From the aboriginal Australians to the Zuni people, human civilizations have celebrated the winter solstice for as long as we’ve comprehended the seasons. It is a time for optimism, hope, miracles, and light. Even before we understood the solar system, we knew the basics: at a certain point, less sun gives way to more. These days, we’ve figured out a lot more about our place in the universe, but that doesn’t make this moment any less special. Humans look up, and forward; it’s who we are.
This morning’s launch of the James Webb Space Telescope got me thinking about where we’re at as a species. We live in an age of wonders, but it doesn’t always feel that way. For better and worse, we’ve atomized; we don’t have as many universals as we used to; sometimes it seems like solstice celebrations are one of the few things we have in common any more. We’ve broken down a lot of old structures and sources of meaning, which has been great for a lot of people, but we sort of forgot to replace them with anything. People report having fewer friends than they used to. Deaths of despair have skyrocketed in this country, and lots of people feel lonely and isolated, a situation that the last two years have not improved. Maybe it’s all a big coincidence that we’ve forgotten how to talk to each other, but I’m not so sure. People need communities and shared goals and things bigger than themselves.
Which brings me back to thinking about that telescope, about the thousands of people who worked together for decades to build a device which, if it works, might revolutionize our understanding of reality. If we want to find meaning in something, work together, and better ourselves, we could do worse than focusing on space. It’s how we will press forward with figuring out what the universe is; it’s how we will defend our planet from species-destroying asteroids; it’s how we will find extraplanetary life. These represent big tasks and big questions. Space exploration is broadly popular, too, and it’s not even that expensive, in the grand scheme of things–the James Webb telescope only cost $10 billion.
There’s something deeply humbling about cosmology and space exploration; something awesome, in the old sense of the term. They inspire feelings in me that a less atheistic person might find in religion. Carl Sagan had it right when he convinced NASA to turn Voyager 1 around and take one last picture: Astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.
So I guess my message on the darkest week of the year is: there are worse directions to look than up!
Happy launch day to all who celebrate.
Jerzy Russian
Bruce Willis?
Major Major Major Major
@Jerzy Russian: We actually launched an asteroid-punching mission last month as a proof of concept!
Jerzy Russian
I think the telescope itself “works” in the sense it can do what it designed to do. The issue is of course whether it can unfold itself properly. I am pretty confident it can, but it is no slam dunk.
NASA’s Kepler mission cost about 10% or this (from memory), and the advances it made in exoplanet research and stellar astrophysics in general is amazing. The Navy probably spends more on toilet paper each year.
Jerzy Russian
@Major Major Major Major:
Yup, hit it in the junk where it hurts.
Also, I have seen papers that suggest a “gravitational tractor” is (somewhat) feasible using current technology. A spacecraft hovers near an asteroid and tiny tugs are imparted on the asteroid that eventually changes its course.
Yutsano
Astrophysics is the archaeology of the future. I really do hope the unfolding comes off swimmingly. But we’ll know more in a month. And then…we may not be ready for what all we will see.
And yet, there will be more in Heav’n & Earth than can be dreamt of in your philosophy Horatio.
Wag
Great post and a timely reminder of our position in the grand scheme of the universe. We’re puny apes with pretty good brains, when we chose to use them for good instead of ill.
NotMax
Where’s my flying car, dammit?
;)
chris green
“Astrophysics at our fingertips
And we’re standing at the summit
And some man with a joystick
Lands a rocket on a comet
We’re living in an age
Where limitations are forgotten
The outer edges move and dazzle us
But the core is something rotten”
debbie
The sky’s no longer as dark as it was when I moved here, so I can’t make out as many stars as before, but even so, I’m humbled every time I look up.
Major Major Major Major
@Jerzy Russian: Yeah the unfolding bit is what I meant.
NotMax
“The universe is like a safe to which there is a combination. But the combination is locked up in the safe.”
– Peter De Vries
.
pat
I prefer to think of it as “the only home we’ll ever know.”
Jerzy Russian
@debbie:
The darkest skies I have ever seen (this includes many professional observatories that I have been to) were on Thanksgiving evening about 10 years ago outside Bryce Canyon National Park. The car broke down, and as I was inspecting the engine and freezing my ass off, I could not help but look up and admire the view.
Jerzy Russian
@Major Major Major Major: I haven’t really followed the development of the JWST in any great detail, but I doubt they were able to have a dress rehearsal of all 344 unfolding steps that are needed.
Jeffro
@chris green: THIS
heres hoping that our skyward efforts inform our earthbound community, and soon
Major Major Major Major
@Jerzy Russian: Me neither, although I don’t see why they couldn’t have. They had to fold it up after all.
Another Scott
@Jerzy Russian: The most stars I ever saw was on a summer evening around 1980 on boat on Table Rock Lake. So many stars…
Cheers,
Scott.
Jerzy Russian
@Major Major Major Major: I think specific things like the mirror unfold were tested on the ground. They also shook the crap out of the folded up telescope to make sure it would survive the rocket trip into space. However, I don’t see how they can test the entire 344 move sequence in weightless conditions prelaunch. As I said above, I am pretty confident it will all work in the end, but damn if it won’t be one long month or so waiting for all of that to happen.
Major Major Major Major
@Another Scott: for me it was when my dad took me into the foothills of the Rockies to watch the perseids.
Major Major Major Major
@Jerzy Russian: ah yes—gravity!
I’m surprised how much of it is spring based. But they have their reasons I’m sure.
Leto
@Jerzy Russian: darkest sky I ever saw was 2 days after Hurricane Katrina. We were finally able to go outside, I was on the night shift duty watch (six of us sat outside), and there was no power for at least 50 miles in any direction. I’ve never seen a star field like that, before or after.
@Major Major Major Major:
NASA unfolds James Webb Space Telescope mirrors in test
The Webb Telescope is Folded for Final Testing
Jerzy Russian
@Leto:
Sounds pretty good for a sea-level site with (presumably) high humidity.
Most people don’t appreciate light pollution until there is a widespread power outage.
Another Scott
@Jerzy Russian: I think they have a really good handle on the various forces. 54 second video. It’s actually a lot less complicated that I thought it was going to be (I thought they were going to need to stack all the mirror segments in a pancake or something).
Fingers crossed!
Cheers,
Scott.
Leto
@Jerzy Russian: we’re about 4 hours away from Cherry Springs State Park, which is one of the east coast’s darkest spots. My wife and I spent two days there late last fall. Unfortunately we had a half moon, which was basically a giant flash light. Even with that, the star field was pretty. We’re looking at going back in the next two months but we’ll def look at the phases of the moon before deciding on a weekend.
Major Major Major Major
@Leto: thanks!
Jerzy Russian
@Leto: I have heard of that place, and never had the occasion to visit.
As for Moon phases, try to go a few days after new moon. You get good lunar views through a telescope, then it sets relatively early so that most of the night is dark.
Soprano2
@Another Scott: I grew up in a small town about 30 miles from there. I took the relatively dark sky for granted. It’s probably not as dark there now because the population in SWMO is a lot bigger. I loved being able to see the Milky Way and so many constellations.
mrmoshpotato
SNL is being weird tonight.
CaseyL
The best night skies I’ve seen have been from the middle of the Arizona desert; a riverside hotel in Machias, Maine where they shut off all the exterior lighting overnight; and aboard ships at sea.
But one of the most memorable night sky watches I’ve done was an unexpected bonus of a comical attempt to see, I don’t remember whether it was a comet or the Northern Lights. This was a few years ago, and the Event (whatever it was) was supposed to be visible “in the Seattle area” – which seems to almost always be overcast when something interesting is happening in the near cosmos. After trying to see something from the shore of Lake Washington (nope) and Greenlake (nopetty nope), I popped back into the car and decided to head north on the Freeway. The hour was quite late, past midnight.
Every time I came to an exit that looked like it led to a small town, I got off the freeway and drove around looking for a place that was a) dark; b) allowed me to see the sky clearly; and c) see the sky clearly all the way to the horizon.
You might be amazed at how many tall trees we have in the PNW. You might also be amazed at how many tiny clusters of homes in the middle of nowhere are surrounded by tall trees. Not to mention the hills. This region is justly famous for its mountains, but we also have hills. Lots of them. Everywhere. Often topped with, you guessed it, trees.
I finally found a good spot off Exit 277 (about 100 miles north of Seattle), leading to a little country road lined with houses with nothing but fields behind them, rather than trees. I parked by someone’s mailbox and hoped no one was still awake to wonder what that strange car was doing in front of their house.
I got out of the car and stood there looking up.
Didn’t see any Northern Lights or comet or whatever the Event was.
But I did see more stars than I had in a long time.
I just stood there, admiring the view, until my neck started to hurt.
It was lovely.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Leto: The first time I decided to ‘go somewhere’ to shoot the Milky Way, I didn’t take into account the moon, which was both in the sky and smack in the middle of the Milky Way.
The next time in went to see and photograph the Milky Way core was a group trip to Joshua Tree about 9 months later, just an amazing experience.
Tehanu
Lovely little essay. Thank you, and happy holidays!
Major Major Major Major
@Tehanu: Thanks!
SiubhanDuinne
Thread seems to be dead, but I wanted to say what a fine essay this is! Have just sent it to a dear friend (former sister-in-law) who was a NASA engineer for her entire career until she retired a few years ago. I know she’ll deeply appreciate your words, M4.
Elizabelle
Here, as was Siubhan, to commend you on an excellent essay. Well done, Major Major.
Always a good day to think of Carl Sagan. Had not been aware of the Pale Blue Dot (thank you there). Also see that Sagan wrote a book on critical and skeptical thinking — The Demon-Haunted World — which seems more needed now than ever. Dr. Sagan was unusually prescient, on many topics.
Must remember to look up, as well as forward. And enjoy the winter darkness, before the light and growing season return in force. Good time for reflection, and for reading.
stinger
Lovely essay.
cope
@SiubhanDuinne: The good posts often die young.
Though the science won’t get going until June or so, there’s plenty going on until then as you can read about at the link below. For instance, the critical heat shield parts will be deployed in several steps in the coming few days. This is going to be nerve racking but fun.
https://www.jwst.nasa.gov/content/about/faqs/faq.html#howdeploy
WaterGirl
@Leto: Your wife? I bet Avalune will have something to say about that! I bet she was pissed that you went with someone that was not her! :-)
S. Cerevisiae
I live in a place with wonderful dark skies, on the edge of the Boundary Waters Wilderness. Once in the 90’s I took my scope out on a calm -25°F night in one of my favorite dark open spots, after my eyes got dark adapted I started seeing stars where I never had before, it was hard to find the constellations. Orion was the only one obvious and there were stars everywhere inside and out. I estimate the limiting magnitude must have been at least 6.5.
dilbert dogbert
Back in the day I did a Launch Loads analysis for Pioneers 10 and 11. Called Pioneers F and G after launch. I did the analysis while at TRW and then later met Charles Hall when I took a job with NASA.
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/20190030279/downloads/20190030279.pdf
J R in WV
In Cochise county AZ the building code requires outdoor lighting to be focused down at the ground rather than up at the sky. Just north of the county is Brown mountain, with multiple serious observatories.
And there’s a subdivision with no outdoor lighting whatsoever, just for astronomers. Many of whom have their own observatories on their property. Our little house is at 5,500 feet above mean sea level, with not many houses around. Just with binoculars you can see an absurd number of stars.
And WV is pretty dark in spots, we’re not in a brightly-lit area when we’re at home, although we do have that pesky tree problem. But we have seen quite a few astronomical events just from the homestead here in SW WV. Comets, meteors, strange lights floating by very quickly, etc.
Chris Sherbak
Hey, even us NeoPagan Druid woo-woo spiritual types can find wonder and shared experiences looking up and outward. There’s a song (called “Circles”) some of us sing with the verse: “And we who reach for the stars in the heavens, turning our eyes from the meadows and rows… Still live in the love of the Lord and the Lady, the greater The Circle, the more the Love grows…” Happy Solstice and the return of the Light to all!