The better to see you with…
There has been a lot going on both in the media and in the science community regarding the 400th anniversary of the telescope. Four hundred years ago, Italian scientist Galileo was one of the first to use a telescope to study the sky. He observed the craters of the moon, Saturn’s rings and four of Jupiter’s moons.
Scientists have been constantly developing telescope technology and now they come in all shapes and sizes and are used all over the world to study the sky and our galaxy. In the next few years, two new types of telescopes will be introduced not only to further the study of space but to help save humans from extinction!
One of the telescopes is called Pan-STARRS and it’s slated to be able to detect 90% of all killer asteroids (if an asteroid is more than 300 meters, it’s considered killer). I guess we don’t think about killer asteroids on a daily basis, but it’s good to know that someone (or something) is watching out for us!
When the project is completed, four of these telescopes will sit on a mountain top in Hawaii. There are multiple telescopes just in case one malfunctions; that way scientists can still keep a watchful eye on the sky. Each telescope focuses on a patch of sky and takes pictures for about 30 seconds before moving on to another patch. In about a week’s time, each telescope will have photographed the entire sky.
Not to be outdone, European astronomists are working on an entirely different kind of telescope called Gaia. Gaia’s job is to essentially draw a map of the entire galaxy so that scientists can see exactly where stars reside. It’s almost like a map of a neighborhood!
Here at the Science Center, we’re celebrating telescopes too! We’re featuring a planetarium show called Two Small Pieces of Glass which follows two students as they learn how to use a telescope and learn why telescopes are so important in helping us understand the universe.
Two Small Pieces of Glass shows daily at 2pm and is included with museum admission. For the complete Planetarium schedule, please click here
Photo Credit: Brett Simison
