Date: February 14, 2010
Title: Look for Me Up There
Podcaster: Carolyn Collins Petersen
Links: Loch Ness Productions (http://www.lochnessproductions.com/index2.html)
Music by Geodesium (http://www.geodesium.com)
Description: TheSpacewriter takes listeners to the heart of a Bok globule, Eta Carinae, and shares the story of the man who characterized them: Bart Bok. He, along with the love of his life, Priscilla Fairfield Bok, researched the Milky Way Galaxy and made many contributions to astronomy. This is their story and a tribute to the long, loving marriage they had. Happy Valentine’s Day!
Bio: Carolyn Collins Petersen is a science writer and show producer for Loch Ness Productions, a company that creates astronomy documentaries and other materials. She works with planetariums, science centers, and observatories on products that explain astronomy and space science to the public. She is currently working on an exhibit project for the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. She wrote the Griffith Observatory astronomy exhibits in Los Angeles and the California’s Altered State climate change exhibits for San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences. She has co-authored several astronomy books, written many astronomy articles, and is currently working on a new documentary show for fulldome theaters, a vodcast series for MIT’s Haystack Observatory, and a podcast series for the Astronomical Society of the Pacific.
Today’s sponsor: This episode of “365 Days of Astronomy” is sponsored by The Planetary Society, celebrating 30 years of inspiring the people of Earth to explore other worlds, understand our own, and seek life elsewhere. Explore with us at planetary.org
Transcript:
Hi, this is Carolyn Collins Petersen — TheSpacewriter.
It’s Valentine’s Day, a time when people around the world honor the idea of love. To celebrate here on 365 Days of Astronomy, I want to tell you a story about an astronomer named Bart Bok, the discoveries he made, and the work he did with his wife Priscilla – also an astronomer. They loved each other deeply – and they also loved the stars very much.
Astronomy catalogs and atlases are filled with objects named after the astronomers who discovered and researched them.
There’s the Kuiper Belt, named for planetary scientist Gerard Kuiper. It’s a region of the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune, filled with dwarf planets and small icy worlds
Or think about Gomez’s Hamburger – a protoplanetary disk that looks like a burger in a bun. It’s named for Arturo Gomez, who took its discovery images at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile.
Way out beyond the Milky Way lies the Abell cluster of galaxies. It’s named for astronomer George Abell, who cataloged them as part of his PhD thesis work.
And then there are Bok globules. These are dark, cold clouds of gas and dust in our galaxy that were observed and studied by astronomer Bart Bok.
Each Bok globule contains molecular hydrogen, oxide molecules, and traces of helium, all mixing with interstellar dust. These mixtures form dark knots that measure perhaps a few hundred light-years across. A typical Bok globule can have up to fifty times the mass of the Sun. If conditions are right, the globule can collapse to form one or more stars.
Bart Bok first observed these utterly cold, black clouds in the 1940s. He and his colleagues had an idea that those dark regions could be like the cocoons of insects – places where new things could be born. In this case, the newborns are stars.
Today, infrared-sensitive telescopes can punch through some of these clouds to investigate their interiors. From such observations, we know some Bok globules do have warm objects at their hearts. What could be doing the heating? Most likely the embryos of stars forming inside. Other observations have shown the actual newborn stars hidden within these dense clouds – and some of those stars are emitting jets of material.
Bok globules can tough to study, even with infrared instruments. This is because they are difficult to see INTO. Yet, because their cores are where star formation begins, they are the places astronomers most want to examine in order to understand the mystery of what starts the process of starbirth.
I think that Bart Bok would be pleased to know how much of his team’s thinking about these regions is being proved right through continued observations by both ground-based and space-based telescopes.
Bart Bok was not interested just in starbirth regions. He and his wife Priscilla Fairfield Bok made the entire Milky Way Galaxy their field of study. In particular, they both loved to observe the Carina nebula – and the fireball of a star embedded in its heart.
That star is called Eta Carinae, and it will explode in a spectacular cataclysm in the near future. It’s just one of many observing targets Bart and Priscilla studied during their long marriage. They also wrote a book together called “The Milky Way”, and through several editions, explored some of the most fascinating places in our home galaxy.
I met Bart Bok in 1981 at a planetarium conference where he was the guest speaker. He mesmerized us with stories of his work and of objects he had observed – like his Bok globules and Eta Carinae. He was clearly an explorer who loved his subject.
But, his warmest stories were about his wife Priscilla. He and Priscilla remain a wonderful role model for couples who work together on the things they love.
Bart and Priscilla met in 1928 and were married a year later. Bart worked at Harvard University until 1957, then, took the directorship of Mount Stromlo Observatory in Australia. In 1966, he became director of Steward Observatory in Arizona. Both Bart and Priscilla were members of the American Astronomical Society and other professional groups, and they continued their research throughout their lives.
After his retirement from Steward in 1970, the two devoted much of their time together to research and travel.
However, it was a short-lived joint retirement. In 1975, Bart’s beloved Priscilla died. During his talk at the planetarium conference in 1981, he told us about her passing. He said that, before she passed, Priscilla said this: that she wanted to go to Eta Carinae. She promised him that she would be waiting for him there.
Years later, when I was writing a planetarium show called “The Cowboy Astronomer” I remembered Bart’s touching story of his wife’s last wishes. So, I wove it into the cowboy’s tale of stargazing– to share with audiences the love that Bart and Priscilla had for each other and for the cosmos. Here’s a clip from the soundtrack, narrated by Baxter Black:
Insert clip
Bart Bok died in 1983, much beloved and admired for his many contributions to astronomy. I like to think that he and Priscilla are out there storming around the Carina nebula, checking out the action. And, being the inquisitive people they were, they’re probably searching for more excitement among the stars.
Think about them – and their great love for each other and astronomy – when you go out stargazing.
For more about Bart and Priscilla Bok, and Bok globules, and the Loch Ness Productions show “The Cowboy Astronomer”, point your browser to www.thespacewriter.com/wp and click on the 365 Days of Astronomy tab. Thanks for listening, and Happy Cosmic Valentine’s Day!
End of podcast:
365 Days of Astronomy
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