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Blazars

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The Century of Space Science

Abstract

Up to the seventeenth century, the unaided eye was the only receiver that humanity could use to observe the Universe. Evolution was able to adapt this “instrument” to be sensitive to the light of the star we happen to be orbiting, the Sun. The invention of the telescope amplified the sensitivity of the eye and its angular resolution, letting humanity discover, less than a century ago, that other galaxies exist, far beyond the Milky way, and that these galaxies are moving apart: the Universe expands. However, all we could discover using the eye and its extension, the optical telescope, regarded a tiny, very tiny, part of the entire electromagnetic spectrum. As soon as technology enabled us to open new windows, we discovered other phenomena, other objects, and could push our knowledge farther out in space and time.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Merate, Italy

    Gabriele Ghisellini

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  1. Gabriele Ghisellini
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. SRON — National Institute for Space Research, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Johan A. M. Bleeker

  2. ISSI — International Space Science Institute, Bern, Switzerland

    Johannes Geiss

  3. ESA — European Space Agency, Paris, France

    Martin C. E. Huber

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© 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers

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Ghisellini, G. (2001). Blazars. In: Bleeker, J.A.M., Geiss, J., Huber, M.C.E. (eds) The Century of Space Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0320-9_24

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0320-9_24

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