Sunday, May 2, 2010

The LUCIFER Project: Going A-OK


As readers may recall from earlier blogs, creationists contend that all stars were ‘created’ by some divine fiat in the past. However, this is refuted by the observational, astronomical evidence. The fact is that embryonic stars can be detected with infrared telescopes, as well as the Hubble Space Telescope, collapsing out of interstellar dust and gas analogous to phases 1 and 2 of the evolutionary track in the H-R diagram for the Sun. Some of these T Tauri stars are in the well-known Orion Nebula, about 1600 light years away.

The T Tauri and other observations clearly demonstrate that creationism can’t be valid. If it were, no new stars should be forming! This is only one contradiction arising when the scrolls of unscientific nomads are accepted too literally.

Now, another new instrument has been added (at Mt. Graham) to our observational arsenal. This is the Large Binocular Telescope featuring two new innovative near-infrared cameras/spectrograph to increase our ability to ferret out stellar birth.

Dubbed "LUCIFER I", it features two giant 27.6-foot-diameter (8.4 meters) telescope mirrors. Each instrument is cooled to -351° Fahrenheit (-213° Celsius) in order to observe in the near-infrared wavelength range. Near-infrared observations are essential for understanding the formation of stars and planets in our galaxy as well as revealing the secrets of the most distant and young galaxies.

According to Richard Green, a professor of astronomy at the University of Arizona's Steward Observatory:

"With the large light-gathering power of the Lucifer 1, astronomers are now able to collect the spectral fingerprints of the faintest and most distant objects in the universe,"

Even better, LUCIFER's novel, ingenious design will allow astronomers to observe star-forming regions in unprecedented detail, which are commonly hidden by dust clouds.The instrument is remarkably flexible, combining a large field of view with a high resolution. It provides three exchangeable cameras for imaging and spectroscopy in different resolutions, according to observational requirements.

A recent image from the Lucifer scope is shown above.

After Lucifer's twin joins it ca. 2011 we will look forward to finding so many stellar nurseries and emerging new formed stars that the creationists will have no choice other than to either move to a country which has no science information, or maybe move to another planet. Only in those situations willl they be able to push the mind-numbing idiocy of a "created Earth" that they do here.

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