Why Should You Be Interested in Astrophysics?

View from Above — Benefits for Coping in Our Daily Lives

I give you two reasons why you should be interested in astrophysics:

• One, it is fascinating. I will try to give you a glimpse of what I find incredibly interesting about the Universe. The awe-inspiring vastness of it, the majestic beauty, and simultaneously, the spectacular destructive capacity of the phenomena at a scale we have trouble comprehending.
• Two, it can have tremendous benefits for our daily lives — with just a sprinkle of philosophy, learning and thinking about the Universe can have unexpectedly potent benefits in our daily lives, particularly when dealing with adversity, anxiety, and depression.

Intrigued? Stay with me.

First of all, what is astrophysics? It is a journey of discovery into the unknown. It shapes and reshapes our understanding of the universe and our place within it.

Astrophysics studies the physics and the chemistry of objects and the phenomena of the universe. Astrophysics seeks to uncover the fundamental nature of the universe and study some of the most intriguing mysteries out there — the origin of the universe, the nature of time, black holes, dark matter, dark energy, and the possibility of other intelligent civilizations. It explores the galaxies, stars, planets, moons, and other celestial bodies. Astrophysics also advances human spaceflight and investigates the suitability of distant planets for human as well as extraterrestrial life.

It is, however, not only about what is out there. Astrophysics drives the development of advanced technologies that benefit various fields. Telescopes, satellites, detectors, and data analysis techniques developed for astrophysics often find applications in medicine, telecommunications, and other fields.

Astrophysics deals with mind-boggling scales, from subatomic particles to galaxies and beyond. Concepts like the Big Bang, cosmic inflation, and the expansion of the universe challenge our notions of time, space, and reality.

Astrophysics is fascinating. Here are some interesting facts:

• We are made of stardust — when stars (made of hydrogen and helium) explode, they manufacture chemical elements that are the main building blocks of everything, including our Earth and OUR VERY BODIES — carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, etc. This, to me, is one of the most mind-blowing facts about the universe. As Neil deGrasse Tyson says: “We are in this universe, but also the universe is in us.”
• The Universe is vast — with billions of galaxies, each containing billions of stars (like our Sun). The Universe is estimated to be some 93 billion light years in diameter. To give you some perspective:
  - one light year is over 9 trillion kilometers.
  - the Sun is some 8.3 light-minutes from the Earth.
  - our closest neighboring star, Proxima Centauri, is 4.3 light years away.
  - our nearest galaxy, Andromeda, is 2,5 million light years away.
• The Universe is silent. Remember the line from Alien? In space, no one can hear you scream. Since there is no atmosphere in space, the sound won’t travel at all and the space is eerily quiet.
• The Big Bang Theory — the prevailing scientific theory about the origin of the universe suggests that the Big Bang took place some 13,8 billion years ago and the universe has been expanding ever since. The Earth is some 4,5 billion years old.
• The Speed of Light — is almost 300,000 km per second (299,792 to be precise). So what we see of the distant galaxies is not their current state, but what they looked like much, much earlier in the past. What we see of the Andromeda galaxy for example is what it looked like 2,5 million years ago. Let that sink in.
• Black Holes — these are regions of space where gravity is so strong that nothing, not even light can escape. Since they don’t emit light, it is difficult to spot them. Black Holes form when massive stars collapse under their own gravity.
• The Milky Way — is our home galaxy. It contains billions of stars and is some 100,000 light-years across. It is, however, at best, a medium-sized galaxy. Large galaxies have over a trillion stars.
• Exoplanets — these are planets outside our Solar System that orbit stars and have conditions suitable for life. In the Milky Way alone, there are more than 5,000 exoplanets.
• Dark matter and dark energy — most of the universe is composed of little-understood substances called dark matter and dark energy. About 96% of the universe consists of dark energy and dark matter. Only about 5% (!) of the universe is made of familiar atomic matter, including the known stars, planets, asteroids, and us.

Incredible, isn’t it?

Of course, maybe this is not your cup of tea. Maybe you are not fascinated by any of this and your interests are in different areas. That is absolutely fine. But this is where exploring astrophysics can bring unexpected benefits in our daily lives, in our struggles, when handling adversity, and even when dealing with anxiety and depression.

The View from Above

Let us add a bit of philosophy into the mix. Specifically, an exercise ancient Stoics used, called “The View from Above”. It is essentially an exercise of perspective-shifting. The idea is to step back from our daily lives and look at things from afar. To expand our perspective, and simultaneously reduce the importance of our external circumstances. In fact, Stoics studied nature and physics to be able to conduct this exercise on the basis of evidence related to natural phenomena, and not just their imagination. Today, we can do this with a lot more than was known to ancient Stoics — by virtue of all the knowledge we have from astrophysics.

Marcus Aurelius practiced this exercise and repeatedly mentioned it in his Meditations, for example: “Take a bird’s eye view of the world, as seen from above: its numerous gatherings and ceremonies, many voyages in calm and storm, and the different ways things come into being, take part in it and cease to be.” Here is another passage: “Whoever would speak of mankind should survey, as from some high watchtower above, the things of earth: its gatherings during peace and war, marriages and separations, births, and deaths, the noise of the law-court and the silence of the desert, foreign peoples of every kind, its feasts and mourning and markets, the medley of it all, and the harmonious order of contraries.”

We see similar themes in the writings of Seneca and Epictetus, who wrote about how tiny the earth is, and how ridiculous the wars fought by human armies — which resemble swarms of ants — over small territories of land. From this perspective, money, riches, status — it is all suddenly not that valuable. All the emperors, kings, presidents, and all the signs of human power have little significance.

Sympatheia

The View from Above facilitates other aspects of the Stoic worldview. One fundamental concept for Stoics was sympatheia — that we (all humans and all of the Earth) are interconnected and interdependent. Sympatheia is not just a concept of stoic worldview, but also the foundation of stoic ethics — understanding that we are all part of a whole leads to the need to be good to one another. We typically care about people in our immediate circle, our family, friends, and community. Sympatheia leads us to care about all of mankind. Everyone. You are not just on your own. Every one of us is part of something bigger than ourselves. Of this world. Of the universe.

The View from Above reminds us that we are all part of a very, very small planet. This global kinship encourages us not to need to hate or dislike anyone or anything. Stoics encourage us to love even those who commit injustice against us, to show empathy, and compassion, since everyone is part of the same whole. The View from Above also reminds us of our proper place in the big picture of things. We should therefore be less angry or frustrated. We should panic or freak out less. Instead, we need to take care of ourselves, each other, and our world.

Maybe I am naive, but I would like to think that if for example we took the leaders of the Israelis and the Palestinians to a spaceship and had them look at the Earth from the orbit, they might feel differently about violence being the answer.

Even the study of astrophysics brings people together. Think of massive projects, such as building a space station, Hubble Space Telescope, or the Large Hadron Collider where scientists from different disciplines and countries come together. These promote scientific and cultural exchange and knowledge-sharing, fostering international collaboration.

Gratitude

The Universe is a violent place. Not in an evil sense. But in a sense that destructive events of incredible magnitude happen every second — asteroids and comets slam into planets, stars blow up, and celestial objects are sucked into black holes and destroyed. And this is nothing compared to a collision of two galaxies which decimate millions of stars and planetary systems.

If you bring it back to the scale of our planet, we have been particularly lucky:

• The Solar System is incredibly stable, with the planets' orbits projected to remain as they are for the next few billion years. We have had some 3,5 billion years of uninterrupted development of life from one-cell to multi-cell organisms on our planet.
• The Earth is just the right distance from the Sun. It is far enough so it is protected from harmful solar radiation, but not too far, or else it would have been far too cold for us to survive.
• Our Moon has a significant stabilizing effect on our orbit, helping keep the climate more or less steady.
• Jupiter, our gentle giant of a protector of the Earth has massive gravity which deflects asteroids and comets that could potentially destroy our planet.
• The Solar System is also in a relatively isolated part of the Milky Way Galaxy so we are at a lot less risk of colliding with another star system.
• The asteroid that did get through and killed most of the dinosaurs on Earth some 65 million years ago paved the way for human ancestors to thrive on our planet.

Think about how many factors had to come together for us to be where we are. Ancient Stoics may not have known a lot of these facts, but they encouraged us to be grateful to be able to live. Life is precious and temporary. Think about it — there is a reason why we still have not come across any evidence of extraterrestrial life. Life may just be that rare in the universe.

You can use this thought in your daily life to make it easier to let go of small grievances. Someone bumped into you on the street? Did you drop your phone? Another car cut in front of you? Forgot your keys at home? Or some other, trivial occurrence is just about to provoke an overly emotional response? Remind yourself of the insignificance of all that. Remind yourself of the need to be grateful for being alive.

I know, it is easier said than done. As strong as our defense mechanisms, our mantras, our training, and our mental models may be, we will still lose our composure, give in to negative emotions, and overreact. Don’t expect to be able to be perfect. It’s ok. We do our best. We fall off track. Just try to get back on track. We try to get better.

Spectator Novus

This is another interesting concept first stated by Plato, developed by Aristotle and widely used by Stoic philosophers. It is about trying to see the world as if you are seeing it for the first time. The sense of awe. The beauty of it all.

An object of wonder is incredible to see for the first time. After a few more times it can get boring. The more we see it, the less we are amazed by it. Spectator Novus, which means a new observer, is about reminding ourselves about the sense of the initial wonder.

You can experience this by observing nature. The sky, the clouds, a flower, a bird, an animal. But let us go beyond our planet. The night’s sky. The stars, the moon. Distant galaxies, supernovae, nebulae. Take a look:

Hubble. A planetary nebula.

Hubble. Crab Nebula — result of a supernova explosion.

Hubble. NGC 2525 galaxy 70 million light-years from Earth.

Spectator Novus. Sense of awe.

There is another way of looking at this. Something I remember Brian Cox saying that I will never forget— let’s imagine that we are the only intelligent beings that can think and feel in the galaxy. Therefore, the decisions that we make, as a civilization have implications. Among other things, we are here to observe and acknowledge all this beauty. What is the point of beauty if there is no one to see and appreciate it? If there is nothing or no one to observe it all, to perceive it, there may as well not be beauty. Thus, if we destroy ourselves, we may, as a civilization, be removing meaning from the whole galaxy. We therefore not only have the choice, we have a responsibility not to do that.

Take a minute to think about that.

For millennia, we have relied on religion or philosophy to help us with the big questions. What is the Universe like? What is the Earth’s place within it? Why are we here? Are we alone in the Universe?

We are insignificant. On a tiny planet hurling through the vastness of the Universe. We are one with the Universe, we are made of the same stuff that stars are. Let this help you have humility. At the same time,

We are unique, as intelligent life, here to marvel at the Universe, to study it, and to grow as a species. Let this give you meaning.

All of the tools mentioned above, our predecessors used as therapeutic tools. The View from Above, Sympatheia, and Spectator Novus are among the methods and principles that serve to help us cope. The point is to distance ourselves from our daily worries and anxieties. This allows us to look clearly at things and perhaps have a better shot at finding solutions.

Give these a try. Do some research, explore, and meditate on these.

Now, how can we put this into practice? Here are a few things you can do:

• Watch videos by prominent scholars popularizing science, for example, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Brian Cox, or Carl Sagan. Read books on the subject. Here is perhaps the most powerful video on the subject of View from Above, by Carl Sagan, called Pale Blue Dot.
• Read books. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, Cosmos by Carl Sagan, Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Wonders of the Universe by Brian Cox are all great places to start.
• Explore beautiful imagery of celestial objects and phenomena. Check out the websites of NASA, HubbleSite, European Southern Observatory, Viewspace, and National Geographic. Make sure to check out the Image of the Day page by NASA. Here is a great resource for kids to get a sense of the scale of the universe.
• Go to a local planetarium! The impact may be no less dramatic than a visit to a beautiful temple. Look through a telescope. Check out the Moon, planets of the Solar System, distant stars, and galaxies.
• Read good Sci-fi! :) Try The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, the Dune series by Frank Herbert, the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, the Expanse series by James S.A. Corey, Solaris by Stanislaw Lem, Contact by Carl Sagan, and 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke.
• Watch good Sci-fi! ;) I cannot recommend enough what I think is the absolute best TV show in this genre — The Expanse. Trust me, nothing else comes close. Other than that, explore away!

Last, but not least, here is a meditation-like exercise you could practice, proposed by Donald Robertson in his books The Philosophy of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy and Stoicism and The Art of Happiness:

• Get outside and look around. Find a comfortable place to sit, close your eyes, and picture yourself gradually levitating towards the sky. As you rise higher and higher, picture your surroundings getting smaller and smaller. You can use Google Maps if you are having trouble visualizing this.
• Continue rising, going through seeing your city, then your country as a whole from above. Picture the landscape, mountains, rivers, or seas nearby. As you keep rising, you start recognizing the contours of the neighboring countries as well.

NASA, Earth from Orbit.

• You are gradually starting to see the curvature of the Earth (I gotta say, this exercise won’t work with Flat Earthers…). You see the continents and oceans.

NASA, Earth from Orbit

• Keep going. You now see the whole of the planet Earth, it is getting smaller and smaller. You approach the Moon. This is more or less what you could be seeing.

NASA. Apollo 8 photo of the Earth.

• You continue on your journey, passing by Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. Here you are now. Keep in mind, that this is still within our Solar System. And that there are 3,916 solar systems in our Milky Way galaxy alone.

NASA. Image of Earth as seen through Saturn’s rings

You can continue this exercise as far as you wish. Go wild. Imagine looking at the entire Milky Way from afar. Below is a picture of the Andromeda galaxy which is larger, but has a similar structure. Each dot in this picture is a star, much like our Sun.

And the final point is when you are so far away, the whole galaxy looks like a dot. Here is a picture of some 10,000 galaxies. Every dot is a galaxy.

NASA. Hubble Space Telescope’s deepest visible-light image

Stretch your mind to be able to imagine the infinite vastness of the Universe. You have reached the end of your journey now. Time to slowly return. You go down, back to our galaxy, to our Solar System, passing by the familiar planets, all the way to our home, the Earth. As you descend to the surface and to where you started your journey, open your eyes. Look around. Take a deep breath and acknowledge the sense of calm and serenity. You are back home, here and now.

Here you can find a more detailed version by Donald J. Robertson himself. If you want to learn more about the View from Above, check out Donald J. Robertson’s or Pierre Hadot’s books.

Let me share a final thought. You may feel overwhelmed after reading this or trying the View from Above exercise, or find yourself thinking — what is the point? How can we, tiny beings on a tiny speck in the vastness of space do anything in the face of the powerful forces of the universe?

The point is not to become passive. You still have your life, your tests, and challenges ahead of you. We have to do what we must until our fate is revealed to us. View from Above is to help us put things in perspective, not to retreat into passivity. It is to help control ego and negative emotions. At the end of the day, whether Nature is random or perfectly designed, it does not really matter for practical purposes — Marcus Aurelius makes this very point in his Meditations. Accept what you cannot control and act focusing on what you can control. Be the best you can and try to make the world around you a slightly better place.

Good luck!

If you want to read more about the philosophy of Stoicism, check out the books by Ryan Holiday, Massimo Pigliucci, William Irvine, Ward Farnsworth, Peter Sellars, Donald J. Robertson, and Pierre Hadot. You can also read the original works by Ancient Stoics, Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. Ryan Holiday’s website The Daily Stoic is an excellent resource on Stoicism.

If you liked this article, here are some of my articles you might want to explore:

• I read the Daily Stoic every day in 2022
• Find Peace Where You Are
• Carpe Diem — Seize the Day
• My 7 Takeaways from the Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday
• My 7 Takeaways from Man’s Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl
• Do We Need Daily Routines and Rituals?
• The Golden Rule. Is it Enough?
• Reading. Why read? How? And what?
• Wrap it up. Get it done. Finalize. Ship it. Share your work. Put it out there