Stellary Starry Universe

By Honey B Wackx

For most of us, the idea of astronomy is something that we connect directly to observing the stars, telescopes and seeing magnificent displays in the sky. To be sure, it is this exciting aspect of astronomy, which explains its enormous popularity.

So for the uninitiated, the concept of “radio-astronomy” seems strange and unconnected. There are two reasons for this. The first is that humans are much more visual than sound-oriented. And the second is that astronomy does not really participate in “listening” to the cosmos, except to the extent that scientists using this sophisticated form of “stargazing” is not based on a visual study of the heavens in conducting their work.

To appreciate what is really exciting about radio astronomy, we must change the way we see astronomy. That’s because professional astronomers see studying the universe by frequencies much more than it is about Visual documentation of the phenomenon. This brings us back to elementary physics.

Light, of course, is the physical phenomenon that enables our ability to use our system of visual confirmation, for example, our eyes to appreciate something. In this case the stars.

So when we look at the sky, we can see the light emitting from a star or reflecting from a planet or moon. In many cases, if we see a distant star, we are actually seeing hundreds or thousands of years in the past because that is the time it takes for light to pass through the universe and be visible in our sky today. That alone is a mind blowing idea. We are actually looking at light from the past when we look at stars, even from our sun, the light left a few minutes before we actually see it.

Now, the light itself is a strange substance. But to our scientific astronomers, light is just another energy source of a certain frequency. Now, we tend to think of frequencies when talking about sound waves. In scientific terms, light energy and sound are just two forms of the same thing. They are frequencies of energy that are a radiating from a source.

Now we get the reason why astronomy is so necessary. The frequency range of the light in the electromagnetic spectrum is really pretty small. To put it more bluntly, we can not “see” a fraction of the universe that is really there. Now when you look in the night sky and it is so overwhelming, so when we see only a small amount of what is really going up there, our minds can be quite overwhelmed.

Radio astronomy uses sophisticated detection equipment to look at all the frequencies of energy that come from the cosmos. In this way, scientists can “see” everything that happens there and thus get an accurate idea of how the stars look, behave now, and may act in the future.

For some of us who have heard of radio astronomy, we think in terms of “listening” for signs of life in the universe. And yes, SETI, or “Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence” is a part of radio astronomy, although a small part. But more important is how radio astronomy has empowered serious astronomers (that is those who are paid to do so) to study the stars light years away, to the study of black holes that we could never see with our telescopes. They collect research data and study the entire known universe that would otherwise be impossible to know and understand.

This is important work that is constantly being done in the world of astronomy. It is worth keeping up with and learning more about since we have barely scratched the surface in our brief discussion today. Understanding the importance of radio astronomy will only deepen and make more meaningful your love and understanding of this great big field of knowledge collectively known as astronomy.

Honey B is studying how to be a success in Online Marketing so she can supplement her income.