It's been 70 years in the making .... Space: The Final Frontier

 

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Radio Astronomy Celebration with Doc Ewen & Ed Purcell

My message today is one of thanks and humble gratitude. Many people from Harvard University, National Radio Astronomy Observatory, Green Bank Observatory, and others have been instrumental in support, advice, guidance, and most importantly encouragement. [ Avi, Jim, Ken, Whitham, and many others ... Thank you !]  It was 70 years ago that Harold "Doc" Ewen, Ph.D. (my father) with his Harvard University thesis advisor Ed Purcell, Ph.D., on March 25, 1951, had a defining impact in a specific field of science. It was the first observation and detection of neutral interstellar hydrogen.  What has and continues to follow is tremendous growth not imaginable back in 1951.     And now it is time to celebrate and give proper recognition as we near a special day, Thursday, March 25, 2021. It was in August of 2019 when I had been working with a research scientist in Moscow, Russia on international communications. We had thought that scientific events in history should ...
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Harvard University Detection of galactic hydrogen in 1951 with Ewen

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   Dr. Harold I. Ewen ("Doc Ewen"), working with Dr. Edward M. Purcell at Harvard in 1951, detected radiation from galactic hydrogen at 1420 Mc/sec. From 1952-1958 he was Co-Director of the Harvard Radio Astronomy Program; during that time he was a member of the committees that recommended establishment by the National Science Foundation of a national facility for radio astronomy, and also recommended Green Bank WV as the best site for what became National Radio Astronomy Observatory.  The hydrogen line, 21-centimeter line is the electromagnetic radiation spectral line that is created by a change in the energy state of neutral hydrogen atoms. This electromagnetic radiation is at the precise frequency of 1,420,405,751.7667±0.0009 Hz which is equivalent to the vacuum wavelength of 21.1061140542 cm in free space. This wavelength falls within the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum, and it is observed frequently in radio astronomy, since those radio waves can pen...
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