Recently Dr. Marek Kukula, the public astronomer at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, gave this concise definition: Astronomy is a science about the big questions in life, such as where do we come from and where does the Earth come from. It is a way of getting in touch with nature and the Universe in a very real way. [Naked Eye Astronomy-BBC]

I recalled a forum in April at the specialized IT site TechRepublic (CNET), which set this unusual subject: Kepler ejects its dust cover (First Kepler Spacecraft images). It did not get much engagement on that site, of course, but the post by an IT Consultant from Westminster, California, called my attention. He said: "So, let me get this straight. The stars that are going to be looked at are 13,000 light years away. That means, if we had a spaceship that could do warp drive, it would take 13,000 years to get there. Considering what Earth was like 13,000 years ago, even if we were to detect planets, how would we know if they are currently Earth-like when we are getting photographs of how they looked 13,000 years ago? If it would take us 13,000 years traveling at the speed of light and we left tomorrow based on something we saw, that planet would be 26,000 years old by the time we got there, assuming that the planet is still there now and hasn't been obliterated in the past 13,000 years. I don't think a lot of scientists really understand this. I heard a scientist on television say that there was a supernova in 1994. Do they really mean, 30,000 years before 1994 or do they mean that they are guessing and we would actually see the supernova 30,000 years after 1994? It boggles the mind."

Nice, isn't it? Then I posted my reply with the header They're just looking at (for learning) not going to (for now)!: "If we think so, then Kepler, Newton, Einstein and the others (even Darwin) should have done better silencing their insight. Since the ancient civilizations started thinking about the constellations, and later on Universe-Isles, Humanity has been progressing in the Plan B for saving our Mother-Ship. It is million-year effort, indeed, but we still have 5 billion ahead to rig many Kepler telescopes in such attempt. Saying it straightly: before the Sun, converted in a Red-giant, engulfs our planet, it does not matter whether all the celestial objects seen by the Kepler do not exist anymore and maybe we are just roaming or fantasizing; the point is that thanks to that Humanity will find the way to impel the very Earth to escape somewhere by the route of the Kepler and Chandra telescopes."

Now that I am assiduous learner and admirer of astronomers and scholars here on Astronomy Magazine, I am eager (and very curious!) of getting the proper answer that should have been given to that fearful IT Consultant from California. Warm greetings from Finis Terrae!

Raúl Hernández Olea - raul hernandez chile - raul hernandez

Scientists do understand the concept that we observe objects at the time in the past that the light we see came from such objects.  This is elementary school science.

1.21 gigawatts.

I agree with you. Such answer would have been too bluntly notwithstanding. The subjacent argument (I guess) was rather different: he was assessing that Kepler Telescope and other similar projects are wasteful and useless. That view is not at elementary school level but at Humanity scale, and I think this late has already chosen to bid for things such as the Hubble, Kepler, Voyager, ISS, etc.

AndesEbla:

The subjacent argument (I guess) was rather different: he was assessing that Kepler Telescope and other similar projects are wasteful and useless.

And he is not alone in thinking this.  Many people have this narrow viewpoint that the only knowledge that is worth attaining is that which impacts them personally.  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's most famous detective was rather miffed when Doctor Watson informed him that the Earth revolved around the Sun.  He had no use for this data and could care less about the goings on out in the universe as it wasted his energy, memory, and time to know such trivial things.

In this world there will always be those who lack vision, who are devoid of a sense of wonder of all the things that make up the cosmos outside of their workaday world.  It is useless to attempt to sway them and they deserve our pity.

L

If it wasn't for the visionaries of our world we would still be wearing animal skins and living in caves. Of course there wouldn't be any light pollution.

 

I had never thought about all that.  But AndesEbla is right, we are looking at stars and galaxies which might not even exist anymore in many instances.

In reading this thread I somehow I have lost some of the excitement for "astronomy" I had felt.  How can I gain it back?  It is very funny as I of course knew that we are looking at things well back in time (the past), but for some reason I never took it in as I did just now reading these posts.

Please help

MarieD

 

MarieD:

In reading this thread I somehow I have lost some of the excitement for "astronomy" I had felt.  How can I gain it back?  It is very funny as I of course knew that we are looking at things well back in time (the past), but for some reason I never took it in as I did just now reading these posts.

Don't let this "stuff" make you loose your excitement. You can read too much into these types of threads. The excitement is knowing you are looking back in history, anywhere from seconds to millions of light years depending on what you are looking at. I look for the shear enjoyment of it. I don't do it for science or for anyone other than myself. 

Thanks Jodoak or your quick reply. I will try to recall your words, when I feel a bit blase by that earlier post.

MarieD 

 

 

 

MarieD:

In reading this thread I somehow I have lost some of the excitement for "astronomy" I had felt.  How can I gain it back?

It is all a matter of how you perceive things Marie.

Do you enjoy looking at old photographs of the places you have been, people you have seen, or know?  If they are old enough most of these things and people have changed or are no longer with us, it doesn't make them any less real that they are changed or gone.

Dinosaur fossils are the same.  How wonderful it is touch something that once had flesh and blood and roamed this planet long before we were born.  The Earth itself has changed quite a bit since their time but the fascination of beasts so large and fierce that once walked or swam in the very place where I am writing at this desk gives me a connection to a time primeval.

And even more special and wonderful is the starlight that has crossed the cosmos to be collected by my humble telescope where it enters my eye to register its beauty in my mind.  Those photons of delicate light have travelled billions of miles and countless years to reach me sitting alone in the dark.  If I were not there, if someone on the planet is not watching, then their long journey was for nothing.  What a free gift the cosmos has given us in the form of ancient light.  In most cases that star is still there shining brightly.  It may have evolved some, it may have faded, and it may have died but it was really there and its beautiful light is streaming through the universe just waiting for someone to catch it.

We are such small fragile beings who are on this bit of rock for such a short time, it would be a shame to not reach out and gather a bit of that ancient light as it streams through the universe to land at your very door.

Keep looking up Marie,

L

Leo,

Well said.

Dear Marie, since I am just an astronomer of fantasy in a halo of hope for transcendental things (imagine if we live the most 100 years and even the Earth has already BILLIONS) I recommend you to read my initial posts to this Forum: Sirius & The Pleiades, and Recalling the Total Solar Eclipse at Chungará, and you will see there that the heavens have much more inspiration to steer our lives than one can even imagine. I congratulate you for your insight concerning human conscience and celestial realities. Please, watch (stargaze) the heavens for me!

 

Thank you for your two posts AndesEbla; for somebody from Chile your English is perfect and so well said. I will take a deep breath and continue with my star gazing and not think anymore about the time it takes for some of these far way objects in the sky to reach us.  It is funny I know that some items take soooooooo many light years but your post had shaken me to the core.

Thanks for writing back

 

MarieD

Reply to Leo731

I agree Leo you said it all and so well - thanks so much - that will help me - I had made a mistake and forgotten that you said all this in reply to me. Makes a lot of sense and it is so true.

 

Again thanks

MarieD  

 

Most distant object in the universe spotted

From NewScientist Magazine 2009 by Rachel Courtland

A gamma-ray burst that detonated 13.1 billion light years from Earth is the most distant object ever seen. Astronomers have spotted the most distant object yet confirmed in the universe - a self-destructing star that exploded 13.1 billion light years from Earth. It detonated just 630 million years after the big bang, around the end of the cosmic "dark ages", when the first stars and galaxies were lighting up space. [Watch the video]

This was very fresh news today on the BBC (journal Nature), in Spain (newspaper El Pais) and in Chile (newspaper El Mercurio - EMOL.com) Thus, we are not fantasizing but daydreaming true "dreams"!

Raúl Hernández Olea - raul hernandez chile - raul hernandez

Thanks so much Andesebla for making us aware of this fact.  I just read the BBC report on that and must say it is quite humbling to know these facts "over 13.1  billion light years ago......." hard to grasp

Take care

MarieD

MarieD:

agree Leo you said it all and so well - thanks so much - that will help me - I had made a mistake and forgotten that you said all this in reply to me. Makes a lot of sense and it is so true.

 

You are very welcome Marie.  Sometimes we can get caught up in the science and technical aspects of this hobby and forget about the beauty and wonder of it all.

Keep looking up,

L

During the early 60's I had the pleasure of digging for fossils in southern Fla. Holding a piece of bone or a tooth in your hand doesn't seem very exciting until you think about the millions of years of history they represent. What a sense of wonder that inspires! Then look to the sky and allow that wonder to multiply as you see light from millions, even billions of years ago just reaching us. How can we not be amazed?

Alton  

Alton3:

How can we not be amazed?

 

It happens.  It did to me.  One can get so wrapped up in the technology, the imaging, the equipment, and the computers that the essential joy of what one is doing and why gets pushed into the background.  In a time before digital cameras I used to take photographs.  I had all the equipment and spent hours trying to catch these distant photons.  There are a myriad  of things that could go wrong and they often did.  I found myself ever more frustrated with wrestling with the scope and camera trying to get a great image that I hardly ever looked through the thing.  I spent more time looking at a non-descript star through a guidescope than looking at the object I was photographing through the main scope.

I realized this, one day, and turned my back on imaging forever.  I am far happier just looking.  I feel far, far more connected to what I am doing now and the joy and wonder of it all is now once more easy to feel, to see, and to experience.

L

Dear Alton and Leo, your replies are very insightful! The wisdom and joy of seeing the Universe in its dazzling splendor and appreciating it in its transcendental beauty, complexity and significance -not losing oneself in minimal or annoying technical details or utilitarian or pedantic considerations- is the very core of Astronomy. Despite not being an astronomer I have stayed at La Silla several times and I can assure you that something so great can only be qualified as the Humanity's Temple. Having even the best or most luxurious personal telescope (sorry for the expression that follows!) seems almost ridiculous or useless compared with the resources invested at La Silla or Cerro Paranal's VLT or ALMA Project, but even so the contextual view that our naked eyes can give us in the middle of the Desert of Atacama, when you can see in the crystalline sky so vividly the whirling arm of the Milky Way scintillating in its splendorous magnificence (the one we can see due to our position inside the galaxy) makes one realize the truth by no-telescope: "seeing", "watching", "observing", stargazing" or whatever has only one purpose, which the science of Astronomy is translating into figures and enigmatic records. Einstein tumbled Newton's concepts on the Universe and turned our minds towards transcendental realities. So, the astronomers by the VLT, Hubble, Chandra and many other terrestrial and space telescopes are engaged in hard mathematical efforts for finding something that maybe will not be ever revealed, but the intuitive vision of the heavens by our own eyes -as also paleontology does concerning our planet- impels Humanity to avoid the dinosaur's fate just because one stone could strike us. Astronomy will save the human specie by migrating it someday into the space (= Universe) but in the meantime the heavens unveil into our minds and hearts the conviction that our very short lives have served a purpose, having as byproduct the joy and beauty (and sometimes dismal!) that the heavens gave us.

 

Raúl Hernández Olea - raul hernandez chile - raul hernandez