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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."

2 of 12 comments (clear)

  1. 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 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