12 ASTRONOMY • JUNE 2022
STRANGE UNIVERSE
Amazement may be the top reason people are
into astronomy. This amazement takes differ-
ent forms. For example, telescopes open the
door to visions that are visceral — but also mysterious.
Why should a round, concentrated collection of white
dots against a dark background inspire gasps as globular
clusters do? Who can explain why Albireo never disap-
points, though its contrasting star hues are mere pastels
when compared to the saturated colors that
nature provides in abundance elsewhere?
Beauty certainly generates amazement.
But beauty is also difficult to quantify and,
in our case, often telescopically obtainable
only via dollar signs, with larger apertures
resolving globulars that cheaper models see
as mere blurry blobs. So instead, let’s focus
on mental amazement, arguably astronomy’s specialty.
I cannot know what you find most astounding in the
astrophysics realm, so I’ll share what has most melted
my mind over the past several decades.
A recently found box of yellowing astronomy col-
umns and radio scripts published since 1974 shows that
I’ve often repeated ideas and concepts I find astound-
ing. I’ll bet we all shared many of these: In the ’70s it
was relativity, especially anything involving light-
speed. Even now, who among us can picture how each
photon in a light beam aimed at a fast-departing rocket
h it s it at ex ac t ly t he s a me spe ed a s it d id when t he rocketwasn’t moving? How can light live in a realm indepen-
dent of everything else?
In the ’80s, my focus when writing for Discover was
usually observational marvels like the fact that visible
meteors are only the size of apple seeds. In the ’90s, it
was quantum phenomena, such as how an entangled
electron “knows” its twin is being observed and assumes
characteristics like spin that are opposite to its partner.
The underlying mind-blow is that this “communication”
happens instantaneously. There is no light-speed
limitation. Observe such a photon or electron in a
Cleveland lab and its twin in the Whirlpool Galaxy
changes its own physical form in real time. That’s tough
to accept without abandoning the reality of space and
time, which then makes it pretty darn hard to picture
the cosmos. Not to mention the implication of an
instantaneous connection between two distant things.
And where do you go with that?
Nowadays? Great minds from Isaac Newton to
Werner Heisenberg to Roy Bishop have all been aware
that we never see the external universe, but merely the
inside of our brains, where visual images are created and
perceived... And, well, I’m still getting used to that, too.
It’s easy enough to get what Newton meant when he
wrote, “The rays are not colored.” I can grasp that actual
light, being solely an amalgam of magnetic and electri-
cal fields, is devoid of any inherent color or brightness.
Since only our brains can generate the sensation of
brightness and color, observations are always mental
creations. That part is easy: It’s in every physiology
book. But it’s quite another thing to overcome a lifetime
of bias and truly realize that the Dumbbell Nebula’s
visual existence happens entirely within the skull. To
me, it’s as if the brain’s interior, previously regarded as
black, mushy, and subjectively imperceptible, has actu-
ally been forever visible with every glance.
It get s much worse when you conclude t he
cosmos i s phy sic a l ly i ntercon nec ted w it h u s ,
provided you trust the correlation between
observers and outcomes that physics
experiments such as the famous double slit
have supported for decades. Beyond that,
according to ideas from Stephen Hawking,
John Wheeler, and other theoretical physicists, a past
that is set in stone can’t be entirely ruled out. Perhaps it
could even be as malleable as the future. Experiments
have shown that it critically depends on our current
observations and actions. Recent work even indicates
— hold on — that independently f lowing time doesn’t
exist outside our perception.
In the ongoing can-you-top-this amazement contest,
things have clearly gotten out of hand.We’re into astronomy to be wowed. I’ll do my best.
Levels of
amazement
This Hubble image
of spiral galaxy
NGC 1300 is stunning
— and all in your
head. NASA, ESA, AND THE
HUBBLE HERITAGE TEAM (STSCI/
AURA); ACKNOWLEDGMENT:
P. KNEZEK (WIYN)Beauty is
difficult to
quantify.
BROWSE THE “STRANGE UNIVERSE” ARCHIVE
AT http://www.Astronomy.com/BermanBY BOB BERMAN
Bob’s recent book,
Earth-Shattering
(Little, Brown and
Company, 2019),
explores the greatest
cataclysms that have
shaken the universe.