Questions about the universe and our place in it have long inspired
poets, artists, scientists, and indeed all of mankind.  Moreover,
technological advances made in the last ten years have revealed clues and
delivered answers that have completely reshaped our thinking and
understanding about the universe.

The NASA Hubble Space Telescope is perhaps the most ambitious and fruitful
of man's space explorations.  On its distant journey past Pluto and into
the nether-regions beyond our own Solar System, the magnificent images and
insights delivered from the Hubble are now brought to our eyes in a
stunning exhibition at The Midland Center for the Arts entitled Cosmic

Questions: Our Place in Space  & Time, along with the Arts Midland
Galleries & School exhibit, Heavens Above: Photographs of the Universe from
the Hubble Space Telescope.

Apart for being a coup for the Center in terms of being the first place to
assemble and present a major 5,000 square foot exhibit of this nature
featuring such a vast array of Hubble images, the program has also drawn
some of the most respected contemporary scientists and astronomers on the
cutting-edge of space research.

Recently the Review spoke with Dr. Gregory Wirth of the Keck Observatory in
Hawaii, who appeared at the Center on March 20th.  The Keck is the largest
optical/infrared telescope in the world, and a unique interactive component
of this current exhibit in Midland affords visitors to maneuver the Keck
telescope at Mauna Kea to take an image of the night sky and then send that
image to themselves via e-mail.

On display through May 4th, this awe-inspiring assembly of images and
knowledge is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that should not be
missed.

The Review hopes this interview will help you savor, digest, and better
comprehend the significance, complexity, and simplicity of the
mind-expanding images currently on display at The Midland Center for the
Arts.

Review:  What do you feel are the biggest advances made in astronomy over
the past decade and how do you feel they impact our understanding of the
universe?

Dr. Wirth: Of the key astronomical discoveries made within the last ten
years, I think the single most important has been the enormous progress
we've achieved in understanding the history and fate of our universe.

To many, the ultimate goal of astronomy is to answer the questions "Why are
we here?" and "What is our fate?"  In the last decade two independent lines
of reasoning, one involving measurements of distant supernovae (exploding
stars) from telescopes on Earth, and another using satellites orbiting
Earth to measure the faint echoes of the Big Bang by observing "microwave
background" radiation, have both given evidence that strongly suggests that
the answer is more complex than many of us thought.

The accepted wisdom ten years ago said that the universe was "flat" and
that the expansion of the universe was thus slowing down and would nearly
stop at some point far in the distant future, billions of years from now.

A sizable minority adhered to a contrasting view that the expansion of the
universe was not slowing down at all, and that it would keep expanding
forever.  The key discovery made by both the groups studying Supernovae and
those measuring the microwave background is that expansion isn't slowing
down *or* staying the same, it's actually speeding up!

This idea was first suggested by Albert Einstein back in the 1920's, but
few --- including Einstein himself in later years --- ever expected his
prediction to be verified.  Now most astronomers believe that there won't
be an eventual "Big Crunch" in which the universe will collapse.

A second key discovery deals with a more local issue: the discovery of
planets around nearby stars.  A decade ago the only planets we knew of were
those in our own solar system.

Now, thanks to the hard work of some incredibly dedicated observing teams,
we have discovered over 100 planets orbiting other stars in our galaxy.
And although we are not
yet able to detect small planets like Earth, it's only a matter of time
before we develop that capability.

It will be interesting to learn how common planets like our own are in the
Universe, and thus what the prospects for finding other life in the
Universe are.

Review:  Are there any discoveries that have been made by the Hubble, or
through the research of yourself and fellow colleagues, that have changed
or redefined popular conceptions or misconceptions about the universe?

Dr. Wirth: The recent discovery of scores of planets orbiting nearby stars

has obliterated the popular idea that our Solar System contained the only
planets in existence.

The majority of these so-called "extra-solar planets" discovered to date
have been found by astronomers using the Keck telescopes, and we're proud
that our institution has enabled this amazing discovery.

Review:  Can you tell me a bit about the Keck telescope? When was it
developed, how does it work, and how does it expand upon technology
previously available?

Dr. Wirth: The W. M. Keck Observatory operates twin telescopes at the
summit of Mauna Kea, a nearly 14,000-ft high dormant volcano on the Big
Island of Hawaii.  Each telescope has a main, or "primary," mirror which is
10-meters across, making them the largest telescopes of their kind in the
world.

The Keck I telescope saw "first light" in April 1993, and Keck II came
online in 1996. Before the giant Keck telescopes, the largest telescope in
the western world was the venerable 200-inch (5-meter) telescope at Mt.
Palomar in California which was built shortly after World War II.

By providing twice the diameter, and thus four times the light-gathering
power, of the next largest telescope, the Keck telescopes represented a
quantum leap in telescope technology.

As the size of a mirror grows, the difficulty in manufacturing it increases
exponentially.  Nobody has yet succeeded in building a mirror 10 meters in
diameter using a single piece of glass.  The reason for Keck's success is
primarily due to the vision of Dr. Jerry Nelson, a researcher at U. C.
Berkeley who in the 1980s refined the concept of using a number of smaller
mirrors to act like one big mirror.

Thus, the Keck telescopes each use 36 "segments" shaped like hexagons to
form one giant mirror. The project was a huge technical challenge because
the mirrors must be exquisitely aligned -- computers are used to
continuously adjust the position of each mirror segment to align them
within a distance of 4 nanometers, or about 1/25,000 the diameter of a
human hair.

Only by the use of this cutting-edge engineering technology can the many
pieces of the Keck mirror be made to act like one giant piece of glass.
The result is the most powerful ground-based telescope on the planet.

Review:  The more we learn about the nature of the universe, do you feel
there is less or more that we understand and comprehend about it? I know
that astronomy and physics often go hand-in-hand, so do you feel that we
are getting closer to proving or disproving Einstein's 'Unified Field'
theory?

Dr. Wirth: Good question!  The most interesting discoveries do tend to
raise questions as well as answer them.  While we're clearly making
progress in understanding the Universe, we do continue to appreciate how
much more there is to know.

Review:  What do you feel are the biggest challenges facing your profession
today?

Dr. Wirth: We are in the midst of a "golden age" for astronomy, with new
observations from both space- and ground-based telescopes having given us
enormous volumes of new information about the Universe.

Our immediate problem is learning to cope with the prodigious amounts of
data which new telescopes are capable of providing.  Much of the work of
analyzing astronomical data is rather laborious and not automated.

For example, it's not uncommon for an observer at the Keck telescope to
take a year to analyze data which were acquired in just a single night!  In
the future, astronomers will need to either invest significant effort in
developing automated tools for processing their data, or risk being
inundated with more data than they can handle.

The second problem is that we seem to be nearing a limit in the size of the
telescopes we can build.

In the last 20 years we've been able to make easy progress in observational
astronomy by either building bigger telescopes (e.g., Keck) or exploring
previously unprobed wavelengths of light using new satellites in space.

It's been a period analogous to the great expansion of the USA in the last
century, when vast new territories were first explored.  Now the easy
pickings are nearly gone: we've explored these new wavelength regimes
already, and building larger telescopes will require substantial resources
in terms of money and technology which will not necessarily materialize
soon.

So our challenge for the near future is to find ways to squeeze more
performance out of our existing generation of large telescopes.

This will involve both: (1) improving the instruments we use with these
telescopes so that the we collect more of the light which presently goes
undetected, thus improving the quantity of data; and (2) improving the data
quality both through techniques that allow us to achieve sharper focus in
our data by removing the effects of atmospheric blur (a method known as
"adaptive optics"), and by deploying new technology which allows us to
combine the light from multiple telescopes to act like one huge telescope
(interferometry).

Review:  People often think of astronomy as an 'esoteric' occupation, but
can you tell me practical applications that have been discerned that you
feel impact society?

Dr. Wirth: Any attempt to justify the pursuit of astronomy on the basis of
practical or economic benefit is likely to fail.

Astronomy won't by itself put a chicken in anybody's pot, for example!
Although the pursuit of astronomy does drive some cutting-edge
technologies, that's not the reason we study the Universe.

We as a society should support astronomy for the same reasons we support
and celebrate great art and music --- because they represent the very
greatest achievements of the human mind and uplift our spirits.

This theme is reflected in the vision statement for the Keck Observatory:
"A world in which all humankind is inspired and united by the pursuit of
knowledge of the infinite variety and richness of the Universe".

I think that at a time in which our nation appears is at war, reflecting on
the grandeur of the Universe provides an important perspective in the
ultimate significance of humanity's problems.

How can one put a price on that?

______________________________________________________________________

Watch for part two of this series in the next edition of The Review.
Cosmic Questions & Heavens Above: Photographs of the Universe Taken from
the Hubble Space Telescope is currently on display daily from 10 am to 6
PM; Thursdays from 10 AM to 9 PM. Tickets are $4.00 for adults and $2.00
for children and may be purchased at the door of the Center, 1801 W. St.
Andrews Rd., Midland. Guided tours are available daily at 11 AM and 2 PM.
For additional information, phone 800-523-7649.