Star Noise: Discovering the Radio Universe

Description

Until Karl Jansky's 1933 discovery of radio noise from the Milky Way, astronomy was limited to observation by visible light. Radio astronomy opened a new window on the Universe, leading to the discovery of quasars, pulsars, the cosmic microwave background, electrical storms on Jupiter, the first extrasolar planets, and many other unexpected and unanticipated phenomena. Theory generally played little or no role - or even pointed in the wrong direction. Some discoveries came as a result of military or industrial activities, some from academic research intended for other purposes, some from simply looking with a new technique. Often it was the right person, in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing - or sometimes the wrong thing. Star Noise tells the story of these discoveries, the men and women who made them, the circumstances which enabled them, and the surprising ways in which real-life scientific research works.

Kenneth I. Kellermann studies radio galaxies, quasars, cosmology, and the history of radio astronomy. He is the former President of the IAU Commission on Radio Astronomy, former chair of the National Academy of Sciences Astronomy Section, and former chair of the IAU Working Group on Historical Radio Astronomy. Ellen N. Bouton is the NRAO Senior Archivist, overseeing an extensive collection of historical radio astronomy materials. She manages the web page for the IAU Working Group on Historical Radio Astronomy, and is a co-author, with Kellermann, of Open Skies, on NRAO and its impact on US radio astronomy.