Apart from discovering aliens and meeting the president,is being an asronomer the same as Jodie Foster in the movie contact,you know,her life and stuff?Or are there some facts they egzagerated?
2007-08-24 02:51:02 · 8 answers · asked by Lily 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
being an astronomer can be a multitude of things. you could be an amature astronamer, who does nothing but looks at the night sky, looking for comets, stars and stuff. you could be a professional astronomer, and look at stars, comets and stuff with the most powerful telescopes known to man, and get he important job of tracking their positions, naming them, and making charts and such. Or, you could be a professional astronomer again and just do the more important things, like keeping track of asteroids' orbits coming close to Earth, solar cycles like sun spot activity, charting lunar and solar eclipses (lunar eclipse on 28th of august! [seriously] )
astronomers have not yet discovered aliens, (UFOs do not have little aliens in them. trust me on this one, it's just people not knowing what the heck they are seeing, and then freaking out about how they saw a UFO, because it sounds a lot cooler than saying "yea I was on an acid trip on night...") also, astronomers dont get to see the president unless its a case like that in the movies "Armageddon," "deep impact," or they need funding (in which case they usually dont get to see the president still) and need permission to carry out certain missions.
I have never seen the movie "contact," but if it is indeed a film, then It probably "exaggerated" most or all of it.
2007-08-24 03:22:22 · answer #1 · answered by Fundamenta- list Militant Atheist 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, that's just Hollywood's version. A terrific movie, but that's not astronomy.
Scientists involved with SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) do not sit by their radio telescopes with headphones on, listening for signals with patterns, as did Jodie Foster. All the searching is handled by computers.
Astronomers do lots of different types of research. Most never get to meet the President. None have ever met aliens, or their deceased parents.
Astronomy does, however, involve lots of high-order mathematics and a great deal of intelligence. Check out some astronomy courses at your local community college sometime.
2007-08-24 10:03:56 · answer #2 · answered by Dave_Stark 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Among major-release movies, "Contact" is probably the most accurate representation I've seen of scientists at work. The characters in that movie correspond to real-life SETI scientists, and the equipment (aside from the whorling interstellar transport thingy) looked like real equipment. That being said, it is still a gross exaggeration. Scientific work proceeds slowly and carefully, for the most part, leaving a lot of time for contemplation and seminars. There's a lot of methodical lab work and sitting in front of computers. Not the most exciting subject for a movie.
2007-08-24 10:57:35 · answer #3 · answered by cosmo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not really... most astronomers spend their time in a classroom or an office, performing calculations & working on computers. Few spend time on telescopes (and, in fact, "telescope time" is at a premium - an astronomer can wait months or years before getting 'time' to schedule the telescope to be pointed at a certain object).
While that sounds depressing, they *are* the ones on the cutting edge of discovery.
2007-08-24 11:01:26 · answer #4 · answered by quantumclaustrophobe 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Not really. Radio astronomers don't actually 'listen' to the signal - we make pictures out of it instead. I can't remember the rest of her life in the movie, but as an astronomy grad student, I see my life and my professors and other astronomers. You show up to work when you feel like it (unless you work for NASA, then the gov't tells you when to come in), you enjoy your job (most of it spent analyzing data on the computer, modeling systems, writing papers and grants, maybe teaching or supervising grad students), and you get to travel a lot to meetings and telescopes.
2007-08-24 09:57:03 · answer #5 · answered by eri 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
That can pretty much be reality if you want to find "little green men". Take a look at how Carl Sagan got his inspiration for writing the book Contact and how the movie compares to reality.
http://www.seti.org/seti/contact_movies/
2007-08-24 12:17:52 · answer #6 · answered by DrAnders_pHd 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Contact is a work of science fiction written by the late Carl Sagan. In my opinion it not not very good.
2007-08-26 21:14:18 · answer #7 · answered by johnandeileen2000 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Hi. Often yes. It takes someone to spark an interest in science, like her Dad. (She was an radio operator too.)
2007-08-24 10:31:22 · answer #8 · answered by Cirric 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋