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From Pitch Lakes to Time and Evolution in the Cosmos: Astronomy at UWI

by Shirin Haque

“All of us are in the gutter – but some of us are looking at the stars” – Oscar Wilde

It was a total treat for us in Trinidad when John Hearnshaw, Professor of Astronomy, University of Canterbury, New Zealand, Chairperson of Commission 46 Program Group for the World-wide Development of Astronomy (PGWWDA) decided to come to Trinidad for one week in December 4 to 11, 2005 to assess the status of astronomy here in Trinidad. This was a joint effort of the Department of Physics and CARINA – the Caribbean Institute of Astronomy.

It was a delightful week, with radio and television appearances for our New Zealander – Prof. John Hearnshaw, culminating in a well attended public lecture on ‘Time and evolution in the cosmos’. It was a packed week, in exposing the professor to outreach, education and the research in astronomy that is taking place in Trinidad. Visits to the National Science Center, to the SATU observatory at UWI and SEAS observatory in Tobago, departmental seminars, public lectures and meeting with the Trinidad and Tobago Astronomical Society and with students of astronomy were all slotted into one week.

But the week started off on a less than perfect footing when the professor arrived in Trinidad with his baggage lost and with an advisory from the news channel CNC3 to not dress in blue for his television interview. And as serendipity would have it, an undaunted, smiling professor emerged from the airport with lost baggage and you guessed it … dressed in blue.

At the public lecture, Prof. Hearnshaw enthralled the audience with taking them on a journey on “Time and evolution in the cosmos”. He showed how the ages of different bodies, like the Earth, Moon, meteorites, solar system, globular clusters, white dwarfs, Milky Way and the universe was determined historically and at present. The talk culminated in showing that the age of the solar system ~ 4,500 million years (from radioactivity of uranium), the age of the Milky Way ~ 9,000 million years (from radioactivity of uranium), the age of globular clusters ~ 11,500 million years (from rate of nuclear reaction in stars), age of Milky Way ~ 9300 million years (from cooling of white dwarfs), age of the universe ~ 13,500 million years (from expansion of the universe) and age of the universe = 13,700 million years (from density fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background radiation). The amazing fact is that all six ages are to the same order of magnitude and all come from entirely independent methods. To quote Professor Hearnshaw, “This represents a triumph for modern astronomy!”

Later in the week, a departmental seminar on “Techniques for the detection of planets beyond our solar system” explored the work that John Hearnshaw was involved in at his home institute at the University of Canterbury. They use microlensing observations in astrophysics to help find planets in other systems using the MOA telescope. This telescope is installed at Mt. John, where John Hearnshaw is the director of the observatory. It was built at a cost of about 7 million NZ dollars and is able to measure millions of stars every clear night, up to about a million times fainter than those visible to the naked eye. Prof. Hearnshaw indicated that we have evidence for about 150 planets presently. He expects that the number from ground based Doppler, microlensing, photometric transit, pulsar timing detections will continue to increase at the rate at ~ 30 to 40 per year. He says that in the next ten years, the number of new planets found by all the different methods could well be over 26,000.

It is such developments in astronomy that has brought to the forefront brand new areas of investigation such as astrobiology. Astrobiology seeks to understand the origin of life by searching for the existence of life right here on planet earth in extremely diverse conditions. So, is there an interest in Astrobiology here at UWI? There certainly is as postgraduate student Mr. Denzil Ali explores our renowned pitch lake for signs of life. This project has invited the intrigue of foreign collaborators from the USA, Prof. Dirk Makuch-Schulze and Prof. Edward Guinan who will be visiting the Department of Physics on this project in February 2006. So, one of the natural wonders of the world is not just about paving roads – but has turned out to be an interesting site for astrobiology. The natural resources of Trinidad continue to be explored in creative ways for the advancement of astronomy.

Some students look heavenward and others peer at digitized plates. Mr. Derick Cornwall in the week prior to Prof. Hearnshaw’s visit used the telescope at UWI to take images of the brightening of a quasar as models predicted. This was an exciting result that we recorded and UWI is proud to be part of an international team that monitors this quasar as a joint effort between Tuorla Observatory, University of Turku in Finland and UWI, St Augustine.

Historical data on this same quasar is being worked on by student Mr. Hayden Rampadarath, who went to an observatory in Sonnenberg, Germany to obtain data from photographic plates from many decades ago, digitize them and determine the light curve for this same quasar. All of this leads to understanding how this particular quasar’s energy source is powered as modeled by Prof. Mauri Valtonen who is a visiting professor in the Department of Physics from Tuorla Observatory in Finland.

Prof. Hearnshaw held a meeting with the CARINA executive which is run by President Mr. Graham Rostant, familiarizing them with the work of the International Astronomical Union (IAU) and the program group for the world wide development of astronomy. The IAU facilitates the International School for Young Astronomers (ISYA) which was held in Mexico in 2005 and the three active students in Astronomy at UWI attended the summer school. They also facilitate the exchange program for astronomers and teaching astronomy for development. The work of the IAU was also exposed to the local astronomical society headed by president Dr. Maura Imbert.

He reports back on his visit to this Caribbean paradise to the president of the International Astronomical Union and he notes among other things that:
“My overall impression of astronomy in Trinidad, both at UWI and the closely associated CARINA organization, is that here is a small but very enthusiastic group of people with some very able students under their wing. With encouragement and support from the IAU, astronomy could grow here and have an excellent future.”

It is reminiscent of the words of Margaret Mead when she remarked, “Never believe that a few caring people can’t change the world. For, indeed, that’s all who ever have.”

What more could we ask for by way of encouragement in our little corner of the world?

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