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A Bigger Perspective

Entry 2118, on 2021-04-10 at 12:25:34 (Rating 2, Science)

Modern society can be so superficial and trivial. To be fair, not everything we spend time on is nonsense, but a lot of it is. People get so easily tied up with what I call frivolous mass hysteria; the sort of thing which becomes trendy for no good reason, and distracts us from things that really matter. I do have to say that every issue, no matter how hysterical it is in nature, has some merit, so I don't just dismiss them all out of hand; I guess I would say there is a continuum of lameness!

I am an amateur science enthusiasts, and I'm especially interested in astronomy. When I look at the universe as a whole it really does remind me how stupid we are; how trivial our concerns are compared with the bigger picture; and how we waste so much time on stuff that just doesn't matter.

I have mentioned this theme before, especially when discussing Carl Sagan's famous description of the "Pale Blue Dot" photo. It shows the Earth as a single pixel in a photo taken from Voyager I from a distance of about 6 billion kilometers. That was a record distance for any spacecraft at the time, but even given that, 6 billion kilometers is such a small distance on the greater scale of the universe that it might as well be zero. But even at that distance the Earth appears very insignificant.

Sagan commented that the Earth looked like "a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam" and that "our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark" and asked us to "think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot."

It seems to me that we need a wider perspective; one which considers the universe as a whole. We should be finding ways to explore and colonise the solar system (yes, despite the current mindless rejection of it, I fully support colonisation), then move on to the other stars. Nothing else really matters.

But what about the Earth, you say? Surely we need to get things sorted here first before moving outwards to the planets and the stars. Should we get climate change under control first, for example? Well, no. There will always be issues here on Earth, so if we wait until they are all fully resolved we will never go anywhere, and then an asteroid will collide with the planet and wipe out most life here anyway. I say, sure, put some effort into making Earth better, but let's go beyond the local, or national, or even global view. Let's think Solar System wide, and then to the universe as a whole.

On a similar theme - that is thinking about the truly greater picture - I saw a recent Facebook post that listed a few things that had happened in our universe during 2020. Here they are...

The Moon moved 3.8 cm away from the Earth.

We tend to think of the Solar System being unchanging - apart form the obviously unusual events like a major comet becoming visible - but it is really quite dynamic on a large enough time scale. That number is not much in a single year but the Solar System is 4.5 billion years old. A few centimeters per year over that time makes a big difference.

By the way, it is quite impressive that the distance to the Moon, which is about 384,000 kilometers, can be known to an accuracy of a tenth of a centimeter!

The Sun lost 184 trillion tonnes of mass.

In a year we burn about 6 billion tonnes of coal. The Sun uses that much mass in hydrogen every 5 minutes, and converted 184 trillion tonnes of mass into energy, which was then lost, during 2020. Even at that rate the Sun has only used up half of one percent of its mass in the last 4.5 billion years.

Although the number is big by any measure, when you consider that nuclear processes are millions to billions of times more efficient than chemical processes (like burning coal) the energy output of the Sun (just an average size star, remember, there are many which are far bigger) is truly impressive.

The Earth moved 1.5 cm further from the Sun.

Like the Moon moving away from the Earth we also know the Earth is moving away form the Sun. Again increasing the current distance of about 150 million kilometers by 1.5 cm doesn't seem much, but give it a few billion years and it does add up!

150 billion stars formed in the visible universe.

Recent research shows that most stars probably have planets, and that many of them might be suitable for life. There are a lot of stars out there already - abut the same number as there are grains of sand on all the beaches of Earth - and during 2020 another 150 billion were added.

There is no shortage of stars, so there is no shortage of planets, so there should be no shortage of life as well. But where is it? That's a "big picture" question I would like to know the answer to.

The Andromeda galaxy moved 3.5 billion km closer.

We hear that the universe is expanding so why is a galaxy getting closer? Well, at a mere 2 million light years (20 million trillion kilometers) distance, Andromeda is the closest big galaxy and its "random" motion is enough to overcome the overall expansion (the closer two objects are the less they are affected by the universal expansion because there is less expanding space between them).

Eventually our galaxy and Andromeda will collide, which will distort both galaxies and lead to new star formation, although there will be very few actual collisions of stars (that's because the distance between stars is huge compared to the actual size of the stars). We do have some time to plan for this though, because even when the two galaxies are getting closer at the rate of 3.5 billion kilometers per year, it will still take another 4.5 billion years for them to meet.

The universe expanded by 60 trillion km.

The Voyager spacecraft, which took the Pale Blue Dat photo, had been travelling for 13 years to reach the distance of 6 billion kilometers, but in just one year the universe expanded by 10,000 times more than that.

So yes, the universe is big, and getting bigger. And that is just the visible part of it. Beyond that, it is much bigger still - maybe infinite according to some theories. But beyond the visible edge the universe is expanding faster than light (time-space can do that, even though actual objects can't) so we can never know what's there (unless we perfect some fancy new physics).

Can you see why, when you have a "universal perspective" like mine that I get annoyed with the frivolous nonsense most people, encouraged by the media, worry about?

Our only hope of progress really comes from rogue individuals, like Elon Musk, who have the money, power, and foresight to do extraordinary things. I really wish there were more like him. Then we might really get a bigger perspective.

Comment 2 (6512) by OJB on 2021-04-12 at 12:31:52: (view earlier comments)

I'm not really sure if I have a specific point, except that the usual concerns we have, as a society, are ridiculously trivial compared with "the big picture". Now, in past posts I have rejected the idea of *the* big picture, because it implies there is one, objective big picture. I prefer *a* big picture, so sure, this is mine.

Comment 3 (6513) by Anonymous on 2021-04-12 at 14:55:20:

Yeah... I'm sure everybody's idea of what the big (and by implication, little) pictures vary. For some, the irrelevant movements of celestial bodies are of no interest or importance at all.

Comment 4 (6514) by OJB on 2021-04-12 at 15:33:42:

I just chose astronomy and cosmology as my examples of "bigger picture" subjects because that's what I'm interested in. I think there are similar arguments which could be made (perhaps with more direct relevance to people's lives) from biology, chemistry, medicine, etc.

Comment 5 (6516) by Ken Spall on 2021-04-12 at 20:51:51:

Love reading your stuff, truly resonates with my own feelings about the world. As for the "point" of what you say in this article, for me the point is that, for the future of mankind, space exploration and colonisation is vital and the sooner we start it in a concerted, serious and very long term fashion, the better it will be for our future generations.
cheers
Ken

Comment 6 (6517) by OJB on 2021-04-12 at 21:52:22:

Thanks for the support. Yes, we should find a way to colonise other planets. If Earth is hit by an asteroid, or there is another major disaster, it doesn't really matter if we have fixed global warming, or equality, or anything else. We'll all be dead anyway!

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