People in Astronomy Contents

INTERVIEWS

Jeff Hoffman p.3 Carolyn Porco p.6 Gibor Basri p.10 Sandra Faber p.13 3 People in Astronomy How did you enjoy being in space?

JEFF HOFFMAN are used to working on mountaintops, and spaceAnswering is the as ultimate an astronomer mountaintop. first, astronomers Actually, for me, working on the Astro mission [a set of ultraviolet telescopes carried on a space shuttle] was unique, because my professional work had been x-ray astronomy using satellites, so I had never actually done anything with traditional

optical-type telescope in my life was in space, buttelescopes. my three The astronomer-astronaut first time I guided colleagues an actual let me do it anyway. Since I had spent most of my professional career building x-ray telescopes Jeffrey Hoffman is a NASA Scientist-Astronaut. He grew up near New York City, and went into the city every month or so to visit the theto fly fun in of rockets being inand space satellites, goes beyond it was whatgratifying your American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden actualto fly with mission some is. telescopes No matter on what board. you Of are course, doing Planetarium. After graduating from Amherst up there, it is an incredible view, an incredible College (Amherst, Massachusetts) in 1966, feeling. But working as an astronomer on one he attended graduate school in astronomy at Harvard University, receiving his Ph.D. in 1971. satisfaction. He then worked in England with the x-ray of my space flights gave me a lot of professional astronomy group at the University of Leicester What did it feel like to repair the for 3 years. While in England, he married, and Hubble Space Telescope? returned to the United States, working at the his wife and he had their first child. Then he most important and challenging task of my 1978, he was selected by NASA as a scientist- entireFixing astronautthe Hubble career. Space It isTelescope easy in retrospect was the MIT Center for Space Research for 2 years. In to forget the incredible shock produced by the astronaut, and moved to Houston. He flew on the many ways the whole future of NASA’s human tospace repair shuttle a malfunctioning for the first time satellite. in 1985, In 1990 making he discovery of Hubble’s initial optical flaw, but in NASA’s first unplanned space walk in an attempt was on the mission that carried aloft the “Astro” show that astronauts working in space suits set of ultraviolet telescopes. During missions spaceflight program rested on our ability to it is quite possible that Congress would not type of space technology: the use of long tethers havecould givenfix the NASA problem. the Hadgo-ahead we not to succeeded, build the in 1992 and 1996, he conducted tests of a new in space to generate electricity and to change new International Space Station. We worked the orbits of satellites. In 1993, he was one of extremely hard training for the mission, spending the astronauts who repaired the Hubble Space over 400 hours underwater and countless weeks

honestly say that we had done everything we Telescope. Hoffman is currently Professor of He is also director of the Massachusetts Space couldin simulators. think of When to ensure we finally the success took off, of I canthe Grantthe Practice Consortium. of Aeronautical Engineering at MIT. 4 many unexpected things that could go wrong no is increasingly an international activity, and it is mattermission. how Of course,hard we we trained. knew Inthat fact, there as things were usefulwas a bit to havelike being someone an ambassador. “on the scene” Spaceflight to work turned out, the most surprising thing about the mission was how few unpleasant surprises in the American Embassy in Paris, since the we had. headquarterswith our partner of spacethe European agencies. Space My office Agency was is located in Paris. My technical background were elated at having been able to accomplish and experience with international projects everyAt the one end of of the the tasks fifth andthat final we spacehad set walk, out we to during my various space missions gave me the weeks whether the new optics we installed had several European languages, which helps a lot. actuallydo. Of course, corrected we wouldHubble’s not vision. know Itfor was several New qualificationsNow, I have for entered this job. Inmy addition, fourth Icareer, speak following being an astronomer, astronaut, some astronomer friends working at the Space and diplomat, as a faculty member of the Year’s Eve when I finally got the news from Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics celebrateTelescope the Science new year! Institute that Hubble was I am now working more as an engineer than finally working flawlessly. What a great way to anat theastrophysicist, Massachusetts a resultInstitute of ofmy Technology. extensive How did you get to be an experience in space operations and design during my many years at NASA. We try to expose astronaut? our students to all the phases involved in space How did I originally decide I wanted to be an projects: conceiving, designing, constructing, testing, and operating. I bring to the department special personal experience in operating space inastronaut? astronomy That’s back been in the going Hayden on for Planetarium a long time, systems, which I try to share with students. In inever New since York I was City. a littleBut I kid. got Iinterested first got interested not only addition, I am involved in research projects using in astronomy but also in anything having to do the International Space Station as a test bed for new satellite control technology and trying to was no such thing as a real space program back develop more maneuverable space suits. with space, including rockets. Of course, there astronauts were all jet pilots, and that didn’t What would you most like to see appealthen, and to me, I wanted though to I was be aexcited scientist. by the The rocket first NASA do next? part of it. But when they announced that they needed Exploration in all its aspects is NASA’s primary scientists to be astronauts on the shuttle mission. We need to develop space telescopes program, I always knew that this was something even more powerful than Hubble to continue our I wanted to do, so I applied. exploration of the astronomical universe. I think the search for extra-solar planetary systems What do you do in aerospace and the search for life in the Universe is one now? millennium. Closer to home, we have a lot of exploringof the most to exciting do in our scientific own Solar goals System. of the Inew am particularly excited about searching for signs After I left flight status as an astronaut, I spent of life on Mars and Europa. And of course I am four years representing NASA in Europe. This interested in expanding human capability to spring from the same fascination at looking5 beyond where we are now, looking out from Station is the next step in this development. the Earth. I hope that we can keep the dream Makingtravel and all work this inhappen space. requiresThe International more reliable Space alive for the next generation so that they will and cheaper space transportation, which is also be able to live out some of their dreams as well, one of NASA’s main goals. whether they are studying through telescopes or travelling outside the Earth. What message do you have for students? What comments do you have about the crewed space program? First of all, I like to try to spread an ecological message that we have to take care of the Earth, our planetary home in space. We get a lot of Space is a hazardous environment, unforgiving responses to pictures that we take of the Earth ofI never human felt errors that spaceor mechanical flight was failures. without People risk. from space, particularly where we can show have died exploring the oceans, the mountains, the environmental changes taking place on the and the polar regions of the Earth, but it is planet. Kids really seem to respond to that. We part of the human spirit to push onward and get disturbing sequences of pictures taken over most exciting aspects of the past half-century. the Amazon, the encroaching desert in sub- Ioutward. wish we The had exploration a way to get of into space and is backone of from the Saharanthe last 15Africa, years and showing land erosion the deforestation in Madagascar, of space more safely, but I think it is important to one environmental disaster after the other, continue. We owe it to the next generation. which you can see better from space than from anywhere else. I also like to talk to young people about the fact that you can study physics and astronomy and apply it in numerous different ways other than just becoming a professional astronomer. For instance, I can show my younger son, who is thinking about what he wants to do after university, two examples of friends of mine from and moved to biology and one was in applied mathematicsgraduate school. and Onealso movedof them to started biology, in and physics both do a lot of work in environmental science. Both developed the skills of mathematical analysis and facility with computers, which we use all the time to model complex systems in astronomy. I me to cut to the heart of problems in a way that someoften findpeople that who my training were trained as a physicist as engineers allows stress is the fact that my inspiration to become ansometimes astronomer don’t anddo. The to becomeother thing an thatastronaut I often 6 CAROLYN PORCO Cassini’s cameras are working so well. How does that make you feel?

Fabulous! And very, very relieved. Not only are the cameras functioning beautifully, but the software, databases, and processes that we have

investigation,built at CICLOPS is arean enormouslyalso working complicatedvery well. To affair.run a flight For any experiment, sequence like of images the Cassini we take, imaging the

is, point in one direction and then move rapidly acrossspacecraft the pointing sky to another “dwell and direction] slew” profile has to [that be carefully designed, and the shuttering of the Space Science Institute (SSI) in Boulder, Colorado cameras has to be perfectly synchronized with andCarolyn an AdjunctPorco is a Professor Senior Research at the ScientistUniversity at the of that motion or else you get smeared images. Colorado in Boulder. Since 1990, she has been exposed. And doing all this from a platform Of course, the images also have to be properly mission currently in orbit around Saturn. She is whose position is constantly changing relative alsothe leader the Director of the ofImaging the Cassini Team Imaging for the CentralCassini to the bodies we want to image, and accounting for the variations in solar illumination, viewing geometry, and the different intrinsic brightnesses websiteLaboratory (ciclops.org), for Operations and writes (CICLOPS) the site’s at SSIhome in of the bodies around Saturn—all of which affect pageBoulder, opening is the greeting creator/editor to the publicof the andCICLOPS blog posts. the exposure time—is quite a challenge. Then, Dr. Porco grew up in the Bronx, New York, and process the best ones for release to the public, once images hit the ground, we at CICLOPS attended the State University of New York at and also ensure that each image and the auxiliary Stony Brook. Wanting to specialize in planetary information that describes the circumstances studies, she did her graduate work in the Division under which it was taken get accurately recorded of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the and archived. And all of it, I’m proud to say, is working— 1983, armed with her Ph.D., she joined Professor BradfordCalifornia InstituteSmith, head of Technology of the Voyager in Pasadena. imaging In efficiently and smoothly. So, I’m tremendously team, at the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory devotion to this project—in which I had to cleargratified the decks that the of everything many years (including of obsessive any a member of the Voyager imaging team, and semblance of a normal life)—have paid off. headedat the University the team’s of working Arizona groupin Tucson, studying became the And now all of us can wake up each day to a rings during the Voyager Neptune encounter. In new and dazzling sight from an alien “planetary 1990, she was selected as team leader for the system” that is vastly distant from us. It’s all imaging experiment on Cassini. quite remarkable and sometimes even seems

It’s worth mentioning that the same is true unreal. Only it’s not!

for the other scientific instruments: they are 7 also working very well. And this is the case I often say: Cassini is not so much a mission despite the fact that we scientists are operating as it is a way of life. on shoestring budgets. Cassini is often thought of as a big, expensive (and therefore well-funded) What is your biggest surprise (so mission. Not so. It’s true that, after it’s over, it will far) with the Cassini results? have cost more than $3 billion and that’s a lot of money. But this funding is spread over more than 18 years, and it is a mission of tremendous the biggest surprises to me. I’ve said this so scope involving hundreds of scientists. And I can muchThe sheer I sound clarity like and a broken beauty record, of our but images it’s true. are tell you that they are all working far above and I just didn’t expect the kind of details that we beyond their compensation. Unlike missions like Voyager and Galileo, Cassini is very “modern” in that the operations withare able me tothe see. impressions Remember, of I’m Saturn a former and itsVoyager rings of the science instruments are distributed to the andimaging moons scientist. that were For 24 left years, by all I carriedthose Voyager around home institutions of the leaders of the science images. If someone mentioned Enceladus, I’d immediately call to mind one or two “best” experiment is in the hands of the scientists: i.e.,teams. the Thispeople means who thatknow the and conduct care the of mosteach etc.Voyager But now, images all sincethose that’s sights all pale we in had. comparison The same investigation. But it also means that the scientists tofor what Rhea, we Titan, can seeCassini’s with Cassini. division in the rings, about what is required for a scientifically fruitful are working furiously to run the experiments It’s like going for Lasik [laser eye corneal- and, simultaneously, examine and publish their shaping] surgery and, overnight, being able to results, and they are all inadequately funded to see. do these jobs. At the end of the day, we owe our tremendous success to the engineers who did a remarkable What surprised you about the data that Huygens sent back? the spacecraft and the instruments, and to the dedicationjob in the first and 7hard years work of theof the mission scientists building who Huygens was that image, taken by the Descent believe that the pursuit of truth and knowledge is ImagerThe most at altitudesstunning of information about 8 to 16returned km, of the by the noblest of causes and worth whatever effort dendritic drainage pattern and shoreline on it requires. But it has not been easy. the surface. And when I say stunning, I mean it literally. I found myself, in Darmstadt, Germany, What was it like to work in a walking around in a daze after those images group on Cassini for so many came back, as if someone had hit me over the years? head with a frying pan. I felt transformed. And what was stunning was the unmistakable nature of the pattern: it had to be carved by some kind challengesThis project we has have been faced ongoing have now morphed for 15 years over channels of the type we see here on Earth. time—includingand over that time, the things political have and changed. budgetary The of fluid flowing across the surface and carving ones—and even the complexion of the project has changed. And it hasn’t always been nice or Our imaging experiment, from the orbiter, had pleasant. So, it’s just like real life. returned images of scenes on Titan that were not easy to interpret. Remember, we are in the game of pattern recognition when studying Titan since 8 there are no shadows to tell us up from down. in this regard, the art and practice of critical And our images did not show anything that thinking. Knowing how to separate truth from looked unambiguous. But with that one Huygens image, we had something that we were all hoping making important decisions, whether these for: a pattern that had an unambiguous cause. decisionsfiction is concerna vital skill the selectionfor living of daily someone life and for It is a cause that is Earth-like and therefore familiar. It is that meeting of the familiar with the alien that makes the heart leap. inquirypublic office for understanding or investment in the the natural stock market. world aroundThe fact usthat is we a tremendous can use the methods bonus — of ascientific reward How and when did you get empowered, and with science comes knowledge. interested in space science? Don’t— that retreat comes from with it; the embrace effort. To it! know is to be I’ve been interested in the study of the Universe And remember: life is good, but a life of and the exploration of space since I was a young knowledge is even better. teenager. As a youth, I was a seeker, a thinker. What’s next for you? and religion and the “big questions”: What am I?I first What became are we? very Where interested are we? in Whatphilosophy is out Good question, and one that is on my mind a lot these days. First and foremost, I’m still working think about the structure of the Universe, of our on Cassini and will be until it is over. Also, I there? These inquiries ultimately drove me to have plans to write a book called The Captain’s through a friend’s telescope on a roof in the Log about the journey of Cassini, from start to Bronxcosmic during neighborhood. this time My was first the sighting ultimate of Saturn hook.

asfinish. you Itmight will beguess, a tale it ofis explorationa story told infrom images, both What might your cameras show printedthe scientific on high-quality and spiritual glossy points paper. of view. I’m And,very when they reach Pluto on New jazzed about this. Horizons? As for the post-Cassini period, I’m thinking

If history is any precedent, anything I say will have hundreds and thousands of Cassini images be wrong! But I’m putting my bets on a surface andbroadly. will Iwant may tocontinue reap the to fruitswrite. of Of my course, labor I andwill immerse myself in the study of Saturn’s rings and moons. I have my own company, Diamond Sky Neptune.that is modified by all the same processes that Productions, that is geared toward combining the we see working on Triton, the largest moon of Do you have any advice for and computer graphics for the presentation of undergraduates taking sciencescientific, to as the well public. as artful, We contributed use of planetary some images lovely computer graphics depicting the orbits of the science courses but without a Voyagers over some 40,000 years to the A&E professional interest in going on in science? called Cosmic Journey. So, I may be doing more TV documentary on Voyager’s 25th anniversary Yes! Science is nothing more than a method think I may do something completely different of asking questions and getting answers. It is, andof that establish in the future.a foundation Then again,to promotes sometimes those I 9 causes I’m passionate about, like spreading the and improving the status of women around the world.word that Who scientific knows? inquiry is vital to our survival If I’ve learned anything in my life, I’ve learned that just about anything is possible if you’re willing to devote yourself to it. So, what I’ll be right now, but I’m sure it will be something doing in 5 or 10 years is not completely clear wouldn’t be doing it! creative, exciting, and rewarding. Otherwise, I 10 GIBOR BASRI on what a “planet” is: Is Pluto a planet, and where is the line between brown dwarfs and

me involved with the public and the media in anplanets? entertaining That has way. been I mostly a lot of use fun, it asand a waygotten to inform people about all the advances that have occurred in our understanding. I have always

both star formation and stellar activity) and am nowstudied using magnetic data from fields the Kepleron stars mission (their to role study in

is of broad interest because its primary goal is starspots and related phenomena. The mission

Wereto find Earth-sized you very planets surprised around that other all stars. Gibor Basri is Professor of Astronomy at the University of California, Berkeley. He grew up of a sudden we have hundreds of in Colorado and went to Stanford University new planets outside our Solar System? graduate school in the department then called Astrogeophysics,for his B.Sc. Then hewhere returned he wrote to Colorado his thesis for about the chromospheres of supergiant stars. Subsequently, he was one of the astronomers The discovery of brown dwarfs and extra- sciencesolar planets where at people the same are time looking made and 1995 looking very andexciting. being This frustrated, is one of when those all convergences of a sudden the in Professorshipwho finally proved to carry that outbrown that dwarfs work. reallyMore dam breaks and it all falls out. It was very exciting recently,exist. He he was became awarded involved a Miller with the Research Kepler to be part of that process. I wasn’t surprised that they exist, but the particular discoveries were surprising and thrilling. Now there are many theproject transit as a method.Co-Investigator. Professor That Basri NASA studies mission the is starsnow finding that the lots mission of new is extrasolar observing. planets He is a usinghigh- resolution spectroscopist and he also analyzes new techniques being used to find smaller and model stellar atmospheres using computers. He smaller planets. The Kepler mission uses transits works in the optical, ultraviolet, and infrared Whyto find dothe smallestyou think planets it tookto date. so long founding Vice Chancellor of Equity and Inclusion to find brown dwarfs? atregions UC Berkeley. of the spectrum. In 2007, he became the It was partly a matter of technology development.

What are you most interested in quite hard enough, basically. And it was also a now? matterThey are of very developing faint and the people right weren’ttests to lookingbe sure

I am interested in the question of the formation was found, it was a no-brainer since it was so of stars and substellar objects (brown dwarfs). coolthat wethat have it couldn’t brown possibly dwarfs. beWhen a star. Gliese Just 229Bprior to that, there were some brown dwarfs that we

This has also gotten me involved in the debate 11

hydrogen would be grabbed. We know how long which was more subtle but also convincing. it takes stars to destroy lithium. You look down identified because they had lithium in them, the pre-main sequence until you see that lithium everybody went after them, and they just started is not yet destroyed; you see how bright those droppingOnce people out realized of the sky,that soyou to could speak. find Also, them, it objects are and that gives you the age (since they happens that the all-sky infrared surveys started get fainter with time in a known way). up around then, and that has been a major source of new brown dwarfs, too. When did you get interested in astronomy? What is your personal method for finding brown dwarfs? I think I was about 8 years old. I came to it

I got into this game mostly because of the advent of the Keck telescopes. I was privileged to be a andthrough I started science learning fiction. about When space. I started My father reading was ascience physicist fiction, and Ihe thought encouraged it was reallyme, and cool I never stuff, to do with the new world’s largest telescopes. lost my interest after that. However, I did do a Keck user and wanted to find something exciting career report in the 8th grade and decided that had already been suggested by astronomers at The idea of the new lithium test for brown dwarfs to be a realistic career. Later, I was majoring their telescope was not quite up to the task. So inastronomy physics at was Stanford, too small and and realized esoteric that a I fieldonly Ithe got Canary involved Islands, in that but and they we were were lucky finding enough that wanted to do it if I could do it as astrophysics. So I just thought I’d go to grad school, and thought brown dwarfs exist. I’d see how long my astronomical career lasted. to make the first discoveries and confirm that when they start their hydrogen fusion. Most You teach both elementary and brownThe basic dwarfs idea will is that never stars getwill hotdestroy enough lithium to destroy lithium, so they will retain it. So you can advanced classes. How do you do a simple spectroscopic test to see if lithium contrast them? is still present or not. If a star is a very faint red I have everything from basic astronomy students object and it shows lithium, then it is probably a brown dwarf. Along the way, in applying that test carefully, gradto grad students students. want I find to do that it as almost a career everybody so they we discovered that the age scale for young open havehas some a deeper interest interest, in astronomy. but I never Of have course, trouble the clusters was off. It turns out they are all about conversing about astronomy with a student at any level. those50 per clusters cent older involves than high-masswe had thought. stars turning This is offbecause the main the normal sequence, way andfor finding those starsthe ages have of How exciting has astronomy been convective nuclear burning cores. Convective for you since you started your overshoot is a poorly understood process, but career? the cores of those stars can basically grab extra It turned out to be a particularly good time to get people were aware of this potential problem, but into astronomy, just as I became a grad student. theyhydrogen didn’t and have live a way longer. of calibrating The stellar how evolution much We had just opened up space astronomy. I was able,12 my last student year, to work with the Universe. We will understand the formation IUE [the International Ultraviolet Explorer] to of galaxies in as much detail as we are now do hands-on, real-time observations in space. getting knowledge of star and planet formation. Also, computers have gotten better and better Very large ground-based telescopes will remove and better. And detectors have become far more atmospheric blurring well, and from space we sensitive and versatile. It has been a particularly will measure parallaxes and motions of stars exciting time for the last 30 years or so, and I across our Galaxy, giving us a precise distance think it will go on for the next 30 years. scale and a real understanding of dynamics in our Galaxy and beyond. Vast amounts of data What excites you most about at all wavelengths will be available over the Web for many to analyze in new and different new planets being found: ways. And computer models of very complicated astronomical reasons or the idea systems with very great resolution and physical that they are a possible location detail will provide a new means of observing for life? the cosmos.

In the end, it is the question of life that is exciting, but I am also excited about the fact that we now have techniques that allow us to attack this has been very successful for giant planets, butquestion we are empirically. now discovering The radial-velocity large numbers method of super-earth and Earth-sized planets by transits using the Kepler space telescope. We are on the threshold of knowing roughly the number a watershed in humans’ understanding of our contextof terrestrial-like in the Universe. planets in our Galaxy. This is

What do you think are some of the major discoveries that will be made in the next 20 years?

We are now discovering Earth-like planets. We atmospheres on other planets, and hopefully wehave will already be able made to the do firstthis measurementson planets that of might be like ours. I think we will make major progress toward the question of life on Mars and Europa (and perhaps other Solar System the questions of dark matter and dark energy, whichlocations are like currently Titan). Cosmologybig unknowns will beabout tackling our 13 SANDRA FABER on the blue-ribbon panel that advised NASA that the University of California. Recently she served once more, by astronauts using the space shuttle. Shethe Hubbleis now the Space co-leader Telescope of a shouldteam that be servicedreceived the largest ever allocation of time on the Hubble; its main goal is to study the birth and evolution of galaxies. In 1980, she joined six other scientists in a

of galaxies at a million miles per hour toward thestudy direction that eventually in the sky showed where a the large-scale constellation flow

attractionCentaurus of is a located. large supercluster Our Milky ofWay galaxies, is part one of ofthis the flow. largest The structures flow is caused yet seen by the in gravitationalthe Universe.

existence implies, yet again, that most of the matterThe scientists in the namedUniverse it the is darkGreat and Attractor. invisible Its to telescopes, in this case the dark halos that Sandra Faber is Professor of Astrophysics and surround the visible galaxies that compose the Great Attractor. of California at Santa Cruz. She was born in Professor Faber has two grown daughters. Boston,Astronomy grew at upthe inLick Cleveland Observatory, and Pittsburgh, University Her husband, Andy, is an attorney in San Jose. and attended Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, What kind of research are you Pennsylvania. After graduate school at Harvard’s doing with the Keck telescopes? Department of Astronomy, she accepted a

[she has] ever had.” anyone had hoped and, in fact, have now been positionProfessor at the Faber Lick has Observatory, always wondered “the only about job copiedThe Keck around telescopes the world. are working Astronomers as well are as the large-scale features in the Universe: why there are galaxies, why they look as they do, and at the visible edge of the Universe without the how the Universe began. Her work takes her hugefinding aperture that they of justa Keck cannot or something study faint similar. objects I regularly to the telescope, and she was for a time led a team to build a giant spectrograph for Keck-

DEEP Survey (Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary theirCo-Chair 10-m of telescopes.the Scientific Steering Committee of Probe,II. This spectrographlinking observations is now being with used the inKeck the theAmong Keck Observatory the prizes sheas they has planned received and are built the Bart J. Bok Prize from Harvard University and the Dannie Heineman Prize of the American totelescopes map the andUniverse the Hubble as it was Space billions Telescope) of years to backcollect in spectra time. Most of 50,000 of the datafaint are galaxies in, and in we order are Carnegie Institution of Washington and a measuring changes in the galaxy population over memberAstronomical of the Society.National SheAcademy is a Trustee of Sciences. of the In the last half of the age of the Universe. 1996 she was elevated to University Professor at 14

How about the Hubble Space probably by colliding with each other to create Telescope? disorganized “starpiles.” It is very exciting to forms and how the Hubble sequence was made. actually see how galaxies assumed their final euphoriaThe Space just Telescope after launch, has been when the allbiggest seemed roller to Tell us about your study of the coaster of my scientific career. First there was Great Attractor. primary mirror (I was part of a three-person groupbe going that well. diagnosed Then we the discovered error and reportedthe flawed it Like most of the important things I have done and replanned to limp along and do some science all wrong. We started out to survey the properties to NASA). The whole project hastily regrouped ofscientifically, nearby elliptical the motivation galaxies, such for the things project as their was brightness, radii, and so on. And we wound with the flawed mirror, while hundreds of people performedconceived of beautifully a strategy after to fix the the repair telescope mission and absolute size of each galaxy and hence tell you andcarried has delivered it out brilliantly. more important The telescope data than hasany howup finding far away a methodeach object that is. could Knowing estimate that, from the the Hubble law you could predict the redshift with the rewarding assignment of entertaining (velocity) of every galaxy. When we compared audiencesother telescope with slides in history, of gorgeous and I now Hubble find images. myself these predictions with the measured velocities, we found a big discrepancy, and this could be interpreted simply as a streaming motion of dedicatedThe main people lesson can is, accomplishnever give up. amazing Pull victory feats. all the nearby galaxies toward the center of a from defeat. The second lesson is that a team of What things have you learned with the Hubble Space Telescope? believehitherto there unidentified was such mass a large concentration. supercluster of galaxiesThis came so close-by as a total that surprise. nobody Wehad couldn’t noticed I’ve been part of a team searching for before. But fortunately there was a graduate supermassive black holes at the centers of who had just stored complete galaxy catalogues student in Cambridge, England — Ofer Lahav— very close to the hole that are orbiting super-fast. in the computer, and he was able to make a Somegalaxies. of theseHubble black can findholes them are bymany spotting billions stars of gigantic map of all the galaxies in that direction in the sky. In this new picture, the Great Attractor a big black hole lurks at the center of nearly everysolar masseslarge galaxy. in size. Our team has shown that appeared for the first time. I’ve also been part of another team using the Were you surprised at all the interest your results generated? telescope to study the most distant galaxies in Hubble Space Telescope along with the Keck-II No. I think we generated some of the interest above. Hubble images are crucial because their because we were so surprised ourselves. We highthe Universe. resolution This shows is the DEEP us distant Survey galaxies mentioned in were stunned. In graduate school, I was taught detail, from which we can measure Hubble types that the Hubble expansion was very uniform. and other important quantities. A big discovery from DEEP is that we have actually detected relative to the Hubble expansion] was only disk galaxies turning into elliptical galaxies, The typical streaming motion of galaxies [motion supposed to be about 100 km/s, so it was a And are you making progress 15 toward understanding the larger than that. total surprise to find peculiar motions 6 times Universe?

When you were in grad school I think so, in broad outline—very broad. at Harvard years ago, would you Actually, I have come to believe there are many have been surprised at such a to know how different they all are from one discovery? another,universes—an but I don’tinfinite know number the perhaps.answer toI’d that. love However, I do think that ours is roughly the a professional astronomer. I’ve always been a way it is because we are in it. It takes certain short-rangeTotally. I have opportunist, never had so long-range it always comes goals as restrictions to create intelligent life. Within a surprise when something interesting turns up. those restrictions, it is a matter of chance, but the basic restrictions are set by our existence in

What in your view is the relation it does because they are required to make our of observation with theory? kindthis Universe. of intelligent Our life.Universe has the properties Perhaps there is an analogy here. Ancient Deep down I feel a little sorry for theoreticians peoples might have wondered why the Earth is because they see the Universe only through the as it is. We know now that there are probably eyes of the observers. An observer at a telescope millions of planets, but most of them are like the with a good project is like an explorer in the other eight planets in our Solar System — that New World—the view over each new ridge is is, not hospitable to our kind of life. However, out of those millions, there are probably many understand anything without theory to back it planets rather similar to our Earth that would new. On the other hand, we would never actually do quite nicely. And within that broad selection, is essential. our existence on this particular Earth is a matter up. So they fit together like hand in glove. Each of chance. How did you get interested in In the same way, I believe that our Universe astronomy? is just one of many hospitable universes we

I was one of those kids who was deeply interested in science. It really didn’t matter too much what implicationcould inhabit. is thatOur therebeing mustin this exist particular “out there” one kind. I had star charts, but I also had a rock manyis of no more special universes interest. of Thevastly really different interesting types, collection and read books on spiders. It was only most of them possibly so bizarre that intelligent later, when graduating from high school, that I these, ours has the properties it does because simple: I wanted to know where the Universe life would find them quite hostile. Out of all of camebegan from to focus and onwhy astronomy. it is how it The is. reason was cosmology have even found a plausible way towe generateare in it. Recent all those breakthroughs universes inin quantuma never-

is speculation right now, but chasing it down isending, going infinite to provide cascade a lot of of big excitement bangs. This in idea the years ahead.