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And to think I assumed Astronomy was a stagnant field some decades ago. I have no idea why I thought that. Maybe that optical resolution from ground-based teles

And to think I assumed Astronomy was a stagnant field some decades ago. I have no idea why I thought that. Maybe that optical resolution from ground-based telescopes was not going to advance orders of magnitudes? Maybe I didn't think the sciences would continue to get money for space telescopes?

DiogenesKynikos 2y ago
Astronomy has been in a golden age for the last 35 years, based on: 1. Digital cameras, and the computers to analyze images. 2. Space telescopes (Hubble Space Telescope, the first large space telescope, only launched in 1990). 3. The building of massive ground-based telescopes. Before 1990, the largest telescope had a mirror diameter of 6 meters. Now, multiple 30-meter telescopes are under construction. Collecting power goes with the square of the diameter, so this is an increase of 25 times in collecting power! 4. Very recently, the development of gravitational-wave interferometers, which allow astronomers to observe a totally new type of radiation.
- nuccy 2y ago
  To add to the list (the order is arbitrary): 5. Advances in the multi-messenger observations, where apart of photons and gravitational waves, astronomers can detects also neutrinos with specialized neutrino detectors, e.g.: IceCube [a], though there are many more of those [b]. 6. Advances in very-long-baseline interferometry [c] using a globe-sized array of radio-telescopes, like Event Horizon Telescope [d] [a] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IceCube_Neutrino_Observatory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IceCube_Neutrino_Observatory [b] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino_detector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino_detector or here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_neutrino_experiments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_neutrino_experiments [c] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very-long-baseline_interferometry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very-long-baseline_interferome... [d] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope
  - hnuser123456 2y ago
    And one more: 7. The LISA mission is underway to build a space-based detector for gravitational waves at the 0.1hz region, whereas LIGO is sensitive around the 500hz region. 500hz corresponds to inspiraling stellar mass black holes. 0.1hz corresponds to inspiraling supermassive black holes. Think about the most powerful subwoofer the laws of physics allow, given the maximum amount of mass density in a volume and the speed of light. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Interferometer_Space_Antenna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Interferometer_Space_Ant...
eleveriven 2y ago
It's pretty wild how much astronomy has progressed, especially with advancements in adaptive optics, interferometry, and space telescopes. Even ground-based observatories have improved way beyond what most people would've expected a few decades ago

DiogenesKynikos 2y ago

Astronomy has been in a golden age for the last 35 years, based on: 1. Digital cameras, and the computers to analyze images. 2. Space telescopes (Hubble Space Telescope, the first large space telescope, only launched in 1990). 3. The building of massive ground-based telescopes. Before 1990, the largest telescope had a mirror diameter of 6 meters. Now, multiple 30-meter telescopes are under construction. Collecting power goes with the square of the diameter, so this is an increase of 25 times in collecting power! 4. Very recently, the development of gravitational-wave interferometers, which allow astronomers to observe a totally new type of radiation.

nuccy 2y ago
To add to the list (the order is arbitrary): 5. Advances in the multi-messenger observations, where apart of photons and gravitational waves, astronomers can detects also neutrinos with specialized neutrino detectors, e.g.: IceCube [a], though there are many more of those [b]. 6. Advances in very-long-baseline interferometry [c] using a globe-sized array of radio-telescopes, like Event Horizon Telescope [d] [a] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IceCube_Neutrino_Observatory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IceCube_Neutrino_Observatory [b] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino_detector https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino_detector or here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_neutrino_experiments https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_neutrino_experiments [c] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very-long-baseline_interferometry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very-long-baseline_interferome... [d] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_Horizon_Telescope
- hnuser123456 2y ago
  And one more: 7. The LISA mission is underway to build a space-based detector for gravitational waves at the 0.1hz region, whereas LIGO is sensitive around the 500hz region. 500hz corresponds to inspiraling stellar mass black holes. 0.1hz corresponds to inspiraling supermassive black holes. Think about the most powerful subwoofer the laws of physics allow, given the maximum amount of mass density in a volume and the speed of light. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Interferometer_Space_Antenna https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_Interferometer_Space_Ant...

eleveriven 2y ago

It's pretty wild how much astronomy has progressed, especially with advancements in adaptive optics, interferometry, and space telescopes. Even ground-based observatories have improved way beyond what most people would've expected a few decades ago