Cosmic Noise
A History of Early Radio Astronomy

A definitive history of the formative years of radio astronomy for historians of science, scientists and engineers.

Woodruff T. Sullivan, III (Author)

9780521765244, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 November 2009

574 pages, 132 b/w illus.
25.3 x 18.3 x 3 cm, 1.38 kg

'Some readers will appreciate the book for its close attention to the dynamics of discipline formation, others for the careful explanation of how a research tradition shifts from little science to big science … Sullivan's care in constructing and cross-referencing bibliography and his index make any number of themes, figures, and developments readily available. The appendix on the techniques, advantages, and pitfalls of conducting oral history interviews is an excellent essay that anyone working in oral history should read … Cosmic Noise is a fine book that deserves a broad readership.' Craig Sean McConnell, Journal for the History of Astronomy

Providing a definitive history of the formative years of radio astronomy, this book is invaluable for historians of science, scientists and engineers. The whole of worldwide radio and radar astronomy is covered, beginning with the discoveries by Jansky and Reber of cosmic noise before World War II, through the wartime detections of solar noise, the discovery of radio stars, lunar and meteor radar experiments, the detection of the hydrogen spectral line, to the discoveries of Hey, Ryle, Lovell and Pawsey in the decade following the war, revealing an entirely different sky from that of visual astronomy. Using contemporary literature, correspondence and photographs, the book tells the story of the people who shaped the intellectual, technical, and social aspects of the field now known as radio astronomy. The book features quotes from over a hundred interviews with pioneering radio astronomers, giving fascinating insights into the development of radio astronomy. Woodruff T. Sullivan III has been awarded the 2012 Leroy E. Doggett Prize for Historical Astronomy.

1. Prologue
2. Searching for solar hertzian waves
3. Jansky and his star static
4. Grote Reber: science in your backyard
5. Wartime discovery of the radio sun
6. Hey's army group after the war
7.Radiophysics laboratory, Sydney
8. Ryle's group at the Cavendish
9. Lovell at Jodrell Bank
10. Other radio astronomy groups before 1952
11. Meteor radar
12. Reaching for the moon
13. The radio sun
14. Radio stars
15. Theories of galactic noise
16. The 21-cm hydrogen line
17. New astronomers
18. A new astronomy
Appendixes
References
Index.

Subject Areas: History of engineering & technology [TBX], Astrophysics [PHVB], History of science [PDX]