Astronomy transformed: the emergence of radio astronomy in Britain : D.O. Edge and M.J. Mulkay, 482pp., diagrams, 6 × 9 in., John Wiley, New York, 1976, Price $25.00
✍ Scribed by G. Reber
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 1977
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 180 KB
- Volume
- 304
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0016-0032
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
In summing-up radio astronomy, the authors of this new book concur with the statement by Mitton, "radio astronomers have led a revolution in our knowledge of the Universe that is paralleled only by the historic contributions of Galileo and Copernicus". This reviewer hopes that this assessment withstands the test of time.
Edge and Mulkay start their book with the attempts to detect solar hertzian waves between the years 1890 and 1902, by Edison, Wilsing and Schemer, Lodge, Nordmann, Deslandres and Decombe. The unexpected and accidental discovery of radio waves from the Milky Way by Karl G. Jansky in 1932 is briefly recounted.
Sociological discussion and speculation follow as to the reasons the scientific community took little notice of it despite the wide publicity given Jansky's discovery. This reviewer's experiments at Wheaton, Illinois are mentioned with similar comments. There were the believers, such as P. C. Keenan and B. Stromgren, and the doubters, such as G. P. Kuiper. The most extreme ones seemed to feel Jansky's reports were at best a mistake and at worst a hoax. After listening to these comments it was clear that the doubters did not have enough knowledge of radio to form an intelligent opinion. Otto Struve made a conservative and appropriate decision. Astronomers were not competent to become involved in these studies, which should be left to the engineering fraternity.
The philosophical dilhculty was at that time that no mechanism was known to