Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from ...

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HUBBLE TROUBLE 231 staking your scientific reputation on your research. That Hubble data, once you’ve published it in an astronomical journal, is your lifeline. Now imagine that the instant you get your data, some other astronomer has access to it, too. This other astronomer isn’t as scrupulous and nice as you are. He or she also has experience with Hubble, knows just how to analyze your data, and might publish before you do! All that work, all that effort and time, and you get scooped with your own data. That’s why the data are held as proprietary for a year. That year gives the astronomer time to figure out what to do with the data and how best to analyze them. It’s only fair to you, who devoted so much of your life to getting the data, to let you have a chance to look at them before anyone else. So there’s no real secret involved. At the end of the proprietary period, ready or not, the data become public. Far from being anything shady on the part of NASA, keeping the data secret for a year is actually the best way astronomers have come up with to further the cause of science in a fair manner. It can be an agonizing wait when you know some good data won’t be available for a year, but it’s worth it. HUBBLE SHOOTS THE MOON Hubble is more than just a telescope with a camera stuck onto it. It’s a telescope with several cameras stuck onto it. Each instrument has a specific task. Some take ultraviolet images, others take infrared. Some take spectra by breaking the light from an object into individual colors. Each camera is a delicate, expensive piece of machinery. Some of these instruments are very sensitive to light. They can actually be damaged if too much light hits them. Anyone who has ever had a roommate turn on a light in the middle of the night can sympathize with that. This sensitivity has caused yet another myth about Hubble, that it cannot take images of the Moon. As the myth goes, the Moon is far too bright to be observed by Hubble without damaging these delicate instruments.
232 BEAM ME UP This turns out not to be the case. It is true that the operators of Hubble need to be careful with subjecting the instruments to “an overlight condition.” For example, there is a very strict “solar avoidance zone,” a large area of sky around the Sun where Hubble is forbidden to look. The Sun is too bright, and if Hubble points too closely to it, the Sun would do all sorts of damage. That law is very stringently applied and has only been bent once, to observe the planet Venus. However, this doesn’t really apply to the Moon, which is far less bright than the Sun. While it’s true that some of Hubble’s cameras are very sensitive to light, they can simply be shut off during a lunar observation, allowing other, less sensitive cameras to be used. Still, many people have this mindset that you cannot look at bright objects, including the Moon. It’s funny, because Hubble routinely observes the Earth and, from Hubble’s vantage, the Earth is far brighter than the Moon. The reason Hubble observes the Earth is nothing nefarious. Sometimes the great observatory is turned toward the Earth to take long exposures that help calibrate the cameras onboard. This allows astronomers to understand how the cameras behave. Hubble cannot easily track fast-moving objects, and the ground moves underneath Hubble at a clip of eight kilometers (five miles) per second. It makes a lousy spy satellite. The images are all streaked from the movement of the objects. I’ve seen some of these images, and you can clearly spot houses and trees that look like long, gray streaks. You don’t have to bother shutting your window to protect your privacy. All Hubble sees of you is a long, blurry worm. So, if Hubble can take images of the Earth, it certainly can take images of the Moon. The belief that the Moon is too bright is unfounded. That said, why don’t we see routine Hubble observations of the Moon? For one thing, we already have really good images of the Moon from the Apollo missions and the Clementine lunar orbiter, better than Hubble can take. But there’s more. Here’s where I sheepishly must admit to propagating my own little piece of bad astronomy. I’m commonly asked this question. I
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CONTENTS Introduction 1 PART I Bad
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CONTENTS vii Recommended Reading 25
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2 BAD ASTRONOMY luminous, against a
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4 BAD ASTRONOMY who fully well knew
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6 BAD ASTRONOMY But if they cannot
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PART I PPPPPP Bad Astronomy Begins
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1 PPPPPP The Yolk’s on You: Egg B
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 13 and they mak
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 15 ished announ
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 17 Of course it
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THE YOLK’S ON YOU 19 with the wea
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2 PPPPPP Flushed with Embarrassment
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FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 23 much
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FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 25 Equat
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FLUSHED WITH EMBARRASSMENT 27 still
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 29 press my heigh
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 31 friend about w
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 33 Incidentally,
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IDIOM’S DELIGHT 35 So you might c
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38 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON and t
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40 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON body
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42 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON red l
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44 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON top o
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46 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON photo
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5 PPPPPP A Dash of Seasons: Why Sum
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50 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Clear
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52 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Equat
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54 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Howev
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56 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON the S
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58 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON These
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60 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON the d
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62 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON That
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7 PPPPPP The Gravity of the Situati
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66 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON is co
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68 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON a poi
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70 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON you
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72 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON Moon,
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74 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON that
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76 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON galax
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78 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON that
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80 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON exact
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82 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON The P
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84 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON But n
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86 FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON of th
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88 SKIES AT NIGHT ARE BIG AND BRIGH
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100 SKIES AT NIGHT ARE BIG AND BRIG
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13 PPPPPP Shadows in the Sky: Eclip
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16 PPPPPP When the Universe Throws
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PART IV PPPPPPP Artificial Intellig
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17 PPPPPP Appalled at Apollo: Uncov
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 157 My question
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 159 Admittedly,
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 161 These belts
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 163 solid-state
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 165 However, you
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 167 flow well be
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 169 One of the m
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 171 The shadows
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APPALLED AT APOLLO 173 they put tog
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WORLDS IN DERISION 175 Many people
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WORLDS IN DERISION 177 Today, we wo
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WORLDS IN DERISION 179 do now for t
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Page 214 and 215: MISIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECTS 203 la
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Page 224 and 225: MARS IS IN THE SEVENTH HOUSE 213 Th
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Page 232 and 233: PART V PPPPPP Beam Me Up We’ve tr
Page 234 and 235: 22 PPPPPP Hubble Trouble: Hubble Sp
Page 236 and 237: HUBBLE TROUBLE 225 The Hubble Space
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Page 248 and 249: STAR HUSTLERS 237 That’s a tall o
Page 250 and 251: STAR HUSTLERS 239 the names aren’
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Page 254 and 255: STAR HUSTLERS 243 The star “Phili
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Page 271 and 272: 260 RECOMMENDED READING with the ma
Page 273 and 274: 262 RECOMMENDED READING One of the
Page 275 and 276: 264 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Vergano, for gi
Page 277 and 278: 266 INDEX “Astrology: Science or
Page 279 and 280: 268 INDEX earthquakes, 130, 182 pla
Page 281 and 282: 270 INDEX Islam, 58-59 “It’s Sp
Page 283 and 284: 272 INDEX neutrons, 34 in stars, 98
Page 285 and 286: 274 INDEX Sirius, 100, 107 size con
Page 287 and 288: 276 INDEX triangles, 148 true scien
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