The other day, as a guest was walking out of the planetarium, he asked me "Why don't you teach creation?"
My answer: "That's not science."
It's as simple as that.
Science: "The intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment."
Repeatable and peer reviewed observations and experiments reveal the truths about the physical and natural world. You don't have to like, believe, or agree with the facts of the universe that science reveals. However, refusal, denial, or disbelief of scientific facts does not make them any less true.
If you want to believe the Earth magically formed 6,000 years ago. That's fine. However, if you want to argue that belief to be fact and true, the you have to PROVE IT.
In case you don't know the facts: the Solar System is 4.5 billion years old. This is a fact supported by various pieces scientific evidence.
So, your belief in a single religion's creation myth is not science. Therefore, I will not "teach" it during my planetarium show. Don't like it? Don't come to a science center expecting us to cater to your personal beliefs.
Well... more like 4.5 billion years young, but who's counting. Happy 86th Birthday since you were discovered by Clyde Tombaugh!
No matter what category of planetary objects you fit in, we love you, Pluto! It took us a single human lifetime to reach you, and we cant wait to learn even more about you. Stay weird and interesting!
Read more about Pluto's discovery, HERE!
Read more about Pluto's crazy weirdness HERE!
Sometimes it seems as if everything big has already been discovered. The past holds numerous huge discoveries which have impacted every aspect of our lives that it makes you wonder - what more could we possibly discover?
Of course, the answer to that question is: everything.
The universe is vast and old. Humans have been trying to understand the universe for at least several thousands years. And, we've been using science to accomplish those means for only several hundred. In a universe that's 13.8 billion years old... we might as well be in kindergarten.
Right: Cave Painting - Gua Tewet - The Tree of Life - Borneo,Indonesia.
Left: WMAP - Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation - Thermal radiation left over from the Big Bang
It's amazing what we have been able to learn in a relatively (*wink wink*) short time.
Over 400 years ago, Nicolaus Copernicus hypothesized the Sun to be at the center of the Solar System. 62 years later, Johannes Kepler used mathematical principles to describe the motions of the planets under a heliocentric model, which predicted how the planets should behave in such a system. On the heels of Kepler, Galileo Galilei first peered through his telescope 5 years after Kepler began publishing his research. Galileo's physical observations of the phases of Venus and the moons of Jupiter finally proved Copernicus to be right. Hypothesis turned to theory a.k.a fact.
Through science, predictions about how the universe works can be made. 100 years ago, Albert Einstein became another legend in science history to slide the curtain open on our universe even further.
Through Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, violent events in the universe such as black holes merging, neutron stars colliding, or even supernovae, should produce ripples in space-time called gravitational waves. However, gravitational waves have been elusive for the past 100 years because we needed technology that was sensitive enough to detect their very slight effect as these waves pass through the Earth.
Visualization of a gravitational wave.
Luckily, we are now in an age where we have developed that technology. The Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) was designed with the sensitivity to detect gravitational waves through the use of mirrors and lasers that can detect any slight movement of those mirrors that occurs. LIGO has been in operation for 25 years, but just recently it received an upgrade to make it even more sensitive. After it re-opened and resumed it's search, guess what LIGO discovered...
Gravitational waves!
The frequency of waves told researchers that these gravitational waves were produced from the merger of binary black holes, which occurred 1.3 billion years ago. Not only have we now proven gravitational waves to exists and Einstein to be once again correct, but we have also proven the existence of binary black holes!
So, what's the significance? Well, through the successful detection of gravitational waves, a new area of space science (gravitational wave science) can open up. The ability to detect this phenomenon with LIGO will allow us to advance our technology even further, and we can use gravitational waves to detect other violent events in the universe in order to learn and understand how our universe works even better.
Science...it works.
GO HERE for more information about LIGO and gravitational waves.
There are some really smart kids out there. I have had so many kids come into the planetarium who know so much more about astronomy than I did when I was in high school. Some kids even know more than I do now.
I love when kids ask me critically thought questions or questions I would've never thought to ask. I also love when a kid asks me a question that I do not know the answer to because then I get to learn something new.
Today is a good example of kids asking great questions. After our show, Saturn: Jewel of the Heavens, sometimes I will ask the audience if they have any questions. There was a little boy in the audience who was maybe 5 or 6 years old. In fact, he could've been 4.
He asked me these questions:
Why did those rocks [moons] collide into each other to form Saturn's ring?
Why do some of Saturn's rings have more stuff than other parts of the rings?
These are really great questions that show a level of critical thinking I'm sure I still don't have!
What's great about these questions is that we are still trying to understand Saturn's rings and how they formed. There are multiple hypothesis, and the planetarium show only visualizes one of those scenarios. In addition, new research using Cassini data was released about something interesting and unexpected involving the density of the rings.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
So, an elementary-aged child is asking the same questions professional astronomers are also asking about the rings. That is amazing! It is also inspiring. Every time I have a kid come into the planetarium that shows such knowledge, curiosity, and excitement about astronomy, it gives me hope for the future. There will always be those kids who pursue their dreams and help pave our way forward through the universe.
GO HERE for the recent JPL article about the rings' density.
A break from school and work,
A time to play and learn for all,
Screaming kids with endless energy,
Don't let them run, climb, or fall,
Plenty to experience and fun to have,
Put away the cell phone,
Look up,
Pay attention,
The world is larger than a little screen,
Be a role model,
Engage,
You've clocked in to volunteer,
You're the leader,
The authority of your little group,
Help keep them safe and respectful,
Encourage new learning,
Just maybe you too will learn something new.
