A night sky full of stars at the Işık Dağı Karagöl Geosite camping area in Ankara’s Kızılcahamam district, October 14, 2023. Credit – Ahmet Okur—Anadolu/Getty Images
I I once met a physics graduate student in cosmology school (I’ll call him Max) who, until his late 20s, believed that you could only see stars through a telescope. Max grew up in New York City, where the twilight of artificially lit nights scattered the firmament. He was fascinated, patiently waiting for a clear and dark night, when he discovered the “permanent presence of the sublime,” as the poet Ralph Waldo Emerson described it in his 1836 essay “Nature.”
What do we lose when we lose connection with our cosmic environment?
The night sky is humanity’s only true global commons, shared by all of us across civilizations and millennia. But today, most of us live in cities where increasing light pollution negatively affects our view of the stars. Worse, a new kind of threat is spreading rapidly: Over the past five years, thousands of low-orbit satellites have been launched to provide global internet connectivity, appearing as fast-moving dots in the starry sky. According to current trends, by 2030 artificial satellites will outnumber real stars, and no corner of the planet will be spared: starry messengers will be pushed aside by instant messaging.
Losing stars means breaking away from our past and perhaps threatening our future. For thousands of years, the image of the sky has gracefully and silently guided humanity’s steps: influencing religion and spirituality, inspiring great works of art, making possible the navigation of the high seas that Polynesian masters achieved thousands of years before Western sailors. help of any chart or instrument. In fact, astronomy is the midwife of science: it is the study of the movements of celestial bodies, which started the Scientific Revolution in the 17th century, and thus the advanced technology on which our lives depend today, from electronic devices based on electromagnetism. Aircraft based on aerodynamics. When Swiss astronomer Adolph Hirsch realized in 1864 that adjusting the transit of stars to the exacting standards of his watchmaking compatriots required understanding his own reaction time, this also gave rise to sociology and experimental psychology. It even paved the way for artificial intelligence by demonstrating the power of data-driven prediction for the first time with the discovery of the asteroid Ceres in 1802. astrology!), the star-based rating system we use everywhere online, and the Hollywood walk of fame.
There are clues that our overwhelming awe has been with us from the very beginning. For example, prehistoric decorated caves in the Dordogne, France, were preferably oriented towards the rising and setting Sun at the solstices. The Pleiades, a striking blue cluster of stars near Taurus, have been universally described as the “seven sisters” (or seven women), although only six have been visible to the naked eye throughout recorded history. The legend of how the Lost Pleiades disappeared, chased by a mighty hunter, is uncannily similar between the ancient Greeks and the Australian First Peoples, two cultures that have had no contact since Sapiens reached Australia 50,000 years ago. However, 100 thousand years ago, the seventh sister was easily visible to our ancestors. Therefore, identical myths may have a common origin; It can date back to before people left the cradle.
Read more: Webb Telescope’s Latest Image Reveals the Birth of Very Young Stars
From the moment Homo Sapiens emerged from the African plains, close attention to the stars and phases of the Moon helped our ancestors predict food availability, track prey during full moons, and travel long distances. When Earth’s climate entered a period of rapid change 45,000 years ago, the slightest advantage in finding resources and shelter could make the difference between survival and extinction; the ultimate price paid by our less stargazing cousins, the Neanderthals. Cooperation and exchange of information between groups was likely key to our ancestors’ ability to adapt to changing conditions. And they knew where and when to meet, thanks to the compass of the stars and the calendar of the phases of the Moon.
We certainly know that the lunar cycle has driven calendars and therefore the economy since the Akkadian period more than 5,000 years ago, following the phase of the moon as a sign of fertility cycles. These women were not only the first astronomers, but also women. probably the first mathematicians too. The rise of Sirius, the brightest star in the sky, and its accompanying stars led the Egyptians to invent the 24-hour timekeeping system still used today. Even in our technological age, distant galaxies are needed to keep atomic clocks in sync with the slowing rotation of the Earth. GPS will be extremely inaccurate without corrections due to the theory of general relativity, which Einstein first tested in 1919 by observing the change in position of stars during a total solar eclipse. Deep down we are still ruled by the stars.
Just as the stars helped Sapiens overcome the climate challenges that wiped out the Neanderthals long ago, so today they can once again show us the way forward as we face the combined deadly dangers of anthropogenic climate change and biodiversity loss. The “overview effect” describes the feeling of awe and humility that gripped astronauts when they saw our bright blue marble floating in the darkness of space. By lifting our heads at night and contemplating distant, unattainable suns dispersed in endless, inescapable darkness, we can all experience a “reverse gaze effect”: the realization that our common cosmic home is irreplaceable and the urge to become better servants of it, and our destiny.
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