THE SKY THIS JUNE: SO IT'S 14 BILLION YEARS OLD...WHO CARES?

A recent column in the Southeast Missourian asked several astronomically related questions concerning the discovery of a 14 billion year old something and in general asked, who cares? They are fair questions that deserve answers.

In regards to the latest discovery of a 14.7 billion year old something, the question was raised, "How do they know it's that old?" Astronomy and History are intimately related. We see the Moon as it was 3 seconds ago. We see the Sun as it was 8 minutes ago. We see the planet Jupiter as it was over 1 hour ago! The reason we can't see how these objects look now is because it takes light that long to travel the great distances between those objects and ourselves. The nearest star takes light over 4 years to travel the distance. Light from the nearest large galaxy takes over 2 million years to reach us!

These distances were calculated in a variety of ways. Within our solar system we can bounce radar signals off the planets and measure the time it takes to get a signal back directly. For stars, we see how dim they appear compared to our sun and calculate how far away they must be. Distances to galaxies are usually determined by knowing how fast they appear to be moving away from us. In an expanding universe, the farther away something is, the faster it appears to move away from us (this is Hubble's law).

But, who cares?" It is good for society to ask what it gets back from its investment in science, and it is good that all elements of society are required to justify themselves from time to time. It is easy to understand why scientists do science. Few things compare to the excitement of discovering something new or understanding a concept that has never been understood before. It's like discovering a hidden lake up in the mountains that no one else knows about. But who, besides the scientists, really cares about 14 billion year old galaxies?

The answer is that behind the single event of discovering a 14 billion year old galaxy is an army of engineers and scientists who built upon the work of their predecessors since the beginning of mankind to develop the technology and capability that allowed the measurements to happen. Thus, science is used, in part, as the driver for our technological development. So while 14 billion year old galaxies don't seem to have any relevance to your life, with out it you may not have a microwave oven, computer, Tang, or an Internet browser to reach for the next time you need one.

The Internet browser, for example, was invented by high energy physicists in Europe because they were tired of having to e-mail images and text to each other all the time. That simple, on the side, invention has changed society forever.

If astronomers were good at business, we would tell you of the impending doom when the Sun will swell up in size, engulf the Earth, and fry us all to cinders. Then everyone would see the wisdom of studying the stars. We would strategically leave off the fact that it will be 5 billion years before this happens. But there are few millionaire scientists. Part of our joy is sharing our discoveries with everyone else. So go ahead, ride on our shoulders. We don't mind. The next time you are lost in Kansas, turn on your Global Positioning System (GPS) and find out where you are, but remember its accuracy is based on the positions of the stars.

The sky this month begins to liven up a bit as the milky way edges its way up in the east. The bright star Vega (of Contact fame), is high in the east while Scorpius the scorpion is low in the south with the bright red star Antares being the heart of the scorpion. Mars adds a ruby splendor high in the south next to the bright star Spica. The planet Venus dazzles us from the west and is starting to enter into its crescent phase which can be easily seen in a small telescope. The bright red star Arcturus is overhead. We are seeing more stars now because we are looking into the plane of our galaxy instead of looking up out of it. But who cares? I do.

~Dr. Michael Cobb is an astronomer and chairman of the physics department at Southeast Missouri State University.