The Fascinating Universe

What is it about the universe that I find so fascinating? It is its structure. I often find myself wondering what spacetime is made out of, but that question doesn't seem to make sense, and yet the curiosity remains. At very least, it is a personal reminder of how little we know about the universe.

I was conviced that by studying physics and astronomy I would be presented with the keys to the universe by my professors, but it seems that they don't know as much as I had hoped. Granted, their understanding is far greater than that of the lay person, but I am still disappointed. I thought that we were so much more advanced than we are. Some would argue that civilization has advanced by great leaps and bounds since the time of the Ancient Greeks, but I would counter that we have been too caught up in the day-to-day to make tremendous progress in our collective understanding of the universe.

I have this sense that the atmosphere is primed for a grand new discovery, something that will change how we see the entire universe and our place in it. It is just a matter of time. My hope is that the greatest minds will be freed from ordinary every day concerns so that they can concentrate their potential on the questions that will lead us to greater understanding of this fascinating universe.

My Mother's Understanding of the Universe

I just got off the phone with my mom. The conversation required tissues to dry the tears, not from crying, but from laughing. She told me that she saw a show on television about how Pluto is no longer a star and that people are protesting. Since Pluto has never been a star, but rather long considered to be a planet, this prompted me to ask her what the difference is between a star and a planet. (Keep in mind that I study Astronomy at Columbia University.) She told me that one has water on it and the other one doesn't. I started laughing, so she figured she must have been wrong and tried another guess. She said that people live on one and not the other. More laughter. She then said that one has gas and the other one doesn't and then that one rotates and the other one doesn't. I stopped laughing because the situation was just too sad. Was this really the extent of my mother's understanding of our solar system? Is this the way the general public sees the space beyond Earth's atmosphere?

I told her that there are rocky planets and there are gassy planets. We giggled at the word gassy. I told her that the Sun spins on its axis and the Earth spins on its axis while it revolves around the Sun. She was excited to hear something familiar and said, "I knew that!" I decided to ask her a little more about the Sun. She said something about this stuff that spews out of the Sun and somehow causes problems here on Earth. I said solar flares, and she said "that's it!" So then I decided to ask her what dark matter was. She said that it's a black hole, because it's dark in there. I almost peed my pants. I can't wait to tell Professor Applegate about this because it was just the other day that I was telling him how I felt like and idiot walking through the Astronomy department. I told him that I feel like I know nothing. At least now I know that I know way more than my mother does, and since I came from her, I have come along way from where I was.