From Stellar Navigation to Interplanetary Spaceflight: Exploring the History of Astronomy at Cornell

By Becky Orfinger and James Signorovitch

    In 1959, Cornell's astronomy department had one major function: it taught stellar navigation to Naval R.O.T.C. officers. A mechanical telescope at the Fuertes Observatory served as the department's only piece of equipment. Astronomers needed to rewind the telescope every 90 minutes to keep it working.

    Like science programs all over the country, Cornell's astronomy department eventually caught the wave of funding inspired by the Cold War and the space race. At Cornell, NASA grants funded increases in the astronomy department's faculty and resources throughout the early 1960s. Cornell administrators saw the opportunity to build a world-class department. By most accounts, they managed to do it.

The Golden Years
    As financial resources increased, the administration found that the department needed leadership. In its search for a leader, the Cornell administration enticed then-Harvard Professor Thomas Gold to direct the creation of an astronomy department.

    Gold arrived in 1959 and he began to expand the department immediately. "I started from scratch," said Gold. At first, Gold's department received enough funding to add one faculty member each year. Gold's first selections brought Frank Drake and other former colleagues from Harvard. Now a professor at the University of California-Santa Cruz, Drake arrived at Cornell in 1963 and accepted a position at the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research. A few years later, Drake became the director of the Cornell-operated Arecibo Radio Telescope in Puerto Rico.

    To conserve the energy of his growing department, Gold initially avoided developing an undergraduate education program. "It would have taken too much time," said Gold, who was concerned that removing the department's focus from research would dilute the efforts of his carefully selected faculty. Gold instead focused the department on providing graduate education to help build the department's reputation.

    By the mid-1960s, the astronomy department began to outgrow its allotted space on the second floor of Clark Hall. Cornell persuaded NASA to contribute $1.5 million to the construction of a building to house the department. After lengthy disputes about design and details between researchers and architects, the Space Sciences Building opened in January 1967. Since administrators expected the astronomy department to continue growing, architects designed the building to hold two additional floors. These floors opened in 1987.

    Gold knew that a well-equipped research institution required an observational facility. He felt confident that involvement in radio astronomy—based on technology developed during World War II—would bring Cornell to the forefront of astronomical research.

Big Telescopes, Big Names
    Although the space race inspired funding for astronomy that helped human space exploration, the government limited funding for purely observational research. Gold and his Cornell colleagues, however, managed to find funding for a radio telescope. In the spirit of the Cold War, the Defense Department agreed to fund the construction of a radio telescope to observe the effects of nuclear explosions on radio wave transmission through the ionosphere.

    Thus, in 1963, what remains the world's largest radio telescope began operation near Arecibo, Puerto Rico. The 305-meter diameter fixed reflector with its 20-acre surface took two years to build and cost $9.3 million. The observatory represents the most important part of the National Astronomy and Ionosphere Center (NAIC), a national research center that Cornell operates under contract with the National Science Foundation. "While Arecibo was initially constructed to study the ionosphere, it was clear to Thomas Gold that [the telescope] was capable of doing forefront radio astronomy," said current chairman of the astronomy department Yervant Terzian.

    Radar and radio astronomy fascinated astronomers for two main reasons. First, it allowed them to observe objects in portions of the electromagnetic spectrum that the unaided human eye cannot see. Second, radar astronomy allowed astronomers to send their own radio waves into space, bounce them off planets, and construct surface maps based on the reflected energy. When the Defense Department allowed observational astronomers to use the telescope, proposals poured in from thrilled researchers. Radio astronomy with such a large instrument promised a new vision of space.

    When Anthony Hewish and Jocelyn Bell first discovered pulsars in 1967, the radar-radio telescope at Arecibo provided the optimal observational tool. "Arecibo was the instrument for studying the phenomena," said Gold.

    Gold explained the importance of pulsars to Einstein's theory of general relativity.  "Pulsars contain extremely dense matter, and are teetering on the edge of becoming black holes: just a teaspoon more mass and you would have a black hole." The presence of pulsars strongly suggested the existence of black holes, which eventually provided empirical verification of Einstein's theory of general relativity.

    Before modifications in 1975, the telescope provided important observations of Mercury, Venus, Mars and Earth-approaching asteroids. Further observations provided more accurate astronomical measurements. After the addition of an improved antenna in 1975, the telescope proved capable of studying the more distant moons of Jupiter, the rings of Saturn, and the terrestrial planets.

    Astronomers continue to use Arecibo for observational research. The National Science Foundation and NASA are currently funding a $24-million, four-year upgrade which will improve Arecibo's sensitivity, resolution, and wavelength coverage. Paul Goldsmith, the director of NAIC in Ithaca, said that the facility will be opening up this summer. With the new capabilities provided by the upgrade, Goldsmith says, researchers will be able to look out into  even more distant regions of the universe. With the additional power provided, Goldsmith predicts that the telescope will be able to predict how stars are formed, examine the surfaces of planets, and aid in star mapping.

    Other sorts of telescopes have also been a part of Cornell's history. By the 1970s, the Fuertes Observatory had become antiquated as an educational tool. In 1975, the astronomy department announced plans to build Hartung-Boothroyd Observatory on Mount Pleasant in Varna, about a 15-minute drive from Ithaca. The observatory's 25-inch reflecting telescope remains the largest in New York State.

    To non-astronomers, Cornell's astronomy department receives the most recognition for the work of Carl Sagan. Until Sagan's death last December, he was arguably the most famous full-time Cornell University faculty member.

    Sagan came to Cornell from Harvard in 1968. The public knew nothing about Sagan and astronomers at Cornell doubted the wisdom of Gold's decision to lure Sagan to the University. Gold, nonetheless, felt confident about Sagan's value. After then-University Provost Dale Corson confirmed Sagan's appointment, Gold distinctly recalls assuring him: "Dale, you will never regret this." Needless to say, Corson did not.

    By 1971, the department named Sagan a full professor. He later became the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences at Cornell and director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies. In his almost thirty years at Cornell, Sagan's research focused on topics such as the greenhouse effect on Venus, windblown dust as an explanation for the seasonal changes on Mars, and the origin of life on Earth.

    While Sagan's research resulted in important discoveries, significant scientific accomplishments are typical for any astronomer at any Ivy League university. Sagan's fame stemmed from his work promoting science with the public. He hosted Cosmos—for a time the most-watched show on public television—wrote eight New York Times bestsellers, was a regular guest on ABC News, and produced a regular column for Parade Magazine.

The 1980s and Beyond
    In 1980, NASA reinforced Cornell's position as a national center for space science research. As the decade approached, NASA selected Cornell as a regional center for its collection of data from space missions. At Cornell, the storage facility became known as the Space Planetary Imaging Facility (SPIF).

    During the nearly two decades that SPIF has operated at Cornell, it has amassed over 100,000 images from missions such as Viking and Voyager. NASA's Planetary Geology and Geophysics Program supplies image data as soon as it is processed. In its early days, SPIF's visitors—scientists and laypeople alike—viewed images as hard-copy photographs and slides. As computer technology advanced, SPIF moved its collection onto CD-ROMS.

    In the planetary sciences, Cornell researchers helped develop spacecraft for exploration of the solar system. Members of Cornell's astronomy department played key roles in the Mariner 9 and Viking Orbiter/Lander missions to Mars, the Voyager missions to the outer solar system, and the Magellan mission to Venus. Cornell astronomers are also at work on the Galileo mission to Jupiter, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous (NEAR) mission, and preparations for the Cassini mission to Saturn. "Cornell's involvement in NASA's spacecraft experiments is very important because it brings new information and fresh data constantly," said Peter Gierasch, a Cornell astronomy professor.

    Observational astronomers at Cornell have access to a variety of optical and radio telescopes, such as the Very Large Array in New Mexico, the Kitt Peak optical telescopes in Arizona, and Arecibo. Cornell controls 25 percent of the observation time on the Hale Telescope, the giant 5-meter telescope on Mount Palomar in California. Former Cornell, now MIT astronomer Jim Elliot, along with collaborators, discovered the rings of Uranus from a plane, NASA's Kuiper Airborne Observatory. apsaOther Cornell-based research teams provided infrared images of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's impact on Jupiter.

    Cornell also houses the New York Space Grant Consortium, a NASA-financed fund dedicated to the enhancement of education in space-related fields.

    Today Cornell's astronomy department offers a number of undergraduate courses. In addition to the hundreds of Cornell undergraduate who attend astronomy courses, the department currently serves more than a dozen undergraduate majors and over two dozen graduate students. Though the department is small in population, its accomplishments have been, well, astronomical. Indeed, as Cornell astronomers continue to lead the way in space sciences research, they will constantly be stepping into the future and opening windows on our universe.
 

Becky Orfinger is a sophomore biology and society major. Contrary to popular belief, you do NOT have to be pre-med if you are a bio major. She hopes to have a career in ethical law once she gets off the track and into the real world.

James Signorovitch is a writer on the SciTech lit team.