Tycho set up a perfect observatory, the Ullenburg Observatory, on a desert island in the Copenhagen Strait, and began to improve the instruments and equipment. He increased the size of the observation instrument, installed it on a solid foundation and calibrated it accurately, thus improving the accuracy and stability of the instrument and the reliability of long-term repeated observation readings.
German scientist Kepler carefully sorted out the observation data left by Tycho and made a detailed analysis. Through many explorations and calculations, he summed up Kepler's three laws, which were quickly recognized by astronomers. Kepler also got the honorary title of "the legislator of the sky".
1608, when Dutch optician Leigh Pacey was making glasses lenses, he put a convex lens and a concave lens together and looked out. Objects in the distance are getting closer. He accidentally built the first telescope, whose eyepiece was a concave lens. The news of the invention of the telescope soon spread around Europe. Galileo invented the world's first telescope with a magnification of 32 times in 1609. After years of research, Newton completed his own design in 1668, and successfully manufactured the first reflective telescope. The total length was only15cm, the diameter was 2.5cm, and the magnification was the same as that of the 2-meter-long refractive telescope. 1672, Newton made the first larger reflecting telescope with a total length of 1.2m and a diameter of 2m.
The birth of the telescope marks the birth of modern astronomy. It broadens the horizon of mankind.
1924, American astronomer Edwin. Hubble aimed a 254 cm telescope at the Wilson Observatory in California in the Andromeda Nebula. This cloud was immediately broken down into many stars in the telescope, which made people realize that not only the earth is not the center of the universe, but also the sun is not the center of the Milky Way. The Milky Way is a large disk with a diameter of 654.38+ million light years, and there are more than 65.438+billion stars in it. Such a huge galaxy is just a drop in the ocean in the vast universe. The status of the earth in the universe is getting lower and lower, and human vision and rationality are constantly breaking through new territories and investing in higher and farther places. In a sense, the development of telescope is also the development of modern astronomy.
The LAMOST optical telescope in China has 24 and 37 splitters, with two large mirrors, 4,000 optical fibers and 16 spectrometers. Its completion has broken the bottleneck that a large-field telescope cannot have a large aperture at the same time, and it is internationally known as "a large-aperture telescope with high ground efficiency".
2065438+In August 2008, a strange celestial body was discovered in LAMOST. Its lithium content is about 3000 times that of similar celestial bodies, and it is the star with the highest known lithium content.
2065438+March 2009, (LAMOST)DR6 data set * * includes 4902 observation sky regions, and11250,000 spectra were released. At this point, LAMOST, which lasted for 7 years, became the world's first spectrum survey project, marking the official entry of LAMOST spectrum release into the era of tens of millions. At the same time, the data released by DR6 also includes 6.36 million star spectral parameter catalogs, making it the largest star parameter catalog in the world.
Space Observatory The earth is surrounded by an atmosphere, and light from distant galaxies can only reach astronomical telescopes through the thick atmosphere. It's like a diver looking at objects on the shore underwater. In addition, the fluctuation of smoke, dust and water vapor in the atmosphere, the vibration of the ground and the deformation of the super-large lens caused by gravity all have an impact on astronomical observation. In order to eliminate the above interference, humans tried to build the observatory in outer space.
1On April 25th, 990, the American space shuttle put the Hubble Space Telescope into orbit around the earth 575km above the ground, and built the world's first complete space observatory with excellent performance. The total length of Hubble Space Telescope is12.8m, the diameter of lens barrel is 4.27m, the diameter of main mirror is 2.4m, and the total weight is11.5t. ..
The Hubble Space Telescope includes all automatic instruments and equipment, and it carries six state-of-the-art equipment:
Wide angle planetary camera. It has high sensitivity and wide observation band, ranging from ultraviolet to infrared. It can be used to observe not only the planets in the solar system, but also the Milky Way and extragalactic galaxies, and the photos are very clear.
A dim celestial camera. It is two independent and similar complete celestial bodies and detection systems, which can detect very dark stars.
Dark and weak celestial spectrograph can analyze the radiation spectrum from ultraviolet to near infrared band and measure their polarization.
High-resolution spectrograph can be used for spectral observation in ultraviolet band, and can be used for observing darker and farther celestial bodies.
High-speed photometer can accurately measure celestial bodies in visible and ultraviolet bands, determine the photometric standard of star targets, and further identify celestial bodies observed by people in the past.
There are three precision guided remote sensors, which are used for telescope orientation system and precise measurement and positioning of celestial bodies.
Hubble Space Telescope is the largest and most accurate astronomical telescope in history. The wide-angle planetary camera on it can take dozens to hundreds of photos of stars, and the resolution is more than 10 times that of the ground astronomical telescope. Its observation ability is equivalent to seeing a firefly in Sydney from Washington 1.6× 107m away. The images and information collected by Hubble Space Telescope finally reach the scientific research center of the space telescope in the United States through artificial satellites and ground data transmission networks. These extremely precious space images and cosmic data reveal many unknown objects and events in the universe, making a breakthrough in astronomy. It confirms some theories, overturns others, and discovers some phenomena that people are unprepared but need to create new physical theories to explain.
Hubble Space Telescope has been retired, and the development plan of 2 1 century space telescope is in full swing around the world. In 2 1 century, several large astronomical observation devices will be sent into outer space, which will be another great effort for human beings to explore space after the brilliant achievements of Hubble Space Telescope.
The United States is actively planning to develop the James Webb space telescope, which is expected to be launched in 20021year.
The hexagonal primary mirror of the Webb Space Telescope is 6.5 meters in diameter, and its field of view is six times that of Hubble, but its clarity is no less than that of Hubble.
The "Webb" telescope will be launched to the outer side of the earth's orbit, which is 654.38+0.5 million kilometers away from the earth, with its back to the earth, while maintaining the same angular velocity as the earth, and will always be hidden on the back of the earth, becoming an artificial asteroid that orbits the sun synchronously with the earth. This can avoid the collision of other stars in space.
When the Webb Space Telescope enters the expected orbit, it will open its tennis court-sized "eye patch" to ensure that it will not be burned by the sun, and the folded huge lens will gradually unfold.
The Webb telescope is equipped with a high-precision infrared detection device, which is specially used to observe the cold and dim planets in the depths of the universe. It shoulders the mission of earth people to explore the first batch of galaxies in the early days of the birth of the universe after the "Big Bang" and strive to find civilization in the depths of the universe.
Underground and undersea observatories are another window for human beings to observe the universe.
There are no optical telescopes and radio telescopes in the underground observatory. It detects neutrinos, an uncharged elementary particle in the universe. Neutrinos are small in mass and fast in speed, and generally do not interact with electrons and nuclei, so their penetration ability is particularly strong, and they can almost pass through any celestial body and interstellar matter in the universe without hindrance and reach the earth; Scientists moved the observatory underground, in order to use surface rocks or seawater to block other particles from the depths of the universe, specifically to capture neutrinos and conduct deeper celestial observation.
The main body of the underground observatory is a huge puddle. When neutrinos pass through the water tank, they are unlikely to collide with charged hydrogen atoms and oxygen atoms in the water, but if they collide with charged particles, the charged particles will gain energy from neutrinos, speed up their movement, and emit blue-green light called Jay Lenkov light. When the ultra-high sensitivity photodetector captures this extremely weak light, the neutrino energy can be converted according to its intensity and flight distance, and then the source direction of neutrinos can be judged according to the motion direction, and the position of celestial bodies can be inferred.
The Satbury Neutrino Observation Center in Canada, jointly invested by Canada, the United States and Britain, is located 2000 meters underground. Its center is a spherical water tank, which can hold 1000 tons of heavy water. Heavy water has the most ideal characteristics of capturing neutrinos. There are 654.38+100000 photodetectors around this sphere to record the light emitted by neutrinos when they collide with heavy water. This underground observatory will be officially put into operation in 2007, which is expected to uncover the mysteries of the universe such as the interior of the sun and supernova explosions.
At present, the underground and submarine observatories that have been built or are under construction all over the world, as well as the Institute of Cosmic Ray of the University of Tokyo, Japan, are all built underground about 1000 meters above the ground in Shenfeng Mine, Gifu County. The American "Amada" Observatory was built at a depth of 2000 meters under the Antarctic ice; The American "Temmamt" Observatory was built at a depth of 4,800 meters under the sea in Hawaii. Their ability to receive celestial information is beyond the reach of ground observatories, which will open a new horizon for human exploration of the universe.
With the rapid development of science and technology, human vision will continue to expand and extend to the depths of the universe.