- I like astronomy because it teaches me so many things. What we learn with our curiosity about the Cosmos directly helps our society. Did you know astronomy had a part in developing the GPS system, in WiFi Wireless systems, in cancer therapy, in eye laser surgery?
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- It all started a long time ago with the creation of clocks and calendars based on astronomy. Today precision timing has created the Global Navigation System that can locate a spot on Earth to within several inches. This all started with Albert Einstein’s attempts to understand gravity. His theories of warped space-time were verified by astronomers measuring the deflection of starlight as it passed by the rim of the Sun during a solar eclipse.
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- Massive objects stretch the rate oat which time passes. The closer you are to an object with mass the slower time ticks. Time slows down. If you lived at the peak of Mount Everest your day would be 30 millionths of a second shorter than a day at sea level.
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- To measure these smallest of time intervals physicists invented atomic clocks. The cesium atomic clock was designed to test the Theory of Relativity. It had resolution down to a billionth of a second. Atomic clocks on airplanes flew east and west around the globe. The theory’s calculations were that the clocks would differ from ground-based clocks by a few hundred nanoseconds. When the clocks landed the difference was exactly according to the calculations
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- 1978 was the first GPS satellite launch. Today we have 30 satellites in operation. Without correcting for Einstein’s time-altering effects due to speed and altitudes the system accuracies would be off by miles, instead of accurate to within inches.
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- WiFi uses a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) chip to pull out low-power signals out of a smeared out distorted signal The chip is part of a $80,000,000,000 industry today but it started with the search for Blackholes.
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- In 1974 Stephen Hawking published his theory that Blackholes emit particles and loose mass. That Blackholes that will not allow light to leave somehow still evaporate. But, before they disappear, they explode in a burst of energy.
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- Astronomers calculated that there should be a specific signal of radio waves associated with each Blackhole death explosion. This faint radio signal would be difficult to tease out of the noise that astronomers received. John O’Sullivan invented the FFT using digital hardware. It was a mathematical model the could reconstruct frequencies and amplitudes of an information signal out of a complicated distorted signal.
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- Today it is a single chip used in high-speed wireless networks.
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- Astronomers tackled the problem of identifying the elements that were in the Sun. In 1983 the Opacity Project and in 1992 the Iron Project tried to identify how atoms in the layers of the Sun, and stars, interact with light trying to escape to the surface. They serendipity discovered that at certain X-ray wavelengths some atoms interact very strongly with the radiation. These resonance frequencies increase the opacity of the medium.
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- Heavy elements like gold are un reactive and nontoxic inside the human body. Hit with the right frequency a gold atom would release a floodgate of energetic particles that could kill a cancerous tumor. Gold nanoparticles became a valued form of cancer therapy. So what worked to understand the working of the Sun now works to help cure cancer.
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- When designing the James Webb Space Telescope astronomers required precision in optics to map the topography of optical surfaces. Already, the science is being used in laser eye surgery and in contact lens fittings. That invention for space exploration is today helping 100,000,000 people who are wearing corrective lens and 4,000,000 people who have had laser eye surgeries.
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- On the Webb Telescope this application has completed 6 of the 18 mirror segments that have passed optical testing. The Telescope plans to launch in 2018. People’s vision on the ground has already reaped the benefits and 6 years from now it could give us a new vision of outer space. Astronomy benefits society. An announcement will be made shortly, stay tuned.
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707-536-3272, Wednesday, April 11, 2012
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