Blog

It’s a typical Saturday afternoon at the Abbitt Observatory.  The patrons and amateur astronomers are enthusiastic and the discussion is fun bordering on intense.  A joyful moment in the life of all involved, including the amateur astronomers. At the same time, the President’s Twitter account is making headlines.  The kind of headlines that news organizations will both praise and loathe throughout the day.  Something to do with immigration, a wall, North Korea, Russia, election tampering, etc.  In other words, there’s something missing leading to a world where astronomy and politics disagree.

During a presentation at the Virginia Living Museum, it usually delves into the relative size or distances of objects in the known Universe.  This is normal and complete with props to illustrate the subject matter.  While on the political side, we see prideful, overbearing leaders bickering over the most trivial of topics.

Relative Size & Distance

When walking, driving, boating or flying, our perception is that the Earth is a very big planet.  It takes a lot of time to travel distances of rivers, canyons, plains and oceans.  Astronomers have done the math and put together the on the left picture begins to show how small Earth is in comparison to objects in the Milky Way Galaxy.  In the top left, the Earth is the largest of the rocky/icy objects in the Solar System.  Then when compared to the remaining planets, Earth begins to pale in comparison.  We don’t stop there, take a look at the Solar System as compared to the Sun.  It dwarfs even Jupiter.  Well while we’re at it let’s compare our Sun with other stars in the galaxy.  Yep, the bottom right quickly dwarfs our Sun when compared to other stars in the galaxy and the Earth is not visible.

Link to Politics

What does politics have to do with this site?  If you’re of voting age, it’s your right and duty to vote.  Your vote determines who will support the initiatives of NASA, ESA, and others throughout the world.  Their work is an important part of moving the human race into the next century and beyond.  Look at what politics has done to improving our future.  The United States of America is the only, I repeat, only country not in the Paris Climate Accord.  Yet Astrophysicists continues to confirm rising global temperatures, year over year.

Concerns

Politics has a country guided by a man who wants a “Space Force” to in his words “Dominate Space.”  When political leaders speak of domination, they talk of “my weapons are better than yours.”  The Outer Space Treaty, which the United States entered into on October 10, 1967 explicitly bars states from placing weapons of mass destruction in Earth orbit, installing them on the Moon or any other celestial body, or otherwise stationing them in space.  It limits the use of the Moon an dother celestial bodies to peaceful purposes.  It does however allow conventional weapons in space.  Everyone has conventional weapons and therefore no one dominates Space with them.

Astronomy and Politics

Carl Sagan said, during a public lecture at Cornell University in 1994 in reference to the picture Voyager 1 took of the Earth from about 6 billion miles away,

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us. It’s been said that astronomy is a humbling, and I might add, a character-building experience. To my mind, 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 and compassionately with one another and to preserve and cherish that pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

— Carl Sagan, speech at Cornell University, October 13, 1994

Carl states that astronomy is humbling.  This is astronomy and politics.  Astronomers are constantly humbled by what is seen and learned.  Newer examples are the Hubble Deep Field photo and Cassini’s photo of Earth through Saturn’s rings. When I take in what is happening around us all over the world, there is a significant lack of humility in politics.  To bring about the change we seek, we need to be the change.  Look within yourself first before peering outwards.  When you look out, you’ll then be able to hire leaders who will meet your needs and the needs of the planet through humility, love and joy.

This is how astronomy and politics disagree, do you agree?