Someone has written somewhere that the beginning of wisdom occurs when man realizes that he doesn't really know anything at all. Witness the amazing things going on in astronomy. With new telescopes and technology, we are able to see into the past of our universe, and as we see more and more, we find that there are new questions and a myriad of things that we cannot yet understand with our feeble intellect.
"When I was a child... " etc. The bible quote is probably right.. someday we may be able to see more clearly and understand more fully. But right now, our astronomers are having a great time finding new mysteries that invigorate their minds. One of the classes in college that I breezed through without studying was Astronomy 101. Parts of the course deeply interested me, but other parts seemed like a waste of time for me. For instance, I couldn't care less about doppler effects and "spectrum shifts", so I spent my time reading about the planets and galaxies. Because most of the technology utilized latin terminology, it was very easy to pass the tests without worrying about deep study. (Shame on me... but, my idea of college teaching is not to give or take tests, but rather to do the European method of attending lectures and self-study. Memorization of what a professor thinks is important does not impress me .. with one exception.)
One of my German professors.. the famous Dr. Budde .. more about him in a future blog.. did not "teach" German, but instead recited the Illiad from memory in his classes.. in classical Greek.. he assumed that we would read the German literature required for the class and therefore felt no need to discuss it until the end of the semester. I learned a lot from Dr. Budde, even though I don't like memorization, his usage of it was spectacular, and, of course, recitation of classic stories was the way knowledge was imparted before there were books.. and classical German writers referred to the Illiad and the Odyssee often in their works. Besides, a "classical education" requires one to know Latin and Greek.
Sorry about that segue.
Anyway, I see that recently astronomers, during their look through the Universe, have found a new "light" alien planet in the planetary system GLIESE 581, in the LIBRA constellation, 20.5 light years away from Earth. This planet (GLIESE 581 e) apparently is a rocky place which may have had water at some point in time (like Mars?); however, right now it is too close to its sun to support life. But... scientists had already found another planet (GLIESE 581 d) further (farther?) out from its sun, and its in the "habitable zone." Will our telescopes ever be able to "zero in" on this planet and get viewable images... like we do with our "spy satellites" or Google Earth? Star Trek here we come!
Today I read that astronomers, in looking back in time billions of years, have found a "giant space blob" that can't be explained by anything we know about. It has been dubbed "Himiko".. after a Japanese queen. Scientists are mystified by this phenomenon. I'll probably never know what this is all about, but I'll bet my grandson, Cameron will. There are exciting times ahead for him.
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