Getting Ready To Map The (Visible) Universe

phanki writes "The Arecibo Observatory is gearing up to map the universe soon. This article talks about the university getting a set of new radio recievers to complete the background work for the mapping process. So very soon we may have the map for the Andromeda !"

Comments

Useless to real men

[Mr.Sharpy]

While this map may very well aid the fairer sex navigate the stars someday, we real men will do as we have for thousands of years...wander aimlessly claiming that we are not lost.

Re:Useless to real men

[Kibo]

Not knowing where you're going isn't lost. That's exploring. Not being able to get back, that's lost.

Re:Useless to real men

[Planesdragon]

No, no, no. You've got it backwards.

MEN are the gender that read maps. That's why we never have to ask for directions.

Mapquest

[Nimrod]

When do we think Mapquest will have this available.

Re:Mapquest

[jpsst34]

Sure, that would be great for getting driving directions to the general vicinity of some distant galaxy, but it's BFS algorithm is sure to mix up the turns and landmarks of the last 30,000 light years or so.

Cheesy sci-fi map

[PeteyG]

So very soon we may have the map for the Andromeda !

Hah, I can already download those in blueprint form off of a Kevin Sorbo fansite.

Bring me the map for the SeaQuest DSV, and then we'll talk.

Looking for good radio, huh?

[jpsst34]

"The 1,000-foot-wide parabolic receiver - composed of 38,000 aluminum tiles - allows researchers to listen to sounds in space..."

Geez. The lengths some guys will go to just to be able to listen to radio that isn't controlled by ClearChannel!

Re:Clear Channel is hardly anywhere

[jpsst34]

Of course it was an over-generalization, but in and around Pittsburgh, PA, it holds some water as nearly everything is ClearChannel or Infinity:

WDVE - Rock (CC)

WXDX - Modern Rock (CC)

WWSW - Oldies (CC)

WKST - Pop (CC)

WJJJ - HipHop/R&B (CC)

WBZZ - Pop (Infinity)

WDSY - Country (Infinity)

WZPT - 80's/90's Variety (Infinity)

Local:

WRRK - Classic Rock (Steel City Media)

WAMO - HipHop/R&B (Sheridan)

WLTJ - Lite Rock (Local)

WSHH - Soft Rock (Local)

WYEP - Adult Alternative (Public)

Misleading article, etc.

[barakn]

Getting Ready To Map The (Visible) Universe is a bad title, as the word 'visible' in astronomy means light with wavelengths between ~380 nm and 780 nm, while Arecibo looks at stuff from 3 cm to 6 m.. Also, the AP news article repeatedly equates the radio telescope with a listening device, though it can map the sky at resolutions better than most telescopes.

Re:Misleading article, etc.

[deglr6328]

They're probably using "visible" to mean visible to the telescope, due to the fact that Arecibo is a fixed dish with only movable antennas, it can only see a fraction of the entire sky.

Final Fontier

[Strange Ranger]

An interesting aspect of space exploration is that it's the only frontier we've ever attempted to explore with decent maps already in hand.

In the past, from Moses to Marco Polo to Columbus, maps were impossible. They tried to draw them as they went along.

We'll probably never again be at a point where we say "What in the heck is out there?" We'll never again have Uncharted Territory. But rather we say "What in the heck will that look like up close." In a way it's kind of sad to lose that mystery. But in a way it's pretty cool to explore Charted Territory that has never been explored before.

A silly example of the difference this makes is turning off the Fog Of War on your favorite video game... Profoundly changes the whole nature of the game. No more thinking you landed on the coast of India and getting the name of an entire race wrong. All the mysteries start and stop with the limitations of our "long range sensor sweeps". I don't know where I meant to go with this... I guess it's sad on one hand that "totally uncharted territory" is forever gone, but on the other hand the trade off in speed of discovery, safety, return on investment, etc, will be pretty incredible, and well worth it to all but the terminally romantic.

Re:Final Fontier

[Christopher Thomas]

We'll probably never again be at a point where we say "What in the heck is out there?" We'll never again have Uncharted Territory. But rather we say "What in the heck will that look like up close."

This is only partly true. Many space objects are the next best thing to invisible. Barring a really concerted (and expensive) effort, we won't have maps of, say, the Kupier belt that are anywhere close to complete. Even closer to home, we only have records for the _big_ asteroids in the belt (and inner solar system).

Similarly, while we've found at least one white dwarf star in our local neighbourhood, others may very well exist that we aren't noticing - they're quite dim. Smaller objects, like gas giants ejected from systems during formation and drifting in interstellare space, or the myriad of objects in the Oort cloud, may not ever be found - unless an object emits a lot of light or is both large and quite close to a bright light source (like a star), it's lost in the void.

Think of our medium-term mapping situation as the equivalent of having the tourist brochures for the area we want to visit, and our current maps as being the blurb on the back of them. Still plenty to discover.

Re:Final Fontier

[dnahelix]

Very good points. There are also many other galactic objects that block our view, like Bok Globules, and large nebulae like the Eagle Nebula.

Re:Final Fontier

[dpp]

True, those objects block our view at optical wavelengths, but they can be transparent (well, optically thin) at submillimetre wavelengths. I work for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, which is the world's largest single-dish submillimetre-wave telescope. The JCMT has, for example, seen into the cores of the famous pillars in the Eagle Nebula.

Re:20% is not nearly everything!

[jpsst34]

OK, take output wattage into consideration. There may be 41 stations. Now cut to just the the stations strong enough to pick up in my car as I travel the 60 miles or so from one end of Greater PGH to the other.

My list came from the stations that I know exist and know their call letters. How do I know they exist? I am able to tune them in when driving in my car.

I admit, CC are not the majority based on number of stations, but if you look at demographics - number of listeners - they are sure to be up there. I'm not claiming to have numbers to back it up - it's just the impression you get around here.

Anyway, my original post was a joke! Laugh! Have fun! You needn't always be so stiff.

Alternative?

[Atario]

"The Listenable Universe"?
"The Radioable Universe"?
"The Tune-In-Able Universe"?
"The Don't-Touch-That-Dial-able Universe"?
"The Universe We Can Sense Using This Telescope Right Here"?

Re:Alternative?

[Vacuum Sux]

What about "The Observable Universe"?