Searching the night sky for the unknown

MARSHALL WARD, Waterloo
(Aug 15, 2007)

Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. - Dr. Carl Sagan

One of my greatest inspirations to study astronomy as a child came from the books of American astronomer and astrobiologist Carl Sagan. It was through books like Cosmos and Pale Blue Dot that my understanding of our solar system and the universe was greatly enhanced, and captured my imagination for the human future in space.

Now the parent of a five-year-old daughter who shares my enthusiasm for the wonders of the universe, I was excited to learn this past week the Children's Museum in Kitchener has launched its newest exhibit, Mission: Outer Space.

With guided tours exploring the stars in a portable planetarium to interactive exhibits where kids can discover what it's like working on the moon, the Children's Museum, in recent months, has become a leading edge art, science and technology facility for young people, thanks to the creative vision of executive director David Marskell.

Designed to educate children about space and space flight, the exhibit reminded me just how far, in my lifetime alone, we've come in understanding our own solar system thanks to the power of technology.

In the first book I ever owned about the solar system, published in the 70s, colourful drawings were used to illustrate the intensely hot and hostile atmosphere of the planet Venus, and the cold barren surface of Pluto, so distant from the sun. Today, much is known about Venus' surface geology and volcanic history -- and Pluto has since been reclassified as a dwarf planet, given the number 134340.

Nothing to me was more frightening than illustrated depictions of immense, white lightening storms on Jupiter, or the planet's great red spot -- a complex storm moving in a counter-clockwise direction -- big enough to hold two Earths.

As the great red spot demonstrates, Jupiter is a world of superlatives. It is the largest planet in the solar system, big enough to swallow more than 1,300 Earths, bigger than some types of stars -- and more massive than the solar system's other known planets and moons combined. It also rotates faster than any other planet.

American humourist Jack Handey once said, "Whether they find life there or not, I think Jupiter should be called an enemy planet."

The first time I saw Jupiter, along with its four largest moons Callisto, Ganymede, Europa, and Io, was through a telescope at the Ottawa Observatory in the early 80s. I would imagine that the first glimpse of a planet like Jupiter, or Saturn, through a telescope is something even professional astronomers remember all their lives.

This August, Jupiter is the brightest "star" of the evening sky, shining in the southwest after dusk. I've also been keeping a close eye on the brilliant yellow-orange star Arcturus, the fourth-brightest star in the night sky, which seems to have staked out a spot in the middle of the western sky this month.

Difficult for me to comprehend, Arcturus is 20 times larger than the Sun, and produces about a hundred times as much energy. I find the easiest way to locate Arcturus is to follow the arc of the handle of the Big Dipper, currently dipping into the northwest.

Even more mind-boggling is the concept that when we look up at the night sky, we are seeing stars as they were at sometime in history -- their light only now reaching us from thousands, even millions, of years ago. And for all the stars we see, some of them will no longer exist, and then there are other new stars whose light hasn't reached us yet.

Among the many ideas that Carl Sagan has instilled in me is that the sky is up there for everyone to enjoy, and one doesn't need an expensive telescope or an education in astronomy to appreciate the greatest of nature's art.

And for those with kids looking to explore some indoor star gazing and the marvels of space flight, the Mission: Outer Space exhibit will be on at the Children's Museum until early 2008.

Because somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.