37 Things — Day 4: “My God, it’s Full of Stars!”

William Nyikuli
Sep 8, 2018 · 3 min read
#Mood: When Elon Musk’s space tours become a thing, this should be the background music…

Read the third entry here → An Ode to the Color Purple

For this entry I want to talk about the stars and galaxies and planets, because they’re amazing.


So why is Astronomy cool? Ok read this quote and you tell me:

“The knowledge that the atoms that comprise life on earth — the atoms that make up the human body, are traceable to the crucibles that cooked light elements into heavy elements in their core under extreme temperatures and pressures. These stars- the high mass ones among them- went unstable in their later years- they collapsed and then exploded- scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy- guts made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and all the fundamental ingredients of life itself. These ingredients become part of gas clouds that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems- stars with orbiting planets. And those planets now have the ingredients for life itself. So that when I look up at the night sky, and I know that yes we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact, I look up- many people feel small, cause their small and the universe is big. But I feel big because my atoms came from those stars.” — Neil De Grasse Tyson

I won’t even attempt to describe that, it stands on it’s own.

Neil De Grasse Tyson for me is one of my favorite celebrities, and when you talk celebrities I also think of personalities like Micho Kaku, and Brian Greene.

When was a kid, I wanted to be an astronomer, I was certain I would be an astrophysicist. But then I wasn’t good at math in high school, so that was a problem heading into college. But in undergrad, I still took Astronomy as one of my electives!! Probably I’ve seen every space documentary out there, with The Universe and Cosmos being two of the best.

The view from my dreams, that’s why I’m smiling in my sleep

If I’m smiling in my sleep, perhaps I’m enjoying an a safari across the galaxies, zipping across celestial wonders. I’ve been known to literally talk about black holes in my sleep. How amazing are black holes? Not just the impossible physics of a singularity, but delightful paradoxes to keep you up at night like the black hole information paradox . Neutron stars, gamma ray bursts, exoplanets, supernovae are pretty cool too.

And that night sky, sometimes I have a pain in my neck, and wonder if it’s from looking at stars. That night sky, I wonder what people hundreds and thousands of years ago made of the colorful curtains and lunar transformations. Probably those dancing aurora lights and and blood red moons are the source of many gods and legends today.

So look at the night sky next time it’s a clear night, do this often actually— lay on your back outdoors, and just look up at the navy blue canvas, dotted with white specks and marvel at the fact that “My God!…It’s full of Stars!”


Artwork of the Day — Astronomy Street Art in Brazil

Mural is at the Brazilian Center for Physical Research in Rio de Janeiro, led by artist Gabi Tores || via physicsworld.com
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