From Medicine to Wi-Fi Technical Applications of Astronomy to Society 02
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From Medicine to Wi-Fi Technical Applications of Astronomy to Society 02 EDITED BY: Bethany Downer, Michael Burton, Ewine van Dishoeck and Pedro Russo CONTRIBUTIONS FROM: Jacob Baars, Tony Beasley, Dmitry Bisikalo, Georgia Bladon, Michael Burton, Ana Gomez de Castro, Lars Lindberg Christensen, Gabriele Giovannini, Jan Mathijs van der Hulst, Christoph Keller, Antonio Mário Magalhães, Marissa Rosenberg and Frans Snik Published by the IAU April 2019 Cover credit: ESO/Y. Beletsky 03 “Preserving knowledge is easy. Transferring knowledge is also easy. But making new knowledge is neither easy nor profitable in the short term. Fundamental research proves profitable in the long run, and, as importantly, it is a force that enriches the culture of any society with reason and basic truth.” 1 – Ahmed Zewail, winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1999) 04 05 Introduction Astronomy has always had inspires is perhaps the reason that a significant impact on our world. the beautiful images astronomy Early cultures identified celestial provides us with are so popular in objects with the belief systems and today’s culture. took their movements across the sky as prophecies of what was to come. Astronomy and related fields are Astronomy has also been used to at the forefront of science and measure time, mark the seasons, technology; answering fundamental and navigate across vast oceans. questions, pushing engineers to new Now, as our understanding of the levels and driving innovation. It is world progresses, we find ourselves for this reason that the International and our view of the world even more Astronomical Union’s (IAU) strategic entwined with the Universe. The plan emphasises technology and discovery that the basic elements skills, science and research, and that we find in stars, and the gas culture and society. and dust around them, are the same elements that make up our bodies This booklet aims to highlight has further deepened the connection some of the technical applications between us and the cosmos. that have been supported and Astronomy also helps us to broaden driven by astronomy research and our perspectives and to think on development. From medicine to grander scales. Our connection airport security, astronomy visibly to the cosmos and the awe it holds an integral role in our daily lives. Children are shown how to use a telescope in Ethiopia as part of the 2019 International Astronomical Union’s 100 Hours of Astronomy event. Credit: Mekbeb Tamrat 06 07 Medicine The applications of astronomy human tissue. When the pulses are to medicine are quite vast, from turned off, the protons ‘relax’ and improved diagnostic techniques emit radio waves. These waves are to enhanced image processing. seen by radio frequency receivers in the MRI machine, recorded and One of the most integral technology processed into an image similar to transfers between these domains is an interferometric image. the interferometry technique used by astronomers to obtain high- The design of telescopes able to resolution images of the radio-sky. measure the radiation produced by Interferometry simulates the effect some of the highest energy phenomena of a very large dish by electronically in the cosmos has found application combining the signal from many in medical imaging diagnosis through small, single-dish, radio telescopes the technique of computer-assisted that are distributed over a large tomography, or CAT scans. distance. The technique of combining data from multiple telescopes to Another important example of produce a single image is known how astronomical research has as ‘aperture synthesis’, developed contributed to the medical world is by the radio astronomer and Nobel in the development of clean working Laureate, Martin Ryle. One important areas. The manufacture of space application of aperture synthesis telescopes requires an extremely is Magnetic Resonance (MR) to clean environment to prevent dust enhance the imaging details and or particles that might obscure or to reduce the scan time in medical obstruct the mirrors or instruments diagnoses. Magnetic Resonance on the telescopes2. The cleanroom Imaging (MRI) uses powerful protocols, air filters, and bunny suits magnets and radio frequency that were developed to achieve this pulses to polarize and excite single are now also used in hospitals and protons of water molecules in the pharmaceutical labs3. The manufacturing of space-based telescopes and satellites has contributed to medicine by improving standards and development of clean working areas. Credit: NASA/Dominic Hart 08 09 Climate Change Technology and research methods electromagnetic radiation through developed in astronomy have also the atmosphere of Venus and developed valuable means of effectively used these techniques understanding Earth’s systems to model the climatic effects of and climate change. trace gases and aerosols in Earth’s atmosphere4,5. By studying the planet Venus using astronomical techniques, More recently, the development of researchers have developed a better polarimetric techniques to study understanding of our own climate. the atmospheres of exoplanets With a similar size and composition has also led to a suite of SPEX to Earth, Venus provides a valuable (Spectropolarimeter for Planetary opportunity to study an evolving EXploration)instruments to study climate system like Earth in our own the effects of particles in the solar system. Today, the Venusian Earth’s atmosphere on our health atmosphere is more than 90 and climate6. This initiative has times thicker than our own, as it is led to the large citizen science believed that the planet experiences campaign iSPEX for measuring a runaway greenhouse effect air pollution7. The technology is following rising surface temperature also being commercialised and greater levels of atmospheric for ground-based air pollution water. Climatologist James Hansen measurements and has been further used radiative transfer models adapted for operation on an Earth- that calculated the transfer of observing satellite platform. Image of Earth taken by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst in 2014 from the International Space Station. Credit: ESA/NASA 10 11 Computing The processing of astronomical has also been formative in spawning data has supported the develop- grid computing – the pooling of vast ment of improved computing meth- numbers of machines, distributed ods, including grid and distributed around the world, for crowd computing, and large astronomical computing efforts to solve complex citizen science initiatives. scientific problems. Over recent decades, the amount of Historically, the first two public data obtained by astronomers has distributed computing projects were grown dramatically. New telescopes initiated to solve mathematical and space missions have all (GIMPS, 1996) and cryptographic contributed to the development of (distributed.net, 1997) problems. The new tools and methods to analyse third (and the most famous) project the data they obtain. Vast amounts was the SETI@home initiative that of computational resources are began in 1999. SETI – the Search for needed for their processing. Grid Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence – sought computing, through which computers to find signs of other intelligent forms are widely distributed and connected of life through the transmission of together across a common network, radio signals. SETI@home is the first is an efficient method of sharing and of many new citizen science projects using these vast amounts of collected that collaboratively contribute to resources. Astronomers are gathering valuable scientific initiatives, in ways exponentially greater amounts of data, that were never possible before. often referred to as the era of “big data”, This work continues today and has which is changing how science is done. already harnessed the engagement of more than 1.7 million users, that The search for extra-terrestrial all contribute their computing power intelligence by radio astronomers to SETI@home. Data Centre at the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Headquarters in Garching bei München, Germany, which archives and distributes data from ESO’s telescopes. Credit: ESO 12 13 Time Keeping The position of the Earth and on International Atomic Time, which is the stars in the sky has held an kept by a few hundred atomic clocks integral role in time keeping, at various institutions around the world. from the earliest calendars to today’s satellite navigation and The task of combining the time of positioning services. all atomic clocks around the world is carried out by the International Throughout history, many calendars Bureau of Weights and Measures have been developed, primarily tied and the International Earth Rotation to culture or region. The concept and Reference Systems Service. of time was conceived through This service is responsible for observation of the apparent motion keeping clocks in synchronization of the Sun, Moon and stars and the with the motion of the Earth around rhythm of night and day. The notion the Sun and the Earth’s own rotation. of a day was connected to the motion These are measured very precisely of the Sun and the conception of using strong and distant radio a month came from observations of astronomy sources – radio galaxies the changing phases and positions and quasars – as a reference frame, of the Moon. The concept of an hour known as ephemeris time. can be traced back to the Egyptians who divided the day into 10 parts, The ability to keep accurate time is with an extra part before and after to essential for the Global Positioning allow for sunrise and sunset. System (GPS) satellites, which have accurate atomic clocks on board that are Today, keeping accurate time is done tuned to ephemeris time. The precise with high precision atomic clocks, knowledge of the time and their positions in which the frequency of an atomic makes it possible to use their signals for transition is used as a standard to accurate position determination on the keep time. The world’s time is based surface of the Earth. The Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites rely heavily on the accurate keeping of time. Each satellite is equipped with an atomic clock onboard that is tuned to ephemeris time.