Secrets of the Hoary Deep: A Personal History of Modern Astronomy

Preface

xi Preface This book is an account of the development of astronomy from 1959 to 2006 as told by one of the participants. It is intended not as an autobiography but rather as a narrative of my own understanding of the field in an intellectual sense and its development as I experienced it. Biographical notes are thrown in as necessary to explain the changes in my perspective. I was very fortunate in my career as a scientist to be involved in some of the most exciting discoveries and projects of the past decades. I participated in the start of a new field of astronomical space research—observations in the x-ray region of the spectrum—which grew from a subdiscipline of interest to a handful of scientists to an important and unique tool to study the universe, of interest to all astronomers. It turned out that high-energy phenomena , explosions, high-energy particles, and million-Kelvin plasmas play a fundamental role in the formation and evolution of the cosmos.All of these processes and entities are copious emitters of x-rays, and most of the normal matter in the universe is in the form of the hot plasmas whose existence was discovered in x-rays. X-ray observations also permitted discovery of stellarmass black holes and the process of energy generation through accretion onto collapsed objects, which powers active galactic nuclei and quasars. Preface In 1981, after 20 years in this field, I was appointed as the first director of the Space Telescope Science Institute, an independent institute that is responsible for the scientific utilization of the Hubble Space Telescope. The institute played a central role in making Hubble the great scientific and popular success that it became. The institute led the world of astronomy in the operation of extremely complex systems that produce copious amounts of data at extremely high rates. The development of end-to-end systems of data management at the institute—the handling of guest observers’proposal submissions and scheduling, receipt of the data and on-line calibration, data distribution, and archiving—became the standards adopted by all major astronomy observatories both in space and on the ground. The scientific results from Hubble had a major impact on all of astronomy. The institute placed great emphasis on supporting research based on Hubble data by astronomers worldwide, with fellowships and research programs, but also on sharing the fascinating new vistas that were opened up by Hubble with the public at large. Family circumstances led me to return to Europe in 1993, where for six years I directed the European Southern Observatory, during which time we were constructing the largest array of optical telescopes in the world—the Very Large Telescope now operating on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of Chile. With this project, European astronomy set new standards of excellence for ground-based astronomy. On my return to the United States in 1999, I became president of Associated Universities, Inc., a nonprofit university-based organization that operates the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. The observatory is constructing the world’s largest array of millimeter and submillimeter radio antennas, called ALMA, on the Llano de Chajnantor in Chile, in cooperation with Europe and Japan. I was fortunate to have so many opportunities to be involved with enterprises at the forefront of astronomy in all wavelengths. My work took place in Europe and in the United States in a variety of institutional settings: universities , national and international institutes, and private industry. The agencies that funded these efforts were also varied; they included the Department of Defense, NASA, the National Science Foundation, universities, and such international organizations as the European Southern Observatory. In being exposed to so many different styles of work I was able to form my own opinions on how well the different systems functioned for science. In this book I describe my experiences with candor. xii Preface The title of the book is intended to convey the awe with which I contemplate nature and to hint at the irrational impulses that drive the work of scientists much more than is generally realized. It is also a nod to the fact that my narrative takes a peek behind the curtains of sanitized reporting on how great projects come about. I apologize in advance to all the scientists, engineers , and managers who contributed to the work I describe but whom I am not...