New Spectacles = New Enigmas

Ever since the lens makers of Flanders invented the telescope to help traders see what was on ships coming across the English Channel, and Galileo used one to see four of Jupiter's moons, astronomers have been exploiting new instruments to find amazing stuff upstairs.

That equation-- that new instruments equals new discoveries--has never been more important than in the past 20 years, as a procession of new telescopes and satellites--sensitive to new regions of the electromagnetic spectrum-- have uncovered a cosmic zoo of peculiar structures in the universe.

To understand why, you must remember that our eyes see only a miniscule fraction of all electromagnetic energy-- about one of 60 octaves. That's not much--about

Fortunately for us, many of the most energetic wavelengths --like X-rays-- don't penetrate the atmosphere (otherwise, we'd be fried cheese curds.

Getting back to our story, the impenetrable atmosphere makes life tough for astronomers who want to "see" in those high-energy wavelengths. That's why only space-mounted telescopes could find neutron stars, black holes and other exotica.

Recalling Galileo's "borrowing" telescopes from the merchants, some major discoveries in astronomy originated in highly practical technology. Gamma ray bursts, whose source remains a mystery, were found with instruments developed to track nuclear explosions.

One of the most fundamental discoveries in the history of astronomy was made in the radio frequency band. A pair of Bell Labs physicists, testing a communications antenna, could not get rid of some persistent noise. Eventually they figured out that the noise was "cosmic background radiation"--a cold, weak remnant from the big bang that kicked the universe into gear. Again, a new wavelength produced a new view of galactic reality.

Want some readings and Web sites on neutrino astronomy?