Radio Astronomy:
A Whole New World That We Couldn’t See

Wed, December 4, 2024, 7 PM EST

MSU-St. Andrews STEM Center (Virtual only)

Have you ever heard of a quasar?  How about a pulsar?  Were you aware that astronomers have located the center of our Milky Way galaxy?  And that our galaxy is a spiral galaxy, just like many others that we can see with powerful telescopes?  Well, can you guess what all these things have in common?  They were all discovered by radio astronomy—even though the entire field is less than a hundred years old!  What else has radio astronomy revealed?  Join me and the MSU-St. Andrews STEM Center by Zoom to learn more! 

Adults and families with school-age and older children are invited to join MSU-St. Andrews virtually for a presentation on the strange and wonderful world of radio astronomy.  We will tell the fascinating story of how radio light was first discovered, how it was first used—accidentally!—for astronomy, and how the field has grown since then.  We will summarize the many advantages of radio astronomy and show several different types of radio telescopes.  We also will describe the types of objects that emit radio waves:  these range from individual atoms to brilliant quasars, among the brightest objects known in the universe.  And of course, we will have lots of amazing images that reveal a universe that would be otherwise completely invisible to us. 

Plus, we will also talk about what we actually can see, with ordinary visible light, in the beautiful nighttime skies of October and early November.  The Summer Triangle is still high enough to identify several constellations, but now the Great Square of Pegasus is taking over, pointing the way to Andromeda, Perseus, Cetus, Aquarius, Pisces, and more.  Jupiter is visible all night, brilliant Venus is out at sunset, Saturn is in the evening, Mars comes out later at night, and Mercury rises before dawn.  What a great time for planets!  We will show you how to find all these things (and more) for yourself. 

Presentation (virtual only) on Wed, December 4, 7:00 PM EST. 

Register using this link!

https://msu.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_x9kLNowuRF2RR3gY5-Xf6g