COSMIC SECRETS

It is enough to leave the house on a clear night and look up – what you see unfolds before the eyes of every Earthling. If a person is sensitive to the beauty of the universe, he or she will see the stars and begin to reflect or wonder about what is going on around us.

I wonder whether this will surprise you or not, but I am exactly the same as every other person on Earth and everyone sees the same thing. I am taken aback first and foremost by the beauty of the night sky and the various phenomena that can be seen with the naked eye. Even now I am amazed, although it is familiar subject matter for me, that by looking at the sky and taking a moment to reflect, we can answer a host of fundamental questions in astrophysics. These are answers that can be found without the use of any specialist instruments or special knowledge. A basic education suffices.

Certainly not. One of those questions is: why is it dark at night? I imagine that nearly everyone would answer that question instinctively: simply because the sun sets and it gets dark. But this is incorrect. The point is that if our universe were incomplete in this respect and was never created, then the entire sky would glow just as our sun does. That is the answer. It is obvious a question worth pondering.

This is clearly an enormously intriguing question and at the moment one without an answer, although there are increasing signs in the heavens and on Earth (not entirely astronomically speaking) which indicate that life – at least in its primitive forms – may be quite common throughout the universe, but on the level of very simple bacteria and simple organisms. However, in terms of more complex, advanced organisms – not to mention those which are gifted with intelligence – the situation is different. This kind of life may be much rarer.

In that case what is the universe hiding since we are able to see so much?

The cosmos hides itself. Although, on the other hand, it cannot hide anything from being that have the curiosity and enough technology to examine it. Then the universe reveals its secrets one by one. Of course, these discoveries do not come easily. If we imagine that suddenly our sight could be transformed into one that is sensitive to radio waves – the sky would look completely different, but still be beautiful. Therefore, people have to expand their range of vision with the help of science and technology. Every technological revolution brings us closer to discovering new secrets of the cosmos and the universe.

We don’t know, perhaps it is only fantasy. If these civilizations exist then – I imagine – that they must be incredibly rare and therefore there is no reason to believe that they will be similar to ours. Even if we agree, as most astrobiologists do, that for various reasons life should be based on carbon and the same chemical foundations as ours, we imagine that the beginnings of life on Earth could have been different on Earth. We don’t know what life forms would have taken over the planet. They would probably been very different from us.

I have no idea. That is a difficult question, although undoubtedly it would be a very, very interesting encounter.

Can you provide a simple explanation of the nature of your pulsar discovery?

Stars, similar to other living creatures, are born, evolve and die. A pulsar is a dead star. However, if we observe constantly, we discover that it is not as dead as we believed. Nonetheless, this is the final product in the evolution of a massive star, which at the end of its life for various reasons – which we believe we understand – implodes and then explodes. As a result of this process, which we call a supernova, an object with a diameter of 20 km is created that spins rapidly and weighs one and half times that of the sun. This is an entirely normal astrophysical object, the remains of a star. Around this object, to our amazement, revolve planets – not only around normal stars, but also around pulsars. How do we know this? Not from direct observation, since planets are too small, too far and their glow too weak to see them directly (although at some point this may be possible). We conclude this because the gravitation of a star in the center of the planetary system makes planets revolve around it and these planets, although they are quite small and not massive, also exert a gravitational pull on the star. Therefore, it also begins to spin, slowly and on a small scale, in space. We observe the star’s rotation thanks to the presence of planets revolving around it and based on this – indirectly – we deduce the presence of planets. This is a process so well tested that nearly every potential planet, and to date we have discovered more than 150, turns out to be a planet in fact.

It was an accident. I was looking for something completely different. I would say it was an accident of a multifaceted nature in the sense that first the large telescope in Puerto Rico at Arecibo Observatory broke unexpectedly and then the line of great minds waiting to use the instrument disappeared. The malfunction as it turned out was not complete and so I was given a great deal of freedom in using it for observation. The situation was unusual: the largest radio telescope in the world was at my disposal for three weeks! So I was looking for pulsars and entirely by coincidence one of them turned out to be an object with planets. Obviously, determining that it had planets took me nearly a year of painstaking observation and investigation: why was it behaving so strangely? Finally, I was successful.

Eight years and it was probably the most beautiful, interesting and fruitful period – in many respects – in my life. It was a kind of heaven in a way – an island that is slightly isolated from the rest of the world. There, one has the impression that one is isolated from the terrible problems of the world and that one has a chance to encounter great science as well as incredible, unbelievably friendly people. The tropical climate also offers a wide range of opportunities for spending free time. It is difficult to imagine a better combination and I regret that it only lasted eight years. I am always going back.

I don’t deserve it – that was my first reaction and I still feel that way. However, anyone on the list can say the same thing. There are few immodest enough to say: yes, I deserve to be included on the list. I didn’t have to be, but the fact that I am gives me enormous pleasure. Not to mention being in the company of greatness and alongside names that I do not have the courage to mention, which is very satisfying.

Truly, I am not thinking about this.

A number of events have led me to Penn State. Whatever else may be said, this is a university where astronomy thrives. Moreover, its position is also significant.

In one sense, yes. I am trying to make a sensible contribution in the improvement and development of regional science – and not only in Poland. My goal is the growth of education, the popularization of science. In Szczecin, for example, we created the Western Pomorskie Noble, which we award every year in honor of outstanding scientific achievement. For five years this has been an excellent, prestigious local event involving province authorities. Cooperation, the use of scientific research for the needs and good of the local community, is starting to bring interesting results.

I am up to my ears in the NASA satellite program, whose aim is to find a planet similar to Earth. NASA is building a satellite telescope so sensitive that with its help we will be able to see such planets in the vicinity of stars. This is something of which we do not yet have knowledge. To date we have discovered great, massive planets such as Jupiter and Saturn, while small planets like our Earth have remained unidentified due to a lack of the proper instruments. The NASA satellite will make this discovery possible.

Dr Konacki discovered a planet in a triple star constellation. This is incredible and it will not be easy to explain how the planet was able to gain such a tight orbit around its star and overcome the gravity of the two other stars. This discovery is the perfect illustration that planets around other stars can exist with greater frequency than we previously thought. Of course, this is yet another discovery made by a Polish astronomer, which is great news.

No.

Absolutely. For the time being and perhaps for all time – the word always should be avoided, despite the enormous temptation to use it. Those who believe that science has exhausted its capabilities and has nothing more to say couldn’t be more wrong.

ALEKSANDER WOLSZCZAN, age 59, Polish radio astronomer and astrophysicist, researcher of pulsars. A graduate of the astronomy department at the Nicolaj Copernicus University in Torun (1969). There he also earned a doctoral degree in physics (1975) for his work on pulsar spectrums. Associated for many years with American astronomy centers. Since 1992 he has worked as a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Pennsylvania.

Professor Wolszczan is a member of many scientific associations, among others the American Astronomical Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Union of Radio Science and the International Astronomical Union.

This Polish professor made the discovery of the century, a pulsar, in 1990, working on the largest radio telescope in the world (with a diameter of 305 meters) in Arecibo in Puerto Rico.

DECYDENT & DECISION MAKER no. 67, June 2006