![]() In a project to develop orbiting communications satellites, researchers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, at Bell Telephone’s New Jersey laboratories, used a ground-based antenna pointed at the sky. Likewise, observations of the invisible universe, detectable in long wavelength photons in space were first found by accident, in 1964. These researchers displayed the observational skills and the curiosity that lie at the heart of science, bringing us to a deeper understanding of nature. Roentgen and Becquerel won Nobel prizes in physics for their discoveries. The French physicist Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity when he noticed that photographic film stored in a drawer had become unaccountably fogged. The German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X-rays after he saw an unexpected glow from a fluorescent screen in his lab. It’s a truism in science that important discoveries often arose from serendipitous events. These waves also occur naturally in space, where they carry clues about the birth and growth of the universe, the centers of black holes, and the origins of life itself. We generate such waves within microwave ovens and automotive cruise control systems. But it was a surprise when we found how much more information there is at still-longer wavelengths, millimeters to centimeters. SourceĪstrophysicists also study the invisible universe: at electromagnetic wavelengths, shorter than visible light in the gamma ray and ultraviolet regions and at even longer wavelengths, in the infrared. Comparison of wavelength, frequency and energy for the electromagnetic spectrum. Astronomers and astrophysicists continue to learn about the universe, examining galaxies, stars, and planets at the visible light wavelengths. Today, it remains a thrill to see Saturn’s majestic rings through an optical telescope, as Galileo did. In doing so, he opened the universe to direct human vision. In 1609, the great Renaissance scientist Galileo Galilei put a handheld telescope to his eye and looked to the heavens. ![]()
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