Pull Back the Curtain
on the Unseen Universe
For a few hundred thousand years, we used our eyes as our primary
astronomical tool. But all that changed in the 1930s when a young
engineer named Karl Jansky detected radiation below the visible part
of the spectrum emanating from an astronomical object—and radio
astronomy was born.
Radio Astronomy: Observing the Invisible Universe takes you on
a thrilling journey through astounding discoveries and a virtual tour
of the world’s most powerful radio telescopes with Felix J. Lockman,
Ph.D., of the Green Bank Observatory as your guide. But perhaps
the most astounding of all radio astronomy discoveries is this: The
dominant molecular structures in interstellar space are based on carbon.
That is not what scientists had expected. We have always labeled
these molecules “organic” because life on Earth is carbon based. Now
we know the chemistry of the entire Milky Way is organic, not just
our home planet, and it is likely that any extraterrestrial galactic life
would be related to us, at least on the molecular level. Will we find
other organic life forms out there? Radio astronomers don’t know. But
they’re certainly working on it.
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