Seeing Spots
The Purple Mountain Observatory outside of Nanjing is one of China's largest astronomical centers
It was the Chinese philosopher Mo Zi who first mentioned the "dawn at night," a solar eclipse, in the fourth century BC. And Chinese astronomers were some of the first to map out the stars in the fifth century.
So it's not surprising that most of what goes on at the Purple Mountain Observatory in Nanjing, concerns our star-studded neighbor, the sun.
Using monstrous radio telescopes, scientists at the observatory monitor solar activity -- sun spots, solar flares -- to study the sun's evolution and its effects on our atmosphere. The observatory's facilities are not as stellar as some of the better-funded, better-equipped centers in the West, but its research is used by scientists worldwide much as the theories and inventions of Chinese ancients helped Western stargazers like Galileo design the telescope.
Chinese astronomers were the first to develop the celestial globe in the 5th Century AD
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The Purple Mountain Observatory itself was built in 1934 by the Kuomintang, the Chinese nationalist party, whose capital was in Nanjing. The observatory was partially destroyed during the Japanese invasion of Nanjing during World War II, but the Chinese managed to save most of the instruments by moving them to the remote province of Yunan. The observatory re-opened with the birth of the PRC in 1949 and has spawned five sister astronomical labs with ten telescopes and more than 400 astronomers.
Since 1949, the observatory's claim to fame has been the discovery of more than 1,000 minor stars and planets named for people and places important to the Chinese, like Hong Kong, and Joseph Needham (a British scholar who wrote a multi-volume treatise on Chinese science). But observatory scientists have also been credited with locating a Chinese information satellite that had been MIA for two years and with staving off fears of impending doom when the 1982 alignment of all nine planets of our solar system caused an international scare.
The Chinese are using a huge telescope measuring 13.7 meters in diameter (about 45 feet), located at an observatory in Qinghai, to monitor solar activity.
Shown here: an older model used for star-gazing tourists
But much of what the observatory does is watch the sun -- all day long. Observatory astronomers monitor disturbances like sun spots and solar flares caused by changing temperatures on the sun's surface. The resulting geysers of lava and heat explode and recede in eleven-year cycles altering the sun's electro-magnetic field. Some scientists believe such events cause natural disasters, erratic weather patterns, health problems, and can disrupt radio signals.
"There's definitely a link between solar activity and certain earthly phenomena, incuding a greater incident of earthquakes and typhoons, traffic accidents and skin diseases," says one observatory director.
In 1992, for example, a series of solar flares jammed radio and television signals in parts of China for two hours.
And in 1994, observatory astronomers watched as a comet, flung into orbit by the sun's magnetic force, collided with Jupiter, causing a nuclear explosion ten times stronger than the atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima, Japan.
"By studying such collisions we can prepare ourselves for similar explosions on earth," says the director. The observatory's latest specimen is the Hale-Bopp comet due for an earthly fly-by on April 1, 1997.
Future projects include the construction of two more astronomical laboratories in Qinghai province and in Tibet, which will be equipped with telescopes able to spy on star-life more than 10 billion light years away. Chinese astronomers say they'll leave discoveries closer to home -- like life on Mars -- for the Americans.
"The question of extraterrestial life is scientifically interesting but somewhat difficult for the Chinese. Philosophically, the Chinese are, to certain extent, still influenced by their traditional idea that puts the Earth at the center of the universe. In this sense it challenges our basic world view," says Lu Yang, retired chairman of the Astronomy Department at Nanjing University.
