Requiem of the Stars

 

     It is cold in the depth of my memories. The air is so crisp it burns my lungs as I trudge forward on a darkened path. Everything is quiet in the dark, hidden away until daybreak to move and sing and live again. The perfect illusion of silence is broken only by the crunch of snow under little winter boots and the clanking of a loose metal screw as I set out in search of the stars.

How to Take Northern Lights and Milky Way Photos, According to the Pros |  Condé Nast Traveler   

(image from https://www.cntraveler.com/story/the-amateurs-guide-to-astrophotography) 

     For as long as I can remember, the night sky has been a backdrop in my personal growth. As a child traveling through the mountains, my grandfather found a beautiful telescope long forgotten in the attic that sparked my long standing fascination with the stars. As I aged, I was gifted a NASA quality telescope by my other grandfather. What is important to note about this advancement was that the telescope weighed about a million pounds, was nearly as tall as I was, and was dragged by little hands up more mountains and hills than I can count. When I reached highschool, I became president of the astronomy club, which focused on hosting star gazing parties and partner work with the local colleges astronomy program. After all of these years of constantly gazing at the stars for hours of my life, here I am still sitting in wonder at yet another planetarium show.

  Top-rated telescopes and binoculars for stargazing in 2021

(image from https://www.nbcnews.com/select/shopping/best-telescopes-binoculars-ncna1274719)

     I especially loved the guided planetarium aspect of this week's activities, since I have always loved the movement of stars at my fingertips. But how exactly did this technology come to be? According to the World Heritage Center, the oldest functioning planetarium is the Royal Eise Eisinga Planetarium, which was built sometime between 1774 and 1781 (Eise Eisinga Planetarium). Apparently, Eise Eisinga wanted to disprove that planets moved without reason in the solar system, but actually maintained a set order. While this technology was groundbreaking, today our mechanical and electricity power systems allow us to access and view even more information about the vastness of space. In fact, the first projection planetarium  in the world used a newly designed Zeiss Mark I projector in 1925, less than one hundred years old (Timeline of Planetarium History)! While this early projector was much bulkier and significantly more alien that what we know today, it serves as a valuable stepping stone for the modern era’s fascination and capabilities in space exploration. Even in areas such as Los Angeles, where light pollution is high, students and citizens are still able to see the stars of their local area. 

Eise Eisinga Planetarium - Wikipedia

(Eise Eisinga Planetarium, image from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eise_Eisinga_Planetarium)

     As mankind's fascination with space, much like mine, has continued to grow, the technological abilities we have for exploring space have also increased. One such project I wish to bring up is the Orbiting Frog Otolith NASA project in 1970. While this project may have not made great leaps and bounds into understanding the effects of space on living organisms, it is close to my family's heart. The experiment, which was designed to better understand “how frogs experience space motion sickness”, and how the frogs' inner ear may change to better balance against the weightlessness of space (Garber). However, what made this project interesting to me was my grandfather's involvement (the same one who gave me the NASA telescope). He worked as one of the scientists that managed the frogs, and their eventual dissections to better understand how space changes our natural biological systems. And eventually, his fascination with biology and space passed onto my father, who told us stories of him playing with the space frogs as a young boy. And from my father, that same curiosity was passed down to my siblings and I (though we lack the same space frogs to play with). Orbiting Frog Otolith Package | Download Scientific Diagram

(image of the Orbiting Frog Otolith, curtosy of https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Orbiting-Frog-Otolith-Package_fig1_11804213)

     But why care about biology in space? Why does the potential changes in a frog's ear matter to us? Because, by the current looks of things, space is going to be a massive part of our future. Apparently, “tourists can now pay private companies for a short trip to space”, such as private spaceships and robotic helicopters to explore planets such as Mars (Hobbs). Furthermore, questions about utilizing resources found on distance bodies in space has become a more and more discussed topic. Many of our current studies of meteorites that fall to earth, or of returned samples of moon and space rocks, have given evidence of a natural abundance of minerals and metals that exist in the dark void around us. In fact, as I have continued to research after my visit to the meteor gallery here at UCLA, there are three main kinds of meteorites: Iron, stony-iron, and stony (Lotzof). Iron meteorites are nearly all metal, a material that humans use in most, if not all, of their structures and technology today. Stony-metal meteorites are about half metal and half silicate crystals, and lastly stony meteorites are mostly made of silicate crystals. What is interesting about the three different categories of meteorites is that the type and materials give us an idea of when and how these meteors were formed. As stony-meteorite chondrite must have been formed early on, with some of the earliest materials in the solar system (Kring). In comparison, some meteorites may just be bits and pieces of exploded planets or space collisions. Either way, our ability to analyze meteorites has created the potential for an expansive market that touches the stars, and may fuel the future of human exploration of space, and the future of our ever improving world.

 Make Your Own Edible Meteorites - The National Space Centre

(image from https://spacecentre.co.uk/blog-post/edible-meteorites/)

     The opportunity to receive a walkthrough of the planetarium and a self-guided tour of the meteor gallery were incredibly appreciated, but it must be acknowledged that not all people may experience these resources. However, the Alien Star Dust filter on snapchat can help fill in some of the gaps that those without these resources may lack. The filter allows you to get close to space matter, such as the meteorite-type rock I was able to hold when I tried it out. Materials such as these, which allow everyday people to connect to space and hold a piece of it in the palm of their hands should be incredibly valued due to their inspiring ability. We all have a little bit of stardust in our hearts, and I think that we should continue to foster the infinite possibilities that it can provide.

1) “Eise Eisinga Planetarium.” United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, World Heritage Centre, Aug. 17AD, whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5629/#:~:text=The%20Royal%20Eise%20Eisinga%20Planetarium,still%20in%20its%20original%20state..

2) Garber, Megan. “Frogs in Space: A Brief History.” The Atlantic, 12 Sept. 2013, www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/09/frogs-in-space-a-brief-history/279608/.

3) Hobbs, Candler. “The Future of Space Exploration.” Coe.gatech.edu, 17 Nov. 2021, coe.gatech.edu/news/2021/11/future-space-exploration#:~:text=Several%20new%20things%20are%20happening.

4) Kring, David. “The Structure and Composition of Meteorites.” Usra.edu, 2019, www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/epo_web/meteorites/structure/.

5) “Timeline of Planetarium History.” Planetarium 100, www.planetarium100.org/history-technology/.