A Century of

Astrophysics

at JHU

  • Turn of century: Henry A. Rowland, the university's first physics professor, perfected the "ruling engine", a device that produced the first high-quality diffraction gratings (devices that break light into a spectrum).

  • 1950s and 1960s: Hopkins instrument designer William Fastie developed a spectrometer that became a key component in numerous rocket-borne and space-borne telescopes.

  • Late 1960s and 1970s: Hopkins astrophysicists Warren Moos, Paul Feldman, and Arthur Davidsen flew improved versions of this spectrometer on sub-orbital sounding rockets, making pioneering measurements in UV astronomy.

  • Early 1980's, Hopkins astronomers proposed successfully to have the Space Telescope Science Institute, the nerve center of the Hubble Space Telescope project, located on the Homewood campus.

  • In 1985, the Center for Astrophysical Sciences was formed at Hopkins.
  • April 1990: Launch of Hubble Space Telescope.

  • December 1993: First Hubble Servicing Mission places JHU-designed COSTAR package in Hubble to repair optical flaw. (PI: JHU professor Holland Ford.)

  • 1994: Dr. Ford's team then used the repaired Hubble to discover supermassive black holes in the centers of several nearby galaxies.

  • December 1990: Launch of the Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope (HUT; PI Arthur Davidsen), with JHU Research Scientist Sam Durrance aboard as part of the Astro-1 space shuttle mission.

  • March 1995: 18-day Astro-2 space shuttle mission carries Sam Durrance and HUT on their second mission.

  • May 1995: Prof. Davidsen announces first convincing detection the the elusive "intergalactic medium" using HUT measurements.

  • 1997: JHU joins the Sloan Digital Sky Survey project.

  • June 1999: Launch of the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer satellite!

  • Future: SDSS, Hubble Advanced Camera for Surveys, Next Generation Space Telescope...

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