A New Museum Exhibit Gives a Grand Overview on the History of the Telescope

Modern astronomy began with the invention of the telescope just over 400 years ago. With this new tool, Galileo showed that there is more in the universe than discernible with our eyes alone. Today, astronomers use instruments that can capture light beyond the visible, enabling them to observe even more—from black holes colliding to the beginning of the universe. 

Over centuries, astronomers have developed and used more precise tools that have changed our understanding of the origin, content, and fate of the universe. That new knowledge has continuously generated new questions to be answered. No longer investigating the cosmos alone, today’s astronomers work alongside engineers, computer scientists, mathematicians, philosophers, and artists. The National Air and Space Museum’s new U.S. National Science Foundation Discovering Our Universe gallery will let visitors examine the history of modern astronomy through the people and tools that have helped us unravel the mysteries of the universe.

In the new gallery, a dramatic starscape ceiling will catch the eye of visitors and provoke a sense of awe and wonder as they explore. The exhibit will flow from a central hub that introduces major scientific concepts. It will also give visitors a glimpse into all we know about the universe today. From there, the exhibit radiates in sections, enabling visitors to explore how we know what we know. 

How many galaxies are in the universe? What can we learn from starlight? How are stars made? Do black holes really exist? How will the universe end? Through the transformed gallery, visitors will explore answers to their biggest questions about the universe and discover the complex process of scientific discovery that has helped reveal the answers. The Museum’s collection of astronomy and space science artifacts will serve as a launch point to tell stories about people who changed our understanding of the universe.

In the 18th century, William Herschel built ever-larger telescopes (including his original 20-foot telescope that will be on display in the new gallery) in hopes of seeing the faintest stars at the edge of the universe. What he and his sister Caroline Herschel succeeded in doing was mapping the Milky Way galaxy and discovering thousands of fuzzy objects. Astronomers have continued to study these objects and determined they are regions where stars are born and die.

Cracking the code in starlight opened new ways for astronomers to understand the universe. With the invention and use of the spectroscope, astronomers could separate light into its many wavelengths. With this new information, they could then discover more about stars, from their temperature, composition, and mass, to how they formed, how they will die, and how they move.

Understanding how the universe itself began and might end has required many instruments—both on Earth and in space. The gallery will explain how Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson accidentally discovered a faint radio whisper of the remnants of the Big Bang, the violent event that kick-started our universe. Visitors will also learn about the Nobel prize-winning spacecraft that provided the first peek at the earliest era in the universe’s 13.8-billion-year history. 

Astronomers have studied the universe in the entire electromagnetic spectrum to map and understand the composition and motion of stars and galaxies. Today, global teams of scientists explore the universe by measuring light but also by detecting other “messengers”: gravitational waves and high-energy cosmic rays and neutrinos, all of which carry information about the objects that created them. Using any two of these is known as multi-messenger astronomy. 

In 1987, a supernova was discovered by astronomers at the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile’s Atacama Desert. Less than a day later, astronomers pointed the orbiting International Ultraviolet Explorer to observe the supernova with ultraviolet light. Physicists at Japan’s Kamiokande II neutrino observatory later found evidence that tiny particles called neutrinos were ejected from the supernova. The detection of both light and neutrinos coming from the same supernova became a key step in the founding of the era of multi-messenger astronomy. 

Through five returning and newly acquired artifacts, visitors will follow the path astronomers took as they gathered evidence for the existence of black holes, long one of the most enthralling mysteries of the universe. Our study of black holes began with the observation of strange, unexplained radio signals near the centers of galaxies. Over the decades, better tools have refined our view and understanding of black holes. New artifacts from the Event Horizon Telescope and the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) will update visitors on our current understanding of black holes.

A major focus of the new gallery is sharing the diverse stories of the people who have contributed to astronomy. The exhibit will, for example, examine the evolving role of women in astronomy—from the 18th through the 21st centuries. Visitors will learn how women have made key contributions to our understanding of the universe, despite sexist restrictions on their participation that often saw them limited to work as assistants, computers, or technicians. The story of Vera Rubin, whose observations provided the first convincing evidence of dark matter, is just one story of many highlighting the valuable role of women in astronomy. (Rubin’s spectrograph will be part of the new exhibit.) Other stories will include Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, Katie Bouman, and Gabriela González. The gallery will also highlight the stories of people with disabilities, revealing the intersectionality of identities of many of the women represented in the exhibition. 

From early astronomical observations made with the first telescopes to the latest discoveries, the new gallery will show how developments in technology have led to new knowledge and raised new questions. From the Hubble Space Telescope to underground neutrino detectors, visitors will trace the centuries of effort to make new tools that have changed our understanding of the universe.  

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Samantha M. Thompson is the Phoebe Waterman Haas Curator at the National Air and Space Museum. She specializes in the history of astronomy and space sciences.

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This article is from the Summer 2024 issue of Air & Space Quarterly, the National Air and Space Museum's signature magazine that explores topics in aviation and space, from the earliest moments of flight to today. Explore the full issue.