Cosmic Adventure: Other Secrets Beyond the Night Sky

204 Pages·2000·0.72 MB·English

by  Bob Berman

COSMIC
ADVENTURE
Other Secrets Beyond the Night Sky
BOB BERMAN
To my beautiful, playful eight-year-old daughter, Anjali—the sun
around which my life revolves…
And to her mother, Rita, whose extraordinary character and happy
disposition have been an inspiration
Contents
Introduction v
Heartbreak from the Comet Cloud 1
Original Thinking 8
Cosmic Blunders 14
Naming the Universe 22
Alien Invasion 27
It’s a Gas 34
Unwelcome Surprises 39
Everyday Alchemy 47
Your Number’s Up 56
View from a Window Seat 66
Certainty Principle 72
Night Sweats 80
The Boundaries of Space and Logic 87
What’s in a Name? 96
Time and Time Again 101
What Else Is New? 108
The Most Astounding Discovery Ever 115
Going to Extremes 119
Celestial Compulsions 125
The Vibes of Space 129
Going Places 136
Rice Is Nice: New Age Reasoning 141
Improving on Perfection 148
Strange Moon 153
Bohdan’s Bursters 158
Top Hits of the Cosmic Charts 166
Glossary 173
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Other Books by Bob Berman
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher
Introduction
The universe hardly needs a public relations “rep,” but by sheer
good luck or divine design, that has been my job description since
1974. That’s when my first astronomy column was launched; it was
written for Woodstock Times, the largest weekly newspaper in the
upstate New York area I call home—and I’m still meeting that
deadline.
The sky has always been my passion. Before I was thirteen, I’d
read every astronomy book in the local library; while friends were
absorbing baseball stats, I memorized the names and distances of
every star in the heavens; and in college, I took every astronomy
course offered. Only my involvement with skydiving and overseas
motorcycle touring prevented an astronomical case of nerdship.
Luckily, I’ve been able to combine my sky fixation with a parallel
love of writing in a career that lets me present the facts, discoveries,
concepts, and awesome wonders of the universe the way people
(myself included) really like to learn about them—and that is with
exuberance and humor rather than the needlessly pedantic drone
of “cultural enrichment” or “science education.” Years of lecturing
have taught me that most people have no desire to fool with charts
or learn the fainter constellations; they appreciate when astronomy’s
newest fascinating facts are served with playfulness, or maybe even
a philosophical outlook.
This book allows me to explore topics beyond the thematic limit-
ations of my Discover magazine column or my first book, Secrets of
the Night Sky, which cover amazing, little known, and sometimes
funny aspects of celestial objects. For in those arenas I am unable to
include an underlying realm—astounding, seldom-examined facets
of the world around us and the universe beyond. Here, I hope, the
reader will join me in venturing to the heart of things fabulous,
frivolous, and even hilarious. We’ll probe the quirky nature of some
basic physical realities (for example, why water, the most common
compound in the cosmos, isn’t a gas at room temperature like other
molecules of its size and weight) and have fun orienting ourselves
to celestial-language oddities (“to orient yourself” comes from the
old belief that you’d be headed correctly if you knew which way
East—the Orient—lay).
Among other challenges, readers will address the link between
contemporary ideas of cosmology and the limitations of the human
brain’s logic system, a linguistic handicap in the way of solving such
issues as “What lies outside the universe?”
Here I can finally present astronomy in a broader context: What
was the single most astonishing discovery of all time? Why is there
more cloudy weather around the time of full moon? What, realistic-
ally, would an alien invasion really be like? What were the biggest
cosmic goof-ups, the greatest space disasters?
This book allows us to probe such odd alleyways as the official
international organization that labels the universe’s contents—with
such disparate names as Puck and Centaurus A—and the story be-
hind that company in Illinois that names stars after people, for a
price.
Here we look at the sacred chestnuts and the cosmological clichés,
and explore everything from bizarre Einstein lenses that warp gal-
axies like funhouse mirrors, to the increasingly persuasive non-ex-
istence of time, to myths and little-known facts about the extreme
edges of the cosmos.
To a public that is generally clueless about astronomy (how many
know that the moon crosses the sky from left to right?), I wanted to
impart fascinating data such as the fastest spins of diamond-hard
pulsars; what it would really take to terraform Mars; what is the
only truly original concept in cosmology; and how anyone can
quickly figure the distance to the horizon when flying in a commer-
cial jet.
It all makes this book a motley stew that has been prepared and
seasoned not only for the intelligent layperson with no astronomy
vi / Cosmic Adventure
background, but certainly also for the celestial devotee who is
overdue for a breeze to blow in fresh ways of viewing old celestial
friends.
For most people, a particular scent can evoke a memory. For me,
heavenly bodies sometimes flash a personal earthly connection.
Since it’s almost impossible to separate the astronomy part of my
life from the rest of it, these essays include some personal journeys
and reflections; I’ve also confided accounts of a few of the many
strange people, events, and experiences that sprang to mind while
researching and writing this book.
Neither my talented editors nor I could devise some logical order
to the following chapters. Hubris, of course, but I like to think that
reflects on a microscale the wild abandon seen orchestrated in the
layout of the galaxies and constellations.
And that is why our topics meander from compulsions to time
running backward to the discovery of Uranus to the explosions of
the Challenger and the Hindenburg. The only link is my honest desire
to have readers accompany me on quests to stretch the mind, chal-
lenge prevailing concepts, and explore ideas (from idiotic to inspired)
about the very nature of the cosmos and the capabilities of human
intellect. It’s a roller-coaster ride.
I hope you enjoy the turns and surprises as much as I have.
Bob Berman / vii

HEARTBREAK FROM THE
COMET CLOUD
Either life is always perfect and this flawlessness is cloaked by
our ignorance, or else frightening snakelike patterns slither
menacingly across a cosmos whose motif is accidents and heartbreak.
Buddhists and Hindus have it both ways. Their pundits declare
that a fascinating bit of theater is at play, creating the ups and downs
of life—a seductively realistic chimera—while a deeper meaning
lurks in everyone’s underlying storybook. Blown opportunities co-
exist with a perfection worthy of a finely crafted novel. Wheels
within wheels.
Granted, it’s hard to fathom any “deeper meaning” when fifteen
years’ work vanishes as an exquisitely instrumented unmanned
spacecraft explodes on liftoff. Or find consolation for the tenacious
comet hunter who finally discovers what becomes the brightest
comet of the century—but finds it six hours after someone else. So
it is another whose name gets blazoned across the heavens, who
gains instant celebrity, lands prestigious appointments, and rides
off into the moonset.
The solar system, too, is full of losers. Venus is just 30 percent
closer to the sun than Earth, yet that’s enough to make it the most
stifling hellhole in the known universe. Going the other way, a fifth
planet, beyond Mars, never quite formed because of insistent grav-
itational meddling from outer planets. What lesson is there from
one of the solar system’s children being stillborn?