|
|
Dorothy Copus Brush Being an Earthling For many years, the second week in August
has filled me with anticipation. That is the time for the annual
show called the Perseides meteor showers. Every year I have risen
from my bed in the dark hours after midnight and walked outside
to scan the heavens. When our children were young, they were
included in this exercise and told about this phenomenon. Several
times over the years we spotted a few falling stars but nothing
spectacular. Some years the sky was overcast or there was rain,
and we slept on, knowing another chance had been lost. Hope springs eternal and all these years later,
even though there are no children around our home, I still hang
onto the idea that I might live long enough to view a really
amazing display of heavenly fireworks. Other than a full moon
this year, astronomers were predicting this might be the year
I had been waiting for. I wakened at 3 a.m. and walked out into a
perfect weather setting. The moon was no longer overhead but
neither was the sky filled with shooting stars. Patient though
I was, I finally had to accept the same disappointment of other
years. As I turned to go back inside, one brilliant
shooting star cut through the black sky. I turned to scan the
heavens one last time, and there on the horizon was the moon,
all aglow with a pink radiance. That was an unexpected gift which
soothed the disappointment of not seeing showers of meteors,
and I watched as the moon slipped out of sight. Although I have not been privileged to view
the Perseides, I carry the memory of another sky show. It was
during my high school days. I had gone to a movie with a boyfriend
and on our drive home, we were alarmed as we saw the night sky
filled with pulsating pastel colors and streaked with bursts
of white light. By the time we reached my home, we were convinced
the end was near. We stood in the yard watching as the whole
sky was alive with color and strange lights. My parents joined
us and explained away our fears. We were watching a rare sight
commonly called the Northern Lights, or the Aurora Borealis.
If I never see a sky filled with showers of meteors I can still
visualize that night of a sky such as I have never seen again.
New technology has made it possible for astronomers
to uncover amazing discoveries almost daily. As they probe beyond
our solar system, they are finding huge numbers of new worlds.
The Milky Way could contain as many as 10 billion planets. Another astounding fact is that our Earth
is only one of countless billions of galaxies in the universe.
Four hundred years ago, an Italian philosopher and astronomer,
Giordana Bruno, spoke publicly saying he believed such a thing
to be true. He was burned at the stake by the Catholic Church
as a heretic. One fact that has been established makes me satisfied to be an earthling. Uranus, an outer solar system planet, takes 84 years to orbit the sun. Compare that to 365 days for our Earth's orbit around that life-sustaining star. Even worse, the winters there last 21 years! |