Final - August 28, 2002 - Green Bank Observatory
Catching the Waves of the Radio Universe
Script
|VIDEO |AUDIO |
|OPEN ANIMATION…FADES TO CAMPING SCENE |(MUSIC THAT REFLECTS THE WONDERMENT OF THE UNIVERSE) |
|COMPUTER ENHANCED VIEW OF NIGHT SKY. INTERCUT WITH FAMILY VIEWING |Title: The Green Bank Telescope: Catching the Waves of the Radio Universe |
|HEAVENS THROUGH TELESCOPE. | |
|THE FATHER POINTS TO/DESCRIBES VARIOUS CONSTELLATIONS as the children|(MUSIC UNDER DIALOGUE) |
|LOOK through a telescope. |Father: …”That faint band of light is the Milky Way. Running right along it is a |
| |pattern of stars that form a cross. That’s Cygnus the Swan. The head of the swan is|
| |a star called Albireo, and the tail is Deneb. See if you can find Albireowith the |
| |telescope, Jason.” |
| | |
| | |
| |(MUSIC UP FULL, THEN UNDER NARRATION) |
|THE FATHER CONTINUES EXPLAINING AS KIDS LOOK THROUGH TELESCOPE. |Narrator: The night sky makes us wonder about the universe and our role in it as |
| |human beings – how were stars and planets created? How old is the universe? Is there|
| |life beyond our solar system? |
| |Astronomers from all over the world use the Green Bank Telescope to find some |
| |answers. |
|CUT TO GBT |While optical telescopes give us an enhanced view of the visible universe, radio |
| |telescopes provide a deeper look at the cosmos. |
|SHOW gbt MOVING |Telescopes at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory capture and measure radio |
|Fade to “What are Radio Waves” Graphic |waves that are invisible to the human eye. |
|FADE TO ANIMATION – MONTAGE OF images of OBJECTS , FAMILIAR AND |All matter generates electromagnetic energy. Cosmic objects like planets and stars |
|ASTRONOMICAL - at different wavelengths |radiate energy across the electromagnetic spectrum. A tiny sliver of this energy |
| |is in the form of visible light, the colors from violet to red. Still other forms |
| |of energy exist, and differ only in their wavelength |
|ANIMATION OF ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM ADD ALL TYPES OF FREQUENCIES TO|Honey bees , using ultraviolet vision, see an inviting target in this flower. |
|ANIMATION |Light that is redder than red is called infrared. We feel its energy as heat. Much |
| |redder than infrared are the radio waves. |
| | |
|Show receivers at the top of telescope, computer equipment. |While you can’t “see” anything through a radio telescope, sensitive receivers and |
| |computers can. The goals of radio astronomy are similar to optical astronomy – to |
|Show series of images beginning with radio image of planets, the sun,|study the characteristics of objects emitting electromagnetic energy. Planets…, |
|supernova remnants, to radio galaxies. (high res images from the NRAO|exploded stars…,clouds of gas… and distant galaxies all emit radio waves. |
|image gallery web page) | |
|ANIMATION OF EM WAVES HITTING RADIO TELESCOPE DISH AND BEING DIRECTED|Radio telescopes may not look like other telescopes, but they are similar. The |
|TO FOCAL MIRROR…. THEN TO RECEIVER |large bowl shaped dish is a mirror to radio waves. Radio waves reflect from the dish|
| |surface to a focus where the radio astronomer places a sensitive radio receiver, |
|show picture of receiver room. |instead of a camera. |
|TRANSITION HERE |Like this neon sign which glows a characteristic red, molecules glow in specific |
|A neon sign flickers bright red. |radio “colors” or wavelengths. By tuning a radio telescope to the right wavelength,|
|animation of atoms and molecules emit certain wavelengths? |astronomers can probe the chemistry of the Milky Way and other regions of the |
| |universe. |
|Images of the Milky Way |ASTRONOMER (JIM DICKEY) |
| |00:00:37:19 “We are mapping the Milky Way galaxy using the spectral line of |
| |hydrogen. With radio waves we can tell what things are made of, but in different |
| |spectral lines. Hydrogen is one of the most common atoms in the universe, it is |
| |simplest atoms and it has a spectral line with a wavelength of 21 centimeters. |
| |That's about that long, a typical radio wavelength.” |
|Beautiful spiral galaxy. |Narration: Mapping the hydrogen in the Milky Way has led astronomers to conclude |
|Show where we live. |that we live in a spiral galaxy, out in the galactic “suburbs” on a spiral arm. |
|GIANT MOLECULAR CLOUD IN ORION OR THE EAGLE NEBULA |Radio astronomers have also peered into dark clouds where new stars are being |
| |formed. They have discovered that these clouds contain chemicals similar to those on|
|zoom into the dark area of the image. |earth. |
|CHRIS DEPREE |DEPREE: “One of the things I study is star formation in the galaxy and the regions |
|SUPER: NAME/TITLE |that I like to look at are regions that are deep inside molecular clouds. These |
| |regions are completely obscured optically. So if you were to point to an optical |
|OPTICAL IMAGES OF MOLECULAR CLOUDS |telescope at some of these regions, you would just see blank sky. You wouldn't see |
| |anything at all, where as a radio telescope will see deep down into those clouds |
|RADIO IMAGES OF MOLECULAR CLOUDS |because the radio waves don’t get absorbed by the gas in the same way the optical |
| |waves do. So you can see regions of space, you can see regions of the galaxy that |
| |you can’t see with an optical telescope.” |
| | |
|FADE TO “THE GREEN BANK TELESCOPE” GRAPHIC |MUSIC UNDER |
|GBT moving around |Narrator: Radio telescopes like the one at Green Bank, West Virginia, enable |
| |astronomers to cut through almost 30,000 light years of obscuring dust and observe |
|center of the galaxy |the very heart of our galaxy. They reveal huge clouds of gas moving at tremendous |
| |speeds. |
|parallel universes picture, zoom in, on one and “morph” a high |Much farther in the Universe than our own Milky Way, the Green Bank Telescope |
|resolution image of radio galaxy with jets |reveals some of the brightest radio objects known. The smudges and dots in this view|
| |of the radio sky aren’t the ordinary stars you see at night. Instead, they are |
| |galaxies and quasars; galaxies and quasars one, five, or even 10 billion light years|
| |away. |
| |Detailed images of these powerful galaxies show extensive jets of subatomic |
| |particles spewing tens of thousands of light years into space at nearly the speed of|
|animation of a black hole. |light. Within the cores of radio galaxies and quasars, we suspect the existence of |
| |massive black holes, objects with a gravitational field so strong that not even |
| |light can escape. |
|images of big bang, COBE data |Radio astronomers can peer back to a time, before stars and before galaxies when | |
|see |nothing filled the universe but the hot gases from the Big Bang. A trace of this | |
| |event lingers as a faint radio signal permeating the universe. | |
|TRANSITION HERE |The Green Bank Telescope may remind you of your TV satellite dish. But the GBT is |
| |millions of times more sensitive to incoming radio waves than your home electronics |
|HOME SATELLITE TV DISH |equipment. |
|CLOSE UP OF HAND TUNING RADIO. |(NATSOT OF STATIC) |
|CONTINUE WITH CLOSE OF HAND TUNING RADIO |Narrator: Imagine tuning in a typical radio station 10 miles away. The signal you |
|NASA animation? |receive will be only a few thousands of a watt. But the Green Bank Telescope |
| |detects radio waves from space that are a billion, billion times weaker; weak |
| |because of the vast distances they travel. |
|EXTERIOR OF GREEN BANK TELESCOPE, LOOKING DOWN ON DISH. |Since radio waves from space are such weak signals, astronomers need large, very |
|DISSOLVE TO DOWNWARD VIEW OF BUCKET WITH DROPS POURING INTO IT, THEN |sensitive telescopes like the one at Green Bank to ‘catch the waves.’ Just as a |
|BACK TO DISH. |bigger bucket collects more raindrops, bigger radio telescopes collect more radio |
| |energy and can see farther. |
|SHOT OF MASSIVE GBT DISH |Its 100 by 110-meter, steerable dish has an area of 2.3 acres. That could easily |
|Show imagery on size of dish such as |hold a football field! |
|Mountaineer Football game on dish | |
|GBT | |
| |Weighing in at 17 million pounds and 485 feet tall, the GBT is one of the largest, |
| |moving structures on land |
| | |
|animated graphic of lasers scanning the GBT dish. tHIS WILL COME FROM|Narrator: Despite its size, the Green Bank telescope is incredibly accurate. The |
|pHOTOSYNTHESIS iNC. |telescope can be pointed with an accuracy of 1 arcsecond – that’s like being able to|
| |see the individual pepperoni on a pizza from 3 miles away. |
| | |
| |The telescope is designed to study radio waves ranging from 3 meters in wavelength |
| |to a tiny 3 mm in wavelength. In order to detect these smallest of radio waves, the|
| |surface of the Green Bank Telescope must be perfect. Extremely sensitive lasers scan|
| |the surface and provide data to 2000 motors that position the reflector panels to a |
| |precision of one-tenth of a millimeter. That’s smaller than the period at the end |
| |of a sentence. |
|show this sentence | |
|That’s smaller than the period at the end of a sentence. | |
|FADE TO “LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION” GRAPHIC |MUSIC UNDER |
|ASTRONOMER IN CONTROL ROOM CONTROLLING DISH… |The ability of the GBT to detect extremely faint signals is a blessing and also a |
| |curse. It means that it is sensitive to man-made radio signals as well. |
|…TO DISH TURNING IN NEW DIRECTION | |
|ASTRONOMER IN CONTROL ROOM (Super Name/Title showing data again) |ASTRONOMER (JIM DICKEY): “Interference is a big, big problem in radio astronomy. It|
| |is a terrible problem that is getting worse and worse all the time. Interference is |
| |signals, which come into the telescope, but they don't come from space, they come |
|SHOW COMPUTER SCREEN WITH INTERFERENCE SPIKE |from artificial things like radars. Here's a line for example, right here in my |
| |spectrum, which fortunately is a little bit spaced, but it could have come right on |
| |top of my signal. That line could come from a radar maybe, thousands of miles away |
| |or it could come from somebody's cell phone, or microwave oven in the valley. It |
| |could even come from something like an electric fence or a car engine. |
|CELL PHONE OR MICROWAVE | |
| | |
|CAR ENGINE RUNNING | |
| | |
| | |
|View SURROUNDING GBT… AND UP TO THE RECEIVER, HUNDREDS OF FEET HIGH. |Narrator: Both the design of the GBT and its location in Green Bank help to reduce |
| |interference. The Green Bank Telescope is located in the National Radio Quiet Zone,|
| |a national preserve for radio astronomy. The Quiet Zone and surrounding mountains |
| |protect GBT receivers against most unwanted manmade interference. |
| |(MUSIC UNDER NARRATOR) |
| |Perhaps the most interesting question the human species ever asks is “Are we alone?”|
|TRANSITION |Unable to travel interstellar distances, we have only one tool currently capable of |
| |answering this question: the radio telescope. From Green Bank, astronomer Frank |
|GBT RADIO SIGNALS COMING INTO CONTROL ROOM |Drake conducted the first radio frequency search for a beacon from other |
| |civilizations. |
| |In a way, Earth is also a radio beacon. |
|ANIMATION OF RADIO SIGNALS FROM EARTH WITH FUZZY HISTORICAL |Since Drake began the search for extra terrestrial intelligence, our own radio |
|SOUNDBITES AND IMAGES FROM ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW |signals have been traveling into space at the speed of light. Faint echoes of early|
| |TV shows are now more than 50 light years away. |
|. |SOUNDBITES FROM THE OLD ANDY GRIFFITH SHOWS – “Gee, Paw!” |
|IMAGES SPREAD OUT FARTHER THAN THE 50-YEAR SPHERE, GROWING MORE FAINT|Narrator: If other civilizations are broadcasting signals like we are, radio |
| |telescopes could one day detect an extraterretrial version of “Andy Griffith” |
| | |
|Family at GBT looking raptly up at beautiful telescope |The search continues. |
| |Armed with groundbreaking technology, astronomers at Green Bank continue to make |
| |spectacular discoveries as they gaze ever deeper into space. |
| | |
| |The Green Bank Telescope: reaching new frontiers… from the solar system to the edge |
|DISSOLVE TO Telescope |of the universe. |
|CREDITS/FADE TO BLACK |(MUSIC UP FULL TO END) |
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