is every probability that you will soon be able to tax it." Medicine Medicine and astronomy share the problem of imaging the inaccessible.
|
From page 130... ...
for neonatology and Third World clinics in medical imaging that includes CAT scans, magnetic resonance imaging, and positron emission tomography. Microwave receivers developed by radio astronomers are used in scans for breast cancer.
|
From page 131... ...
Satellite and aerial surveillance requires lightweight telescopes, precise optical instruments, and the ability to process numerous imperfect images to extract the maximum available information. Development of the necessary mirror technology, the ability to adapt optics to rapidly changing conditions, and the processing algorithms have, from the U2 airplanes of the 1960s to the KH-11 satellites of the 1980s, involved people originally trained as astronomers.
|
From page 132... ...
Nonastrophysical uses include navigation, clock synchronization, ballistic missile guidance, and secure communications. The most accurate time standard for periods in excess of a few months may be extraterrestrial, with the recently discovered pulsars with millisecond periods proving to be the most accurate clocks in the galaxy.
|
From page 133... ...
The International Astronomical Union was the first of the modern international scientific unions organized under the Versailles treaty. The need for observatories all around the earth to cover the whole sky at all times encourages international collaborations.
|
From page 134... ...
Other success stories include NASA's IRAS satellite, a joint U.S., U.K., and Netherlands enterprise; an American spectrometer launched by a Japanese rocket to study cosmic radio waves; an American instrument on the Soviet Vega spacecraft that flew past Comet Halley; and a worldwide network of telescopes to study seismic oscillations of the sun. Scientists in the United States and the USSR will work together on a Soviet orbiting telescope for very long baseline interferometry called RadioAstron.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.