Starry, Starry Night
And the Milky Way so bright. How I wish for cloudless skies. Without the glow of moonlight.
Last night I stepped out of my house, looked overhead and saw this:
I am fortunate to live in the country, far enough away from city lights, that I can enjoy a spectacular view of the cosmos. This time of year the direct overhead evening view is towards the centre of our galaxy.
While in North America we call our galaxy the Milky Way in other parts of the world it has other names. I really like the Chinese name which translates to Silver River. It does look like a river of stars to me.
Ours is a spiral galaxy, so called because from the outside the galaxy looks like a spinning pinwheel. A spiral galaxy has multiple spurs sticking out from the centre in a spiral pattern. Earth is a small planet orbiting a small star in a spur off of the Sagittarius Arm or spiral of the Milky Way.
I have been a stargazer since I was a child. While I never had a telescope when I was young, I always hoped to have one some day. I finally got one after I retired. And I have great fun with it!
I find it hard to look into the night sky and not wonder about what may be out there. We know so little about the cosmos.
We have technology to see stars and galaxies that are incredibly far away. We can take normal light, infrared, ultraviolet, and x-ray images and learn from them. We can observe the how the planets move, how galaxies spin, and how nebulas form fantastical forms. Yet we truly know so little.
For me, the big question is: “Is there other life in the universe, on other planets or in some other form?” I sure hope so because us humans are really messing up this planet.
Astronomers has been looking for life on other planets since the advent of radio. It has taken many forms. Some government funded. Some privately so.
In the 1999 I joined as a volunteer on the SETI@home (Search for Extr-Terrestrial Intelligence) project. At that time SETI was gathering data so fast that they did not have the computing power to analyze it all in a timely manner. So they asked for volunteers to process part of the data on their home computers when they weren’t being used for other things.
I participated for many years. Unfortunately we are still looking for evidence of extra-terrestrial life.
Now that I have my own telescope I enjoy searching out night sky objects. Along with Earth’s moon (Luna), our local planets, and neighbouring galaxies, I have a particular liking for globular clusters.
In my opinion, globular clusters are weird things. They appear as groups of stars that hang together in globular form. According to astronomers they stay together by orbiting a share centre of mass.
My questions is this: Why is it that, unlike planets around a star or stars in a galaxy, the clusters are not somewhat flattened in shape with an observable elliptic? Instead they are ball shaped.
If you think of all those stars individually orbiting the centre of mass in myriad different orbits, it seems to me that over time the stars would interfere with each others orbits, eventually leading to an elliptic shape like galaxies have. Very curious.
The other thing I like to do is to observe the local planets and Luna in its various phases.
Here is an image of the Kepler crater on Luna photographed by Apollo 12 in 1969:
As an interesting aside, my lovely wife is a direct descendent of Johannes Kepler, an astronomer and mathematician for whom this crater was named.
Between 1609 and 1619, Kepler developed the laws of planetary motion that describe the orbits of the planets around the sun. He improved the Copernicus model of planetary motion by observing and explaining that the planets move in elliptical orbits rather than circular orbits.
And speaking of planets, my favourites for observation are Saturn and Jupiter. Saturn for the obvious beauty of its rings with which most people are familiar. And Jupiter because it is the one planet, besides Earth, whose moons I can observe. Well, at least the four main ones. In total Jupiter has 80 known moons, and possibly more.
Jupiter’s four main moons are Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. These were originally discovered by Galileo in 1610, about the same time that Kepler was doing his work. The biggest is Ganymede with a diameter of 5,268 kilometres. This is significantly larger than Earth’s moon which is only 3,475 kilometres in diameter.
These four moons take between 42 hours and 17 days orbit Jupiter. As a result many amateur astronomers enjoy observing how their orbits change from night to night. This is sometimes referred to as the Dance of Jupiter’s Moons.
Last night only three of them were visible as one of them was behind Jupiter at that time. The following picture shows all four moons visible.
So why am I going on and on about stars and planets? In her article this week Dr. Preeti Singh asked the question: “What do the STARS mean to you?” Once I got started I just blathered on. So I’ll wind things up.
We are all made of stardust. Every part of us was, at one time or another, part of a star. I find that interesting to think about.
To me, the stars are the universe’s symbols of everything we don’t know. Our finite minds try to understand as much as we can, however, when a finite mind meets an infinite universe, there will always be interesting questions that remain unanswered. And I’m good with that.
I like the idea that there will always be things we don’t know. It leaves room for our curiosity to blossom, in whatever form works for each of us as unique individuals.
So my question to you is: “What triggers your curiosity or piques your interest beyond what others might find reasonable?” I enjoy hearing about other people’s passions. If you write about them, please tag me so that I can read them. People’s unique selves are much more interesting than the false fronts we present to the world in order to be accepted.
Thank you for reading my article. If you found it interesting, here is another of my recent pieces that will take you from the macrocosm of the universe to the microcosm of my back yard. I hope you enjoy it.
Here are some articles by writers who inspire me to write. If you enjoyed my article(s), perhaps you will also enjoy theirs:
Here is Dr. Preeti Singh’s article about stars and love that prompted me to write this piece:
Mani Goel has a beautiful piece on the value of enjoying what is going on around you while you are busy waiting for something else to happen. Especially when you are out in nature!
I have read a lot of interesting and entertaining articles this week. And, as usual, I have had a difficult time picking my favourite. I finally settled on this one by Mukundarajan V N about a man who built a garden for the ground hog that shared his property. It gives me hope that at least some people are starting to understand the importance of a balanced relationship with nature.
If you enjoyed these articles, please remember to let the authors know. We who sit alone and write can always use the encouragement.
I wish to thank the following new people who have commented on, followed, and/or clapped for my articles in the last week. It is the encouragement from people like you that makes the writing process worthwhile:
Debika Kumari, Trisha Dunbar (She/Her), Carol Labuzzetta, Some days, My mind spills words... I'm Cindy, Victoria Gregg, Paul Gardner, Dr Elizabeth, Tasneem H Yousuff, Nick MacIneskar, Patrick OConnell, Naomi Yaeger, Erin M. Winfrey, Frida Bayer, Martin von Mars, Mikeprenuer, Jan Sebastian, Margaret Rom, Phil Ginter, Regina Clarke, Charlotte Kingsbury- Fink, pencil & ashes (Ash), Matija Zagoranski, Anthony Cooper, Sarah Yee, Jennifer Barrios Tettay, Mary DeVries, Mukundarajan V N, Sue Sanders, Gunnar De Winter, David W, Eunice Rabert Hernández, Blue Rose, Carmellita, Toma Creative, Erica Paige Schumacher, Occam's Press, Bea Pinewood, Aunty Jean, Valerie Murray, Simão Cunha, Jillian Amatt - Artistic Voyages, Omar G.
Thank you for spending your time with me.
I wish you well!
