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The
following article is reprinted courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator,
McMaster University’s partner in the Science in the City
Lecture Series.
Nov. 8, 12:55 EDT
Comet named after Mac
prof who found it
To discuss star research
in lecture
Steve Buist
The Hamilton Spectator
As a young Grade 7 student learning about the constellations,
Christine Wilson recalls being struck by the vastness of space.
"I remember looking up at the sky and having that feeling
of how far away all the stars were and how big everything was
and how tiny we were compared to that," said Wilson, a
professor of astronomy at McMaster University. "That was
kind of scary."
Years later, as a graduate student at the California Institute
of Technology, Wilson would again look into the sky, but this
time she'd find something no one had ever seen before.
It turned out to be an undiscovered comet, which is now called
Comet Wilson in her honour.
Tuesday night, Wilson will discuss her research in star formation
when she delivers a talk entitled Beyond the Visible Universe
in The Spectator auditorium. It's part of the Science in the
City lecture series, sponsored jointly by McMaster and The Spectator.
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"There's a good
fraction of the public that is really excited by astronomy
but most of what the public sees is only part of astronomy,"
said Wilson. "That's the part that comes from looking
at visible light, and it's quite natural that's what
people relate to because we're very visual animals.
"But there's a whole lot of stuff out there that
you miss if you look at the sky and you only look at
the visible light."
Stars form in regions of very cold, dark clouds of gas
and dust particles.
"It turns out those grains are really efficient
at absorbing visible light and scattering visible light,"
said Wilson.
"So if you take an object like a star and surround
it with a cocoon of gas and dust, the light from the
star gets absorbed by the dust grains and then re-emitted
at infrared and far infrared and even radio wavelengths."
She likens it to a smokescreen that surrounds the newly
developing star, making it impossible to see with conventional
means.
To detect these hidden stars, astronomers now use telescopes
that can detect these longer wavelengths.
Wilson and her colleagues have found evidence of a young
star forming in the Ophiuchus constellation, about 400
to 500 light years away.
Even though it's thousands of trillions of kilometres
away, "that's very close," said Wilson. "It's
probably about the nearest object I've ever studied."
As for her comet, Wilson said she's not sure where it
is right now. After she discovered it in 1986, others
studied its orbit and figured out that it was making
its only pass through the inner solar system and would
never return.
"It's gone," she said. "I do know that
it's a long way away from the earth and the sun at this
point."
Tuesday's lecture is free of charge and open to the
public.
To register for a spot, call 905-525-9140, ext. 24934,
or send an e-mail to sciencecity@mcmaster.ca.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the talk begins at 7 p.m.
sbuist@thespec.com
905-526-3226
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