THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
70 Falmouth Street      Portland,Maine 04103
(207) 780-4249      usm.maine.edu/planet
43.6667° N    70.2667° W  Altitude:  10 feet below sea level Founded
January 1970
2021-2022: XIX
"A human who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value
of life."
-Charles Darwin


THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Tuesday, September 28, 2021
Governing the Galaxy

Remember that famous fictional character who once marveled at human beings?
"In action, how like an angel! In apprehension, how like a god? Infinite in
faculty," et cetera, et cetera...Well, a perfect example of that infinite
faculty swaggered into the star dome a few weeks ago and asked, "When will
humans rule the galaxy?" That earnest little boy of cherubic appearance and
nine harsh winters appeared almost luminous with excitement. Not wishing to
be a middle-aged wet blanket, I confidently replied, "Oh, certainly in your
lifetime.. Don't neglect your math homework."

The real answer, which I will post here because I know that you're made of
metals stronger than Earth, is: Humans will govern the galaxy the day after
an amoeba takes a seat on the UN Security Council. In other words, never.

For all our traits, both laudable and detestable, humans, even when taken
en masse, are far too teeny to ever exercise any political influence over
the galaxy, let alone reign over it. That we can even harbor an ambition to
become galactically dominant speaks as much to our ignorance of the Milky
Way 's proportions as to the irrational ambitions that impel us to conquest
and destruction.

We understand that "saving the galaxy" or "enslaving the galaxy" is a
common theme in science fiction movies and novels. So many space-faring
paladins from Captain Kirk to the Silver Surfer have often saved the galaxy
from ruin and collapse. And, though we don't wish to seem unappreciative,
the notion of any one human -or superhuman- wielding such power is as
preposterous an idea as a seventh Platonic solid in 4-dimensional
hyper-space.

The Milky Galaxy, an artistic depiction of which is seen below, is so
monstrously huge as to defy all comprehension. We try to convey its size
with some analogies. First of all, if we could construct a scale-model map
of the Milky Way that covered all of North America, our solar system would
fit neatly into the solar system. On that map, one would need a low power
microscope to observe Earth.

[image: MWbranch13.jpg]

If that one model doesn't serve to explain the Milky Way Galaxy's vastness,
we'll try another. From dusk to dawn, one could count about 10,000
individual stars without the aid of a telescope. One could draw 10,000
little black dots on a longer sheet of paper measuring 8.5" x 14," Those
dots would represent all the stars visible to the naked eye during one
night. In order to draw enough dots to represent all the stars in the Milky
Way, one would need a sheet of paper measuring 8.5" by 1500 miles! Imagine
driving down the eastern seaboard next to that immensely long piece of
paper. Since yours is a fervent imagination, envision driving alongside
Julius Caesar. You can jerk your thumb toward that 1,500 mile long column
and say, "No worries. You'll never run out of worlds to conquer." (You can
also imagine that he understands English and won't insist on driving,
himself.)

Before we contemplate galactic conquest, we should at least travel half a
million miles away from Earth. So far, no human has even ventured half that
distance. The three crew members of the ill-fated Apollo-13 mission still
hold the human distance record. They reached a distance of 248,655 miles
from Earth on April 14, 1970. Alien abduction victims apart, nobody has
ever gone farther away from Terra Firma than the Apollo-13 crew.

Well, we have sent robots farther away. Yet, by galactic standards, they've
barely crossed the bedroom threshold. Voyager 1, the most distant of our
robotic probes, is now 14.3 billion miles away and increasing its distance
by 37,800 miles every hour. Even that far flung probe will need 17,460 more
years to even travel one light year, less than one-fourth the distance to
the closest star Alpha Centauri.*

I think we can all agree that we might want to abandon the ambition of
Galactic rule, at least for now. That sad reality is particularly
unfortunate for the Milky Way, as humans have clearly demonstrated a
supernatural capacity for both efficiency and wise governance. All the
same, we will continue to mislead today's youth with hubristic dreams of
galactic conquest. They'll learn in time that such mad ambitions shall go
forever unrealized. That's fine, though. Humans always handle
disappointments philosophically.

*And, it isn't even traveling in Alpha Centauri's direction!

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