Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 1997
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997ieees..34...31b&link_type=abstract
IEEE Spectrum, vol. 34, p. 31
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Units Of Measurement, Radar Astronomy, Astrometry, Planet Ephemerides, Histories, Venus Radar Echoes, Radar Echoes, Distance, Electrical Engineering, Sun
Scientific paper
This article traces the historical development of the scientific endeavor known today as planetary radar astronomy. Developments in this field, such as the precise determination of the value of the astronomical unit (AU), or the Earth's mean distance to the sun, were actually accomplished by electrical engineers at laboratories set up to conduct military R&D, not astronomical inquiry. The development of the Millstone Hill radar in Westford, MA, by MIT engineers at Lincoln Laboratories is reviewed. The Millstone Hill radar was eventually used to bounce radio waves off of the planet Venus once a method was determined to separate the return echoes from the background noise. By integrating the Venus-return pulses over time through digital signal processing equipment assembled by MIT doctoral students Robert Price and Paul E. Green, Jr., the Millstone Hill radar could detect radar signals bounced off Venus. Experiments conducted using a maser installed at Millstone Hill during a time of inferior conjunction with Venus on February 10 and 12, 1958 are reported. The Lincoln Laboratory results were confirmed by radio astronomers at England's Jodrell Bank observatory during the following conjunction in September 1959. In March of 1961, by way of Project Echo satellite communications, the results obtained in 1958 and 1959 were able to be corroborated by the experimenters. Due to these developments, a more precise determination of the AU was instigated by the International Astronomical Union as a result of experiments conducted by Lincoln Laboratories and JPL in March 1961, which found measurements of the AU which agreed very closely to one another. Thus, the then 50-year-old system of astronomical constants was on its way to being revised, and a new value of the AU, 149,600,000 km, was adopted at a general meeting in Hamburg in 1964, thanks to the new science of planetary radar astronomy.
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