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Radio Astronomy and the Giant Metre-Wave Radio Telescope 12-A RADIO ASTRONOMY INDIAN SCIENCE FACILITIES AND THE GIANT METRE-WAVE RADIO TELESCOPE JAYARAM N CHENGALUR The cosmos is strange ore than two decades ago, one terrestrial signal. For many people of that and beautiful, full of Carl Sagan’s science fiction generation, this is likely to have been their of unanticipated Mnovels, Contact, was made into a first, and most likely only, exposure to radio objects. The only way major Hollywood motion picture starring astronomy. In some ways, however, what is to understand it is Jodie Foster as the protagonist, Dr. Eleanor more surprising is that the general public to observe it – in as “Ellie” Arroway. Based on the Search for has some exposure to radio astronomy at all, many different ways as Extra-terrestrial Intelligence (or SETI, as it is let alone through a major Hollywood film. possible. In this article, popularly known), Contact is the story of a Radio astronomers form a small and we take a look at determined astronomer managing, against esoteric community – the radio astronomy the wonders revealed heavy odds, to make radio contact with commission of the International Astronomy upon observing radio an extra-terrestrial civilisation. An abiding emissions from celestial image from the movie is of Jodie Foster Union has only a few hundred members. objects through the with a pair of headphones clamped to her In India, the numbers are smaller still, Giant Metrewave Radio ears, and a massive antenna array in the but there is at least one work of fiction Telescope (GMRT), near background, listening intently to this extra- featuring Indian radio astronomers – Manu Pune, India. Joseph’s award winning novel, Serious Men. For a small community, radio astronomy has certainly received a disproportionate amount of representation in popular culture! This is caused, at least partly, by the allure of space exploration and the Search for Extra- terrestrial Intelligence. But what does radio astronomy have to do with the SETI? If you go by the small fraction of radio astronomers involved with SETI – very little. But in order to understand radio astronomy, exploring its connections with SETI is as good a place to start as any other. Radio Astronomy and the Fig. 1. Jodie Foster as Dr. Eleanor Arroway in the film Contact. The radio telescope Search for Extra-terrestrial in the background is the Very Large Array in the USA. As described in greater detail Intelligence in the article, radio astronomers don’t usually “listen” to extra-terrestrial signals, with headphones or otherwise. Image adapted from a still from the film. Broadly speaking, radio astronomy involves the observation of radio-waves from celestial REDISCOVERING SCHOOL SCIENCE 61 objects. Radio-waves are one kind of Astronomy has traditionally used visible enough, one could study the sky at all of electromagnetic waves; the most light, because that is the only kind of these wavelengths. Which, again, begs familiar kind of electro-magnetic waves electromagnetic wave that the human the question – why (on earth) would being light waves (see Box 1). All of us eye is sensitive to. Stars and other anyone want to do so? It turns out (as use radio-waves every day, even if we celestial objects, however, emit all kinds we will see below) that studying the are not aware of it (see Box 2). But what of electro-magnetic radiations – from universe only in light waves gives us a is the connection between these waves gamma-rays to radio-waves. In principle, very limited understanding of all that and astronomy? with instrumentation that is sensitive is out there. Very much as in the story of the blind men and the elephant, one could come away with a completely Box 1: Electromagnetic waves are of many different kinds wrong picture of the universe. To These range from the metres-long radio-waves to the very short gamma rays. Visible light, the electro-magnetic wave that we are most familiar with, occupies only a small portion understand the universe in all its of the entire spectrum. richness and variety, one has to observe it in as many different ways as one can. Which brings us to the next question – if it is necessary to observe the universe at all possible wavelengths, what is so special about radio astronomy? Box 2: We use radio-waves in our daily lives. Radio-waves are used primarily for communication – from carrying FM radio signals (using waves with a wavelength of about 3m) and mobile phone signals (with waves of a wavelength of about 30cm), to TV signals (typically waves of a wavelength of about 50cm for ground-based TV stations to a few centimetres for satellite TV). Incidentally, microwave ovens also use radio-waves (with a wavelength of a few centimetres) to heat food. One of the major advantages of using radio-waves to observe the sky stems from the fact that the Earth’s atmosphere is transparent to these waves. This means that radio emissions from extra-terrestrial objects can reach telescopes built on the surface of the Earth. In contrast, other electro- magnetic waves, like X-rays, are absorbed before they reach the Earth’s surface (see Fig. 3). This is a good thing for us because many of these rays are harmful to life. For astronomers, on Fig. 2. The electro-magnetic spectrum. All electromagnetic waves travel at the speed the other hand, this is a mixed blessing of light, but the energy of each type of wave varies inversely with its wavelength. Thus, – the Earth can host astronomers radio-waves with the longest wavelengths are the least energetic, while gamma-rays with because energetic rays don’t reach the their short wavelengths are the most energetic. X-rays, with relatively short wavelengths, Earth’s surface; however, these same are energetic enough to penetrate through skin and flesh, but not bones. This is why the bones in an X-ray image cast shadows on the photographic plate. astronomers need fairly expensive Source: Victor Blacus, Wikimedia Commons. URL: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File: satellites to realize just how lucky Electromagnetic-Spectrum.svg. License: CC-BY-SA. they are to have the protection of the atmosphere and ionosphere! 62 Fig. 3. Atmospheric opacity is a function of wavelength. The atmosphere (and ionosphere) is almost completely opaque in most parts of the electro-magnetic spectrum. It is only in the optical (i.e. ordinary visible light which human eyes are sensitive to) and radio (at which wavelength radio telescopes work) windows where the atmosphere is transparent. Since radiation from distant celestial sources does not reach the surface of the Earth at other wavelengths, they can be observed only by satellites launched into space. This is, in general, much more expensive than building a telescope on Earth. Source: Mysid, Wikimedia Commons. URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_window#/media/File:Atmospheric_electromagnetic_opacity.svg. License: Public Domain. It turns out that it’s not just the Earth’s engineering played a central role in the Earth to complete one rotation. atmosphere that is transparent to establishing radio astronomy. This indicated that its source was far, radio-waves; much of the galaxy is far away from the solar system (see also transparent to radio-waves. The Radio communication Box 3). More careful observations, and same cannot be said of light waves. comparison with what is known from The space between stars contains fine and the birth of radio optical observations, allowed Jansky to dust particles, which scatter and absorb astronomy determine that the radio-waves he was light, but don’t affect radio-waves. During the 1930s, transatlantic receiving were strongest in the direction This means that radio-waves allow communication using radio-waves towards the centre of the galaxy. one to peer into regions of deep space was in its infancy. Companies involved which are completely opaque to star in transatlantic communication were light. This is one of the major reasons looking for ways to identify different Box 3: The Earth takes a little less why SETI uses radio-waves: they allow sources of noise (“static”) picked up by than a day to complete one rotation. one to look for tell-tale signs of a radio receivers and, if possible, eliminate We are used to thinking of a day as technological civilisation in regions being 24 hours long, and regarding them. The Bell telephone company, this as the time taken for the Earth of the sky that no other tracer would a pioneer in this field, assigned the to complete one rotation. But, in allow one to probe. So, for example, job of characterizing noise in radio addition to rotating around its axis; if we were to try and eavesdrop on communications to one of its engineers, the Earth is also revolving around the internal communication in some Karl Jansky. Janksy turned out to be the Sun. Thus, strictly speaking, a day (or, more accurately, a solar day) is other civilisations, our best chance of an extremely systematic observer, and defined as the time period between “hearing” something would be at radio through careful, painstaking effort, he one mid-day (i.e. the time at which wavelengths. Being the least energetic classified the noise he was receiving the Sun is at its maximum height of the electromagnetic waves, radio- into 3 different categories: (i) static from the horizon) and the next. This waves are also the cheapest forms of generated by nearby thunderstorms; takes slightly more time (about 4 communication signals. This is another (ii) static generated by distant minutes) than that required for one reason why SETI focuses on radio-waves. rotation (see Fig.4).
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