Four Pillars of Radio Astronomy: Mills, Christiansen, Wild, Bracewell

This is the story of Bernie Mills, Chris Christiansen, Paul Wild and Ron Bracewell, members of a team of radio astronomers that would lead Australia, and the world, into this new field of research. Each of the four is remembered for his remarkable work: Mills for the development of the cross type instrument that now bears his name; Christiansen for the application of rotational synthesis techniques; Wild for the masterful joining of observations and theory to elicit the nature of the solar atmosphere; Bracewell for his contribution to imaging theory. As well, these Four Pillars are remembered for creating a remarkable environment for scientific discovery and for influencing the careers of future generations. Their pursuit of basic science helped pave the way for technological developments in areas ranging from Wi-Fi to sonar to medical imaging to air navigation, and for underpinning the foundations of modern cosmology and astrophysics.

About the cover:

In 1955, Australian radio astronomer Ron Bracewell, one of the Four Pillars, joined the faculty of Stanford University in California. There he established a Radio Astronomy Institute and developed an observatory. He built an array for solar observations using 32 ten-foot-diameter dish antennas, each of which was mounted on a concrete pier, or pillar. Bracewell invited visiting astronomers to chisel their names into a pier, accumulating some 220 "signatures" over the course of 20 years.

In 1980, after two decades of use, the antenna array was closed. In 2012, ten of the piers were sawed off and shipped to the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array in New Mexico to become part of a unique sundial designed by W.T. Sullivan III. As a tribute to radio astronomy, the markers of the sundial show not only the time of day and time of year, but also the current location in the sky of Centaurus A, Cygnus A and Cassiopeia A, three prominent and important objects for radio astronomers.

The cover photograph is a small section of the sundial, with two antennas of the Array in the background. The Four Pillars (as well as the first author of this book and Joseph Pawsey, "the Grand Old Man of Radio Astronomy") had each signed one of the piers of the Stanford array. Their signatures can be found on the pillars of this sundial.

Aceasta este povestea lui Bernie Mills, Chris Christiansen, Paul Wild si Ron Bracewell, membri ai unei echipe de radio-astronomi care ar conduce Australia si lumea in acest nou domeniu de cercetare. Fiecare dintre cele patru este amintit pentru munca sa remarcabila: Mills pentru dezvoltarea instrumentului de tip cruce care acum ii poarta numele; Christiansen pentru aplicarea tehnicilor de sinteza rotationala; Salbatic pentru imbinarea magistrala a observatiilor si a teoriei pentru a obtine natura atmosferei solare; Bracewell pentru contributia sa la teoria imagistica.