Four Pillars of Radio Astronomy: Mills, Christiansen, Wild, Bracewell
by R.H. Frater and W.M. Goss
Springer | November 2017 | ISBN-10: 3319655981 | ePUB/True PDF | 209 Pages | 8.70/13.8 mb
https://www.amazon.com/Four-Pillars-Radio-Astronomy-Christiansen/dp/3319655981
This is the story of Bernie Mills, Chris Christiansen, Paul Wild and Ron Bracewell, members of a team of radio astronomers that would lead Australia, and the world, into this new field of research. Each of the four is remembered for his remarkable work: Mills for the development the cross type instrument that now bears his name; Christiansen for the application of rotational synthesis techniques; Wild for the masterful joining of observations and theory to elicit the nature of the solar atmosphere; Bracewell for his contribution to imaging theory.
As well, these Four Pillars are remembered for creating a remarkable environment for scientific discovery and for influencing the careers of future generations. Their pursuit of basic science helped pave the way for technological developments in areas ranging from Wi-Fi to sonar to medical imaging to air navigation, and for underpinning the foundations of modern cosmology and astrophysics.
CONTENTS
1 Introduction . . . 1
2 Beginnings: Some Basics and Some History . . . 7
3 BernieMills: Cross-Type Telescopes and Discrete Radio Sources . . . 23
4 Chris Christiansen: Telescope Design and Earth-Rotational Synthesis . . . 59
5 Paul Wild: Radio Astronomy and the Sun . . . 91
6 Ron Bracewell: Mathematics and Imaging . . . 131
7 Influences of the Four Pillars Beyond Radio Astronomy . . . 153
8 Conclusions . . . 167
Appendix A: What Is a Radio Telescope? . . . 169
Appendix B: Paul Wild: The Beer Disaster of November 1957 . . . 181
Appendix C: Supercomputing Cluster . . . 183
Appendix D: Time Line of Key Events . . . 185
Appendix E: Dramatis Personae for Four Pillars of Radio Astronomy . . . 189
Appendix F: Abbreviations . . . 193
Index . . . 195
