Astronomy

ASTROLETTERS

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An authentic solar experience

I really enjoyed David Eicher’s November

2017 editor’s letter, “Making light of gal-

axies,” and the idea of viewing the real

thing through a telescope. I live where

there are fairly dark skies and sometimes

try to challenge myself by searching for

deep-sky objects, such as nebulae and

faint galaxies. It’s not always about how

bright and beautiful the object appears,

but rather knowing that you are looking

at a galaxy that could be 58 million light-

years away, although it only appears as a

faint smudge through the eyepiece. It can

sometimes be frustrating trying to locate

the fainter objects, but it’s so rewarding

when a deep-sky object is found.

With all the available technology and

access to online viewing, it’s refreshing to

read an article that embraces viewing the

night sky with your own telescope.

— Tom Bryant, Danville, KY

Lone velocity

Astronomy often writes about the velocity

of various bodies traveling through space,

but without indication of what that veloc-

ity is relative to. An assumption is often

possible, such as the Sun for the Voyager

spacecraft or the Milky Way for the

Andromeda Galaxy, but in the Ask Astro

section of the December issue, I read

that the Milky Way is traveling through

space at 1.3 million mph (580 km/s). This

doesn’t make sense unless the reader

knows what the velocity is relative to. In

the future, please encourage your writ-

ers to include a point of reference when

discussing the velocity of bodies moving

through space.

— John Patterson, Hollywood, MD

Astronomy responds

Sorry for any confusion. The speed we

were quoting is relative to the cosmic

background radiation, which serves as a

standard reference frame when consider-

ing the universe as a whole.

Stellar holiday décor

We saw the breathtaking totality in

McMinnville, Oregon, in 2017. The glass-

es made for great Christmas tree orna-

ments while we await the 2024 eclipse.

— Elliot Perlman, Providence, RI

From nothing to everything?

Most Christians I know believe in evolu-

tion and in a universe created by the Big

Bang. Because of this, it was with amuse-

ment that I read Mr. Hester’s responses

to criticism of “intelligent design.” The

spectacle of him sallying forth with pen-

nants unfurled to do battle with the straw

man of creationism will stick with me for

a while.

I would have been much more

impressed had he addressed the idea that

in a void without even space, where there

was no place or space for time to elapse in,

amid the infinite timeless nothingness, for

no reason, and at no particular time, tons

of energy exploded (and maybe six to

eight times more dark stuff and maybe 15

times more dark energy) to create a huge

amount of space. Randomly. Out of abso-

lutely nothing. And in such a fashion that

13 some billion years later, here we are

amid black holes and aardvarks and uni-

cycles and liberals and all sorts of other

unlikely phenomena.

Now I’m just a dumb old Iowa farm boy

and retired Army first sergeant, but it

seems to me that although Mr. Hester may

be every bit as clever as he thinks he is, the

rest of us are not nearly as lunkheaded as

he dearly seems to believe.

— Steven Imerman, Springfield, MO

Jeff Hester responds

I’m an Oklahoma boy who spent his teen-

age years sitting on a tractor. I’ve read

the Bible cover to cover. The reader and I

might know and respect some of the same

people. But I write for Astronomy as a

scientist, and think it’s important to do so

without dissimulation.

If only creationism were a straw man!

Many who “believe in” evolution and

the Big Bang accept the historical events

but insist on a Guiding Hand. The

thing is, adding teleology to the mix

rejects the very core of those theories.

Repackaging creationism as “intelligent

design” doesn’t change the leopard’s spots.

How did our universe give rise to tardi-

grades and Trump supporters and other

bizarre creatures? As I have discussed in

several columns, the Second Law of

Thermodynamics and Darwinian evolu-

tion get you there.

The reader raises related questions that

would make for fun conversation over a

beer. What caused the Big Bang? A coun-

terintuitive implication of quantum

mechanics is that events require no direct

cause. From eternal inf lation to a collision

between string theory branes, most cred-

ible ideas describe the Big Bang as the

result of a quantum f luctuation. Why does

anything exist? Based on the general form

of field equations, theoretical physicists

argue that absolute nothingness is unsta-

ble. The reader also implicitly raises the

anthropic principle, but I’m out of space to

respond. Stay tuned.

Astronomy’s musical impact

A quick note to say that I really enjoyed

the article in the January issue, “The real

music of the spheres,” about music and

the continual inf luence and pull that

the heavenly bodies have had on artists

through the centuries. It featured great

information about musical and astronom-

ical history. Thank you!

— Mallory Duff, Hampstead, MD

Correction

The “Wonders of the Big Dog” article on

p. 68 of the January 2018 issue states that

Sirius and its white dwarf companion star,

Sirius B, are separated by 4". However,

they have a maximum separation of 11.2",

which will occur in 2025.

We welcome your comments at

Astronomy Letters, P. O. Box 1612,

Waukesha, WI 53187; or email to letters@

astronomy.com. Please include your

name, city, state, and country. Letters

may be edited for space and clarity.

ELLIOT PERLMAN