What big discoveries have been made at McDonald Observatory?
RESPONSE A: Things I mention would include the discovery of several planetary satellites, the atmosphere of Titan, interstellar polarization of starlight, and, more recently, the discovery of dozens of extrasolar planets, chemical elements in at least one (transiting) extrasolar planet, and the most luminous supernova. (KM) RESPONSE B: Discoveries are made all the time at McDonald, but most of them don’t make the news. A large part of astronomy is filling in the gaps in our knowledge or advancing our knowledge by small amounts. Major discoveries are rare. Thousands of scientific papers have been published using data gathered at McDonald Observatory over its 70-year history. Here is a sampling of some of the more famous discoveries: 1939-1949: Gerard Kuiper discovered the presence of methane in Titan’s atmosphere, thus making the first observation of an atmosphere on a moon in our solar system. Kuiper also found carbon dioxide on Mars, and discovered the 5th moon of Uranus (Miranda) and
