McKnight Alan - Cosmic adventure: other secrets beyond the night sky

The universe hardly needs a public relations rep, but by sheer good luck or divine design, that has been my job description since 1974. Thats when my first astronomy column was launched; it was written for Woodstock Times , the largest weekly newspaper in the upstate New York area I call homeand Im still meeting that deadline.

The sky has always been my passion. Before I was thirteen, Id read every astronomy book in the local library; while friends were absorbing baseball stats, I memorized the names and distances of every star in the heavens; and in college, I took every astronomy course offered. Only my involvement with skydiving and overseas motorcycle touring prevented an astronomical case of nerdship.

Luckily, Ive been able to combine my sky fixation with a parallel love of writing in a career that lets me present the facts, discoveries, concepts, and awesome wonders of the universe the way people (myself included) really like to learn about themand that is with exuberance and humor rather than the needlessly pedantic drone of cultural enrichment or science education. Years of lecturing have taught me that most people have no desire to fool with charts or learn the fainter constellations; they appreciate when astronomys newest fascinating facts are served with playfulness, or maybe even a philosophical outlook.

This book allows me to explore topics beyond the thematic limitations of my Discover magazine column or my first book, Secrets of the Night Sky , which cover amazing, little known, and sometimes funny aspects of celestial objects. For in those arenas I am unable to include an underlying realmastounding, seldom-examined facets of the world around us and the universe beyond. Here, I hope, the reader will join me in venturing to the heart of things fabulous, frivolous, and even hilarious. Well probe the quirky nature of some basic physical realities (for example, why water, the most common compound in the cosmos, isnt a gas at room temperature like other molecules of its size and weight) and have fun orienting ourselves to celestial-language oddities (to orient yourself comes from the old belief that youd be headed correctly if you knew which way Eastthe Orientlay).

Among other challenges, readers will address the link between contemporary ideas of cosmology and the limitations of the human brains logic system, a linguistic handicap in the way of solving such issues as What lies outside the universe?

Here I can finally present astronomy in a broader context: What was the single most astonishing discovery of all time? Why is there more cloudy weather around the time of full moon? What, realistically, would an alien invasion really be like? What were the biggest cosmic goof-ups, the greatest space disasters?

This book allows us to probe such odd alleyways as the official international organization that labels the universes contentswith such disparate names as Puck and Centaurus Aand the story behind that company in Illinois that names stars after people, for a price.

Here we look at the sacred chestnuts and the cosmological clichs, and explore everything from bizarre Einstein lenses that warp galaxies like funhouse mirrors, to the increasingly persuasive non-existence of time, to myths and little-known facts about the extreme edges of the cosmos.

To a public that is generally clueless about astronomy (how many know that the moon crosses the sky from left to right?), I wanted to impart fascinating data such as the fastest spins of diamond-hard pulsars; what it would really take to terraform Mars; what is the only truly original concept in cosmology; and how anyone can quickly figure the distance to the horizon when flying in a commercial jet.

It all makes this book a motley stew that has been prepared and seasoned not only for the intelligent layperson with no astronomy background, but certainly also for the celestial devotee who is overdue for a breeze to blow in fresh ways of viewing old celestial friends.

For most people, a particular scent can evoke a memory. For me, heavenly bodies sometimes flash a personal earthly connection. Since its almost impossible to separate the astronomy part of my life from the rest of it, these essays include some personal journeys and reflections; Ive also confided accounts of a few of the many strange people, events, and experiences that sprang to mind while researching and writing this book.

Neither my talented editors nor I could devise some logical order to the following chapters. Hubris, of course, but I like to think that reflects on a microscale the wild abandon seen orchestrated in the layout of the galaxies and constellations.

And that is why our topics meander from compulsions to time running backward to the discovery of Uranus to the explosions of the Challenger and the Hindenburg . The only link is my honest desire to have readers accompany me on quests to stretch the mind, challenge prevailing concepts, and explore ideas (from idiotic to inspired) about the very nature of the cosmos and the capabilities of human intellect. Its a roller-coaster ride.

I hope you enjoy the turns and surprises as much as I have.

E ither life is always perfect and this flawlessness is cloaked by our ignorance, or else frightening snakelike patterns slither menacingly across a cosmos whose motif is accidents and heartbreak.

Buddhists and Hindus have it both ways. Their pundits declare that a fascinating bit of theater is at play, creating the ups and downs of lifea seductively realistic chimerawhile a deeper meaning lurks in everyones underlying storybook. Blown opportunities coexist with a perfection worthy of a finely crafted novel. Wheels within wheels.

Granted, its hard to fathom any deeper meaning when fifteen years work vanishes as an exquisitely instrumented unmanned spacecraft explodes on liftoff. Or find consolation for the tenacious comet hunter who finally discovers what becomes the brightest comet of the centurybut finds it six hours after someone else. So it is another whose name gets blazoned across the heavens, who gains instant celebrity, lands prestigious appointments, and rides off into the moonset.

The solar system, too, is full of losers. Venus is just 30 percent closer to the sun than Earth, yet thats enough to make it the most stifling hellhole in the known universe. Going the other way, a fifth planet, beyond Mars, never quite formed because of insistent gravitational meddling from outer planets. What lesson is there from one of the solar systems children being stillborn?

The most gifted artist I ever met spent an entire year on his magnum opus. Oils on which he invests a mere two weeks look like museum treasures, so I can only wonder about the glorious masterpiece forged by that years dedication. Ill never know, because when the painting was finally completed, he wrapped and carefully tied it to the rooftop luggage area of the intercity bus on which he was traveling in Asia. But upon reaching his destination, he discovered that the painting was gone. The twine had snapped!

Like a crazed, disconsolate wanderer, he pathetically set out on foot to retrace the bus route. He walked the entire sixty miles, examining both sides of the rural road, stopping at every village to offer a generous reward. All for nothing.