0: 400 Years Of The Telescope
Name: Laura Meng
SID: 22430663
GSI: Johnathan Wright
Section #112
Laboratory 0: “400 Years of the Telescope”
The PBS documentary outlines our progressive journey in the field of astronomy and the resulted revolutionary discoveries from the continually improving technologies. The history of telescopes first began in the sixteen hundreds, when Hale’s invention of refracting telescopes drastically changed people’s view of the Universe at the time, for the view from the telescope revealed the Universe as dynamic, as opposed to static. Later on, Galileo Galilei improved on these telescopes and constructed several with increasing magnifying powers. With his own telescope, Galileo not only viewed our moon, but also observed those of Jupiter, triggering the development of modern science. …show more content…
By spreading starlight through a glass prism, astronomers are able to obtain the star’s spectrum, which provides them information about the star’s temperature, pressure, rotation speed and composition. However, a more advanced study of stars was limited by turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere. This problem is later solved by the use of adaptive optics, which distort the shape many times per second to cancel out the atmosphere’s distortions. The invention of adaptive optics is critical in astronomical researches because it allows astronomers to study the rapid changes in sun’s turbulences, which will improve our understanding of our own climate. The most efficient way to completely remove the problems of our atmosphere, however, is to send a telescope into space, which is achieved by the Hubble Telescope. Although telescopes have advanced dramatically since the seventeenth century, astronomers are still striving for more improvements today with the hopes to learn more about the Universe, such as finding extraterrestrial
SID: 22430663
GSI: Johnathan Wright
Section #112
Laboratory 0: “400 Years of the Telescope”
The PBS documentary outlines our progressive journey in the field of astronomy and the resulted revolutionary discoveries from the continually improving technologies. The history of telescopes first began in the sixteen hundreds, when Hale’s invention of refracting telescopes drastically changed people’s view of the Universe at the time, for the view from the telescope revealed the Universe as dynamic, as opposed to static. Later on, Galileo Galilei improved on these telescopes and constructed several with increasing magnifying powers. With his own telescope, Galileo not only viewed our moon, but also observed those of Jupiter, triggering the development of modern science. …show more content…
By spreading starlight through a glass prism, astronomers are able to obtain the star’s spectrum, which provides them information about the star’s temperature, pressure, rotation speed and composition. However, a more advanced study of stars was limited by turbulence in the Earth’s atmosphere. This problem is later solved by the use of adaptive optics, which distort the shape many times per second to cancel out the atmosphere’s distortions. The invention of adaptive optics is critical in astronomical researches because it allows astronomers to study the rapid changes in sun’s turbulences, which will improve our understanding of our own climate. The most efficient way to completely remove the problems of our atmosphere, however, is to send a telescope into space, which is achieved by the Hubble Telescope. Although telescopes have advanced dramatically since the seventeenth century, astronomers are still striving for more improvements today with the hopes to learn more about the Universe, such as finding extraterrestrial