Instruments of discovery advance our understanding of the universe

The dawn of the 17th century witnessed the birth of the two most important scientific tools ever invented: the microscope and the telescope.

Though initially looked on as novelties, these instruments drove generations of technology-spurred discoveries that extended human vision and knowledge into the previously unimaginable worlds of the infinitesimally small and the gigantically large.

During the 1590s, two Dutch spectacle makers, Zacharias Janssen and his father Hans, are credited with making the first microscope by spacing small glass lenses inside a hollow tube.

To their surprise, small objects looked at through their device appeared larger, and previously unseen objects became visible. This discovery created the forerunner of the microscope and the telescope.

In the late 1600s, the Dutch tradesman Antonie van Leeuwenhoek used simple self-made microscopes to examine such things as blood, insects, saliva and a host of single-cell protozoa living in stagnant pond water.

Although Antonie’s initial interest was to more closely examine the quality of textile fabric, he became the first person to describe and document previously unknown cells — “animalcules” — and bacteria.

Microscopes became standard laboratory equipment as their quality, ease of use and image resolution improved through the centuries. And as capabilities advanced, discoveries followed.

For example, high-quality optical microscopes led to the discovery of cells that form the building blocks of all plants and animals. Far more advanced electron and scanning tunneling microscopes can view objects at molecular and atomic scales. Computerized axial tomography (CAT) scanners, commonly used by today’s medical doctors, combine X-ray images with computer imaging to generate cross-sectional views of the human anatomy.

It’s amazing that such incredibly beneficial, investigative tools sprang from a few contoured pieces of ground glass, hollow tubes and a curiosity-driven passion to examine the previously unseen.

In 1608, the German spectacle maker Hans Lipperhey is credited with inventing the telescope, although it is uncertain whether he was first to actually build one. News of his device quickly spread across Europe and southward into Italy, where Galileo Galilei modified the small telescope’s design for increased magnification.

Starting in 1609, Galileo’s pioneering observations laid the foundation for modern astronomy. He soon discovered the phases of Venus, the moons of Jupiter, the cratered landscape of our moon, stars comprising the foggy glow of the Milky Way, sunspots blemishing the sun’s surface and the “appendages” (rings) of Saturn.

During the next 400 years, the story of cosmic discoveries repeated itself as newer, larger and more refined telescopes were built in backyards, atop mountains and launched into space. Each creation helped decipher more of the cosmic puzzle and carried us closer to the universe’s edge.

Until the 20th century, only the visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum remained explored.

Examples of major findings included the history of stars populations, expansion of the universe, discovery of planets circling the sun and distant stars, deciphering cosmic distances and unraveling the universe’s age.

Today, astronomers explore the universe using not just visible light but the entire electromagnetic spectrum, spanning from low-energy radio waves to microwaves, infrared, visible light, ultraviolet, plus high-energy X-rays and gamma rays.

Each of these spectral wavelengths provides astronomers with different yet complimentary understandings of the cosmos.

For example, radio waves help detect the most energetic objects (quasars) known in the universe.

Microwaves permit astronomers to peer inside the cooling clumps of interstellar dust where stars and planets are born as well as measuring the ember-like warmth remaining from the universe’s beginning. Ultra-violet light and X-rays track the energy released from violent cosmic encounters such as black holes devouring stars. And gamma-rays reveal the fingerprints of distant stellar explosions.

Now let’s fast forward to the morning of Sept. 14, 2015. A new era of cosmic exploration began on this date when the LIGO facilities in Louisiana and Washington first detected gravitational waves passing by the Earth. These waves were created 1.3 billion years ago by two massive black holes orbiting around one another and then coalesced into a single black hole.

What’s notable to researchers is not that this first detected gravitational wave was of extraordinary power but the possibility that such powerful events, releasing all or most of their energy as gravitational waves, might occur regularly across the universe — and now we can detect them.

Gravitational waves, predicted by Albert Einstein in 1916, produce effects in earthbound detectors, such as LIGO, that are extremely small. The LIGO facilities are designed to identify these waves by measuring subatomic-size changes in the separation between mirrors housed inside of 2.5-mile-long vacuum chambers.

Gravitational waves are not part of the electromagnetic spectrum, but are newly discovered phenomena enabling a completely different approach to garnering information about the universe.

Like the expanding circle of ripples created when a rock is tossed into the quiet waters of a lake, violent events such as exploding supernova or colliding neutron stars produce gravitational waves (distortions in time and space) that spread across the cosmos. The larger the rock’s splash, the bigger the waves and the farther they will expand.

Each time astronomers peer into the heavens using a different wavelength of light, they uncover new findings. During the upcoming years, we can only imagine how the search for more gravitational waves will expand our knowledge of the universe.

Because gravitational waves are not hidden by other cosmic material or the Earth’s atmosphere, they can pass unhindered through portions of the cosmos blocked by more traditional electromagnetic radiation. It’s exciting to imagine what other distortions in the fabric of space and time are now washing across the universe and headed toward Earth that can be detected by LIGO.

The history of innovation suggests that the most astounding contributions to our knowledge and the most beneficial technologies invented are often driven by unexpected discoveries and previously unimagined spinoff capabilities.

This is why the fervor to understand our world and the commitment to support scientific advances is so important to this and future generations.

This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 9:38 PM with the headline "Instruments of discovery advance our understanding of the universe."