A peep at planetary births
BRITAIN is to spend L29.5 million over the next 10 years on an international project to enable astronomers to witness the birth of a planet.
The project, Gemini, involves setting up two eight-metre telescopes that will detect both planets in the making as well as stars being formed in galactic clouds. The telescopes are to be built in Hawaii and Chile by Britain, in conjunction with the US, Argentina, Brazil and Chile.
Gemini project officials expect the Hawaiian telescope to be operational by 1998 and the one in Chile by 2000. Once operational, the Gemini project will enable scientists to journey into the past halfway to the beginning of time. They will then be able to detect the birth of galaxies billions of years ago, observe in fine detail the formation of nearby stars, and detect the birth of planetary systems.
Each telescope will have a unique combination of light-gathering power and image quality in the infra-red, visible light and ultraviolet ranges. Arnold Wolfendale, the royal astronomer and head of the UK's planetary science board, says the telescopes will be superior to the Hubble space telescope, generally accepted as the most advanced at the present.
Superior to Hubble The Gemini telescopes, says Wolfendale, will be sensitive enough to analyse the chemical composition of stars and of inter-stellar gas. They can also be used to view quasars -- luminous, quasi-stellar objects that have been a puzzle to scientists for decades. Optical telescopes can detect only a few quasars, but Gemini will enable astronomers to see more than 100.
Astronomers need the two telescopes to cover the whole sky and they say that with an eight-metre aperture they should be able to receive detailed resolution of even the most distant objects.