Tidbits- Archive of Recent Columns Michelle Thaller, an astrophysicist, works for NASA in Los Angeles, California. Send Michelle an e-mail . Back to other cybercoverage writers All throughout history, it seems like the most important, epochal scientific discoveries have been made completely by accident.
Modern astronomy is no exception.
Take the discovery of the microwave background radiation in 1965. Things were going fairly well, but everywhere they looked, there seemed to be some background noise, a kind of microwave static. The two researchers came to the natural conclusion that if this noise was the same in all directions, then it must not be coming from the sky at all, but from a flaw in their instrument. I'm totally serious here. A flock of pigeons had taken roost in the telescope, covering the interior with the usual residue associated with uninvited feathered guests.