|
|
Article: Scope's face-lift pulls deep space in view.(FEATURES)(IDEAS)
- Article from:
- The Christian Science Monitor
- Article date:
- December 12, 2002
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Christian Science Publishing Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
Byline: Laurent Belsie Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
ARECIBO, PUERTO RICO -- The world's largest eye on the sky is getting a face-lift that will allow astronomers to do what was once unthinkable: probe large swaths of space more deeply than ever before. Think of it as astronomy's leap from 16th-century mapmaking to early Rand McNally.
If all goes well, scientists could double the number of known pulsars (pulsating stars), discover clouds of gases that failed to create galaxies, and maybe even spot the holy grail of radio astronomy: a pulsar circling a black hole, offering new data on the actual workings of relativity.
These ...