Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist, appeared on “Late Night
with Stephen Colbert recently. Tyson is a favorite of many folks. In fact, the
man has 2.4 million followers on social media. Although I am many times
fascinated with the information he presents, the other night his talk depressed
me.
What I paid attention to most was his discussion of dark
energy. I think some refer to it as a black hole. I’m lost on the topic from
the get-go. I thought all holes were pretty much dark,
especially at night. Tyson
said that gravitational pull was a key factor in dark energy. I got that part.
All I have to do to understand gravitational pull is to look at my aging body
and immediately see the effects.
Before long, Tyson made a statement that shocked me. He said
that the gravitational pull of dark energy would cause the universe to continue
to grow and expand forever. Okay, since I’m not going to take any vacations to
distant or, for that matter, near planets, I wasn’t too upset. However, Tyson
said that the stars in the sky would disappear as the universe expands. In
fact, the only stars that future generations see will be in the Milky Way. All
the rest will be gone from view.
That’s when depression set in. No, I’m not worried for me nor
for any of my family in years to come. However, at some point, those stars will
be gone. Then, generations to come will wonder what the big deal was. They
won’t understand song titles like “Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes,”
“Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star,” or “Beautiful Star of Bethlehem.”
Stargazing won’t be popular anymore. Remember those times
when we were young and we lay on the cool grass of a summer night and looked up
at the stars? Looking above and trying to find formations of stars that were
named by astronomers will be gone. I wonder if future generations will even be
able to see shooting stars.
Many stars have already disappeared for many of us. Housing
developments continue to spread like a cancer on hills and fields. When we were
children, darkness arrived and seeing in front of us was almost impossible.
However, we could look up and see a sky swarming with stars. With each new
street light or subdivision, stars blinked out. Today, we have to travel to
places far away from our homes to be able to see and grasp the concept of a star-filled
sky.
I know this complaint is something about which I shouldn’t
concern myself. The loss of stars isn’t imminent. Still, I know how wonderful
they are and how much inspiration and curiosity have risen from them. Knowing
that at some time in the extended future folks won’t have the same chance to
experience one of the true marvels of the universe is a bit sad. Of course, if
we don’t clean up this planet and take better care of it, standing outside
might be impossible because the waters will cover the lands and the poisons
will choke the skies. Maybe I should turn my energies more toward taking care
of that problem first and let future generations worry about disappearing stars.
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