...it's full of stars!
For the past few days I’ve been looking at the above image as my screen background. It is a very small section of the recently released NOIRLab survey of the galactic plane of the Milky Way. Every one of those dots of light is a star. The dataset contains at least 3.32 billion objects.
Then there’s the JWST Deep Field. For perspective, “Webb’s image covers a patch of sky approximately the size of a grain of sand held at arm’s length by someone on the ground…” Every one of those dots of light is a galaxy.
Soon it may be possible to see such sights only from space-based telescopes, as discussed in a previous post. Does it matter?
I think it does. Even though most of Earth’s 8 billion population can no longer personally see the stars in the sky, the knowledge that we can is important, perhaps critical. Knowing that there is a Universe beyond our daily mundanity informs our entire perspective on life. Humanity has always had open horizons, new places and things to discover. It is a core part of who we are. Only in the last century or so have we closed off those perspectives, those options.
One of the more depressing things I do is to read user comments about online news items. Why? Because it exemplifies the masochistic tendency so many of us have. In any article related to space exploration, discoveries related thereto, or advanced research of any type, the trolls extract themselves from under their bridges. Apart from committing a variety of logical errors, the basic assumption behind their comments is “we don’t need no stinkin’ open horizons.” How depressing their lives must be.
How to push back and reverse this tsunami of negativity? I don’t have an answer to that. Staying away from Twitter, Facebook, and other so-called “social media” helps. At a more fundamental level, convincing the appropriate controlling entities that their next-quarter profits are not the most important thing, is perhaps the only way out.
This does not just mean convincing the CEOs of certain companies to change their algorithms. It also means convincing those entities that perhaps filling the sky with bright lights is not a survival strategy. It means convincing those entities that wasting lives and treasure in pursuit of some mythical security is not security at all. It means convincing those entities to stop lying about facts that their organisations have discovered, proven, and hidden. It means being aware of reality beyond your own immediate reach, then acting in larger interests.
At our current level of technological capability, it is not possible for us all to experience The Overview Effect. The closest most of us can come is to appreciate pictures such as those above. A small step in that direction is to ensure that people everywhere can once again see the stars above.