Daily Image
20-05-2009
Astron turns 60
| Submitter: | Tom Oosterloo |
| Description: | On May 12, Astron organised festivities to celebrate its 60-th anniversary: in 1949, Jan Oort, Marcel Minnaert and Jaap Houtgast formally registered the "Stichting Radiostraling van Zon en Melkweg", the forerunner of Astron, as a foundation under Dutch law (see also daily images of the 58-th and of the 59-th birthday). A large crowd, including many former employees, gathered in Dwingeloo. As is fitting on such occasions, General Director Mike Garrett recalled many of the past successes of Astron. For the entire 60 years, Astron, with the Dwingeloo dish in the 50's and 60's and the Westerbork Array in the 70's and after, has been one of the main institutes for radio astronomy in the world. In this perspective, Astron is at a very important moment: Astron's third major project, Lofar, is about to start observing in earnest. There is little doubt that the impact of Lofar will be huge and that Astron will remain at the forefront of radio astronomy for a long time to come. The highlight of the day was the lecture given by Prof. Vincent Icke. In front of an attentive audience, he explained how some of the basic properties of the universe can be understood, sometimes using only very basic principles. But sometimes concepts were less straightforward, for example that perhaps the universe is such that when we add up all the mass, energy and whatever else there is in it, it all adds up to nothing and that we live in an empty universe. The lecture was delivered with high pace and density and, although the role of Lofar and SKA could perhaps have been stressed a bit more, was very much enjoyed by the audience. |
| Copyright: | Astron (photo Harm Jan Stiepel) |
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