Galileo and Beyond

Adventures in Astrobiology
SETI Institute ASSET Program
Cathrine Prenot Fox

I have always been fascinated by the curious sequences of events that form history.  Take the telescope.  A spectacle maker named Hans Lippershey (the spelling of his last name is a matter of some quite passionate debate) ground some lenses, put them into a tube, and pointed that instrument some distance away.  Voila!  Long distance sight!  Lippershey traveled to The Hague to meet Prince Maurice of the Netherlands and presented the instrument to the government.  He applied for a patent on this instrument in 1608... ...and was denied.  They were too easy to build.

Galileo Moon Phases from here.

Soon after this, an International Peace Conference took place in The Hague, and diplomats returned to their home countries with news of this exciting new instrument.  One of these diplomats, Paulo Serpi, told a friend of his, Galileo Galilei, about Lippershey's invention.  Although Galileo did not immediately begin modifying the device, scraps of shopping lists exist for "organ pipe, Greek resin, white sand, cannonballs (to grind the lenses) and large blanks."  Within a year, Galileo was standing above the roofs of San Marco square in the Campanile, demonstrating that you could see ships not visible to the naked eye to the Doge of Venice, Antonio Priuli on August 21, 1609.

And then?  Galileo turned the scope to the heavens.  In one year, 1610, he discovered the four large moons of Jupiter, spots on the sun, craters on the moon, the phases of Venus (forever dashing the hopes of those with a geocentric view of the solar system) and countless stars beyond the naked eye.

Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto from here. 

In the four hundred years since Galileo's observations, telescopes have become more sophisticated, and technology allows us to make measurements of different parts of the electromagnetic spectrum, not just light.  We have scopes that use mirrors and antennae to collect UV, gamma, infrared, radio, and microwave wavelengths.  But don't just take this at face value: read Galileo and Beyond (cartoon citations 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5)

Adventures in Astrobiology.  Cathrine Prenot Fox, 2012.

It is difficult to capture the enormity and loveliness of the Hubble Space images in a cartoon.  This telescope has been orbiting earth since its launch in 1990 and there are thousands of astoundingly beautiful views of our universe.  Stars, nebulae, supernovas, and distant galaxies abound at the Hubble Site, and I hope you will take a moment (or a month) to peruse some truly amazing pictures.

Carina Nebula from here.  

The 'next generation' of space telescopes is supposed to be "Bigger, Better, and Colder!"  It will investigate the birth of stars, new solar systems, and evolving galaxies while orbiting a million miles from earth.

Until our next adventure,
Cat

Investigating the visible spectrum at the SETI Institute.