• Question: what is your favourite discovery

    Asked by Char_the_hipster to Helen, Heather, Hugh, Jane, Julian on 12 Nov 2014. This question was also asked by DaisyB123.
    • Photo: Helen Johnson

      Helen Johnson answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      Hi Char! Wow, ok that’s a hard one.
      I think my favourite astronomical one has to be Edwin Hubble discovering there were galaxies besides our own. In 1923 he measured the distance to Andromeda, and realised it wasn’t a collection of stars close by, but another galaxy 2.5 million lightyears away. I can’t even imagine how it would’ve felt to discover something like that!

    • Photo: Julian Onions

      Julian Onions answered on 14 Nov 2014:

      Wow – that IS a hard one to answer.
      I do like long running mysteries that have solutions. So I think the discovery of quasars was quite fascinating. They are outrageously powerful sources of energy, visible most of the way across the universe, and through dedication and time it was unravelled what they were.

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