Rundetaarn, the Niels Bohr Institute, and exoplanets
Posted: Sat May 28, 2011 7:27 pm
Today I've been in Copenhagen with the astronomy club I belong to.
We started by visiting Rundetårn. The name means "Round Tower". Construction of the tower begun in 1636, and it was finished in 1642. The purpose of the tower was to house the Observatory of Copenhagen. There is actually still a small observatory with a 15-centimeter refractor on the roof of Rundetaarn, although it is only used for demonstrations for the general public.
There are no stairs inside Rundetårn, but a spiral ramp instead:
Tsar Peter the Great rode his horse up the spiral ramp of Rundetaarn twice! The photo is by Daniel Nielsen.
The construction of Rundetårn was greatly inspired by world famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, who in 1573 demonstrated that the supernova of 1572 showed no parallax, and therefore was farther away than planet Saturn. A guide showed us how Tycho Brahe learned to recognize the constellations. He had a really tiny globe no bigger than a smallish apple. To make this globe Tycho Brahe had purchased a small sheet of paper showing the constellations. He then had the small globe made, and then he glued the paper with the constellations onto the globe! Then he sat with this tiny globe in his hand and compared the sky with the globe!
After seeing Rundetårn, our group went to the Niels Bohr Institute. Niels Bohr is, of course, "the father of quantum physics", and we heard an interesting lecture about this great man. It was even more fun, however, to hear a lecture by a man who works at the Niels Bohr Institute, but whose chief field of expertise is exoplanets, Uffe Graae Jørgensen:
According to Professor Graae Jørgensen, every sun in the same general part of the galaxy as the Sun has, on average, 2.5 planets. And one out of every ten stars has a planet in its habitable zone, again according to Graae Jørgensen. Of course, the Danish professor still believed that very few of the planets in the habitable zone are in fact habitable, and even fewer are in fact inhabited. Well, that was his professional opinion, bnut of course, it is still just an opinion.
The members of my astronomy club had a very interesting and enjoyable day in Copenhagen!
Ann
We started by visiting Rundetårn. The name means "Round Tower". Construction of the tower begun in 1636, and it was finished in 1642. The purpose of the tower was to house the Observatory of Copenhagen. There is actually still a small observatory with a 15-centimeter refractor on the roof of Rundetaarn, although it is only used for demonstrations for the general public.
There are no stairs inside Rundetårn, but a spiral ramp instead:
Tsar Peter the Great rode his horse up the spiral ramp of Rundetaarn twice! The photo is by Daniel Nielsen.
The construction of Rundetårn was greatly inspired by world famous Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe, who in 1573 demonstrated that the supernova of 1572 showed no parallax, and therefore was farther away than planet Saturn. A guide showed us how Tycho Brahe learned to recognize the constellations. He had a really tiny globe no bigger than a smallish apple. To make this globe Tycho Brahe had purchased a small sheet of paper showing the constellations. He then had the small globe made, and then he glued the paper with the constellations onto the globe! Then he sat with this tiny globe in his hand and compared the sky with the globe!
After seeing Rundetårn, our group went to the Niels Bohr Institute. Niels Bohr is, of course, "the father of quantum physics", and we heard an interesting lecture about this great man. It was even more fun, however, to hear a lecture by a man who works at the Niels Bohr Institute, but whose chief field of expertise is exoplanets, Uffe Graae Jørgensen:
According to Professor Graae Jørgensen, every sun in the same general part of the galaxy as the Sun has, on average, 2.5 planets. And one out of every ten stars has a planet in its habitable zone, again according to Graae Jørgensen. Of course, the Danish professor still believed that very few of the planets in the habitable zone are in fact habitable, and even fewer are in fact inhabited. Well, that was his professional opinion, bnut of course, it is still just an opinion.
The members of my astronomy club had a very interesting and enjoyable day in Copenhagen!
Ann