Hi friends,
Are there any astronomers here? Or people who, like me, are fascinated bythe skies and the heavens, without training, though -- alas!
If so, you may have been following some most recent stories of new knowledge being revealed by the Hubble Space Telescope. The latest is that the North Star has a hidden companion.
Do you know the North Star? I imagine as a nation who has had plenty of good sailing explorations down through time you know that the North Star is the star that sailors steer their ships by. "...and all I ask is a tall ship, and a star to steer her by. And the wheel's kick, and the wind's song, and a white sail shaking, and a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking."
There is a constellation we call The Big Dipper because it looks like a large pot with a long handle. It's probably in the sky over my house right now. It's always there. Probably it's somewhere in your sky and over some of your houses right now, too. And if you draw a line off the lip of that big dipping pot, your
eye will arrive at the bright North Star. Some call it the Pole Star, or Polaris.
It has long been known that the Pole Star had one companion, but now we know there are at least two. The first one was discovered in 1780 and it can be easily
seen with quite a small telescope. I've never seen it though. I don't have a telescope. Do any of you? The newly discovered one is close to Polaris and is fairly faint. It's a dwarf star. It's only two billion miles from Polaris. That's why it wasn't seen until now. Mmmmmmph! ONLY 2 billion miles!
The North Star is more than two thousand times brighter than our Sun! It's quite remarkable how many "fixed stars" have their own planets. I wonder if Polaris
has planets?
Now, about Space Dust. You know that every snowflake was once said to have a bit of stardust at its heart. I wonder if that's still the case, or if our dirty
little particles of pollution from earth get into the centres of snowflakes now?
I suppose it may depend on how high the clouds are from which the snow falls?
Anyway, a space exploring vehicle is about to land in the U.S.A. It's been out
sampling and collecting for a long time. It is hoped that this will be a "soft
" landing because the cargo is space dust collected from the tail of a comet, and is far older than the earth and our sun. The last such explorer crashed and most of its cargo was lost. Scientists hope this time to learn much more about our system's formation from the precious dust.
Of course, we are made of the dust of our planet, and our planet wasn't always here in space. Once it didn't exist. As I understand it, there was a point of compressed matter smaller than this period at the end of this sentence. The pressure was so great that at last the smaller than a period sized dot exploded in the big bang, and became our galaxy, and everything we know and use and live upon
. Even our own bodies.
So all you wonderful beings, you "moving form of dust" as Baha'u'llah called you
in one of his Hidden Words, take care of your remarkable, ancient and well-travelled material selves. Who knows what other systems or creatures used each of the dust particles that now form you, and when!
Warmly, Mary
