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Interview With Planet Hunter, Geoff Marcy

Posted by timothy on from the seeking-the-planet-of-the-pencils dept.

mindpixel writes "I was told as a child we'd never 'see' atoms or planets of other stars. Now with atomic force microscopes we 'see' atoms and with almost any telescope and statistics we 'see' planets. In the amazing online journal - Astrobiology - Planet-finding scientist, Geoff Marcy, describes just how it feels to find a new world."

12 comments

  1. 2 hours of tennis a day? by ObviousGuy · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Sometimes 4?

    What do astronomers get paid? For that kind of free time, what kind of pay cut would I have to take?

    --
    I have been pwned because my /. password was too easy to guess.
    1. Re:2 hours of tennis a day? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      See, astronomers have very wide-open daytime schedules. Of course, this is what happens when you work nights.

  2. Ground Breaking discovery by Syncdata · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This "Doppler shift" indicates a star being tugged back-and-forth by an orbiting planet's gravity.
    I like the way the put Doppler shift in quotes, as though they were indicating this was some fantastic new discovery, used only in the detection of extra-solar planets.
    One of the most heinous offenses being committed today is the dumbing down of news-writing. Look, if someone is reading the paper, or a science website, chances are they have more than a fourth grade education. The days when people of that level read newspapers is dead and gone. Those people are watching TV news now. So punch up the writing. Don't feel the need to put a well recognized phenomenon in quotes (on a science oriented website no less).
    Hell, even if this was a website oriented towards young students, they're probably above the fourth grade level if they are dealing with astronomy and the detection of extra-solar planets. And if I'm wrong about that, then why don't they explain more thoroughly what the Doppler shift is?
    Sometimes I just need to take a deep breath, and tell myself that I'm not alone in this world.

    --
    "Inattention makes clowns of us all" -Bean
  3. Dreams by Paddyish · · Score: 2, Funny
    If I had my life to live over again, I'd be a professional tennis player.

    Idiot! *slap*
    I'd be Catherine Zeta Jones' toothbrush.

  4. Yeah by arvindn · · Score: 1

    I'm sure you can recall other things you were told as a child that you should never see, but that you now do. Regularly. And you don't need any microscopes for it either ;^)

  5. I saw an atom! by joeslugg · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I remember in 9th grade science class our teacher told us the same thing - "Nobody has ever seen an atom - you can't see them". Then a few weeks later my friend and I were watching NOVA (I think) and there they were - atoms. I can't recall the technology or whatnot, but it was definitely a visual representation on a video screen (something akin to an electron microscope type of image) of some kind of crystalline lattice, and you could see the individual atoms.

    My teacher didn't believe me - I wonder if he's still teaching and if he's changed his lesson plan? ;-)

    1. Re:I saw an atom! by Bowling+Moses · · Score: 2, Informative

      Multiple techniques allow you to "see" atoms, including nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and x-ray crystallography. Electron microscopy generally is used for larger objects, at least in biochemical/biophysical applications as its resolution limit is somewhere around 1 nm, although recent innovations may have shrunk that somewhat. In comparison the diameter of a hydrogen atom is on the order of 0.1 nm. All three methods are highly indirect so the statement that you can't see atoms is still valid.

    2. Re:I saw an atom! by pyrrho · · Score: 2, Interesting

      tunnelling microscopes make images that show atomic resolutions, for example, you are able to see the individual atoms in a lattice as described by the parent post.

      I would call the image mapping in that case rather direct, even if the laws of physics allowing it all are a bit surreal.

      --

      -pyrrho

    3. Re:I saw an atom! by mrbuttle · · Score: 2, Informative

      I routinely see crystal lattice images in TEMs (transmission electron microscopes). Perhaps this is what the parent poster remembers. Single crystal gold is often used to check performance and is quite easy to resolve .14 nm lattice spacings in higher end models. This isn't really resolving individual atoms though, but columns of atoms. It is possible though to view individual atoms, depending on your hardware and the element you're looking at. Google search for "individual atoms" "electron microscope".