ASTR 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 28: Pseudoscience, Apollo Lunar Module, Easter Island
1 Dec 2016
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Conspiracy theory: the moon landings were fake, the glad on the moon flapped in a wind. Who filmed neil armstrong stepping out on the moon anyways?! Ok, everything was filmed on a sound stage. Stanly kubrick is an artistic (and patriotic) genius: refute the conspiracy theory: we left retroflector bricks that reflect laser light back to earth; moon surface alone doesn"t. We use apache point observatory telescopes to do this. Also, the nasa lunar recon orbiter can see the apollo sites (footprints, shadow of lunar module, scientific instruments). Intelligent (or capable of communicating with or visiting us) 1960: frank drake was the first astronomer to systematically search for communication signals from intelligent life outside earth. 1961: he hosted a meeting on the search for et life (10 people came: in preparation, he scribbled down an equation: Which of the following can not be calculated if we know the values f the terms in drake"s.
