THE SOUTHWORTH PLANETARIUM
70 Falmouth Street Portland, Maine 04103
(207) 780-4249 usm.maine.edu/planet
43.6667° N 70.2667° W
Founded January 1970
2022-2023: XXXII
Sunrise: 7:16 a.m.
Sunset: 5:33 p.m.
Civil twilight ends: 6:03 p.m.
Sun's host constellation: Libra the Scales
Moon phase: Waning Crescent (43% illuminated)
Moonrise: 2:07 p.m.
Moonset: 11:02 p.m.
Julian date: 2459884.21
"Knowledge is like a sphere; the greater its volume, the larger its contact with the unknown." -David Christian
THE DAILY ASTRONOMER
Monday, October 31, 2022
Egg to Apple - A Guide to Big History IV: Threshold Zero
A lovely translucent lotus blossom gently descended into the dark hollow of the Southworth Planetarium. It halted in mid-descent as its lustrous petals gradually unfurled. Like a balloon propelled by updraft winds, a phosphorescent icosahedron emerged out of the blossom and spun on all axes so that every equilateral side blazed scarlet as it turned toward the flower head. At once, the grandest of all Platonic solids opened to reveal a miniscule figure nestling cozily on a sumptuously furnished ytjt. His had been a deep, restful sleep that had gone undisturbed since long before the blossom's previous stop around Mintaka. Suddenly, his faint smile faded slightly as the Planetarium's dome door was thrown open and then closed with a thunderous bang. The icosahedron snapped shut as it descended into the flower that promptly enveloped it in its closing petals. The blossom then plummeted hurriedly through Earth while the sole occupant's rest remained unbroken, thereby guaranteeing that the cosmos would persist without any discontinuity.
THRESHOLD ZERO: BEYOND THE BEGINNING
The usual sub-heading "Before the Beginning" is as inappropriate as it is nonsensical. The Big Bang event created both space and time within our self-contained Universe and so the temporally relative term "before" makes no sense. Similarly, the word "outside," being spatially relative, is also meaningless. Nothing can exist outside space anymore than anything could happen before time began.
[This moment would be an opportune time to allow your intuition to lapse into temporary dormancy.]
Nothing.
No space.
No time.
No matter.
No energy.
The Universe: the unfathomably vast system containing ten million galactic superclusters and its quadrillions upon quadrillions of stars, likely equal numbers of planets and their attendant moons, did not exist. It wasn't. Not even a ripple. Not even a non-dimensional point of singularity.
So, how did it arise?
Why does it exist and, by extension, why do we exist?
We have no answers, merely ideas. Theories that might well go forever unproven. Principal among these ideas is that of the multiverse: the field or region; cauldron or ocean from which all nascent universes emerge. Those born bereft of favorable conditions perish almost at once, like seeds that go ungerminated. Others persist and, provided that the fundamental forces governing the behaviors of the constituent matter/energy are properly configured, conditions conducive to life will prevail.
We want to envision these Universes as "bubbles" rising from a common source, such as those rising up through a fizzy drink. However, this vision, being spatial, isn't a reflection of reality. The problem is that we're attempting to apply three dimensional principles to what could well be a hyper spatial uber-reality. So, how can we begin to visualize the multiverse?
[This moment would be an opportune time to allow your intuition to lapse into temporary dormancy.]
We can't, at least as far as we know. To explain, imagine a rook on a Scrabble board.* Yes, one can place the rook physically on the board, but the piece, itself, can have no function in the Scrabble game. The rules and game objectives are completely different from Chess and so the rook cannot be present in the game despite its physical presence. Pore through the Scrabble rules** and one will find no reference to the rook. It is undefined and cannot intersect with the Scrabble rules at all.
Similarly, an "alternate" Universe would be governed by different physical laws and could even assume a different number of dimensions that those within our own cosmos. Although we readily acknowledge four dimensions -the three spatial dimensions of width, breadth and length and the one temporal dimension of duration- string theorists speculate that our Universe might contain ten or more. We likely couldn't "enter" another Universe just as the rook can't affect a Scrabble game.
Another notion, posited by String Theory, is that a black hole could "burrow" into a "brane," a multidimensional "object" and cause another "Big Bang" and the subsequent birth of a Universe. As most black holes form after a highly massive star's life ends as Type II supernova, our cosmos has spawned hundreds of billions black holes and, by extension, a similar number of alternate Universes. These Universes, in turn, could also produce black holes provided that their conditions are conducive to the formation of stars. Universes that implode soon after formation or those that never form stars might not produce alternate Universes. This scenario remind us disquietingly of living organisms. Only mature members and those with the requisite internal conditions are able to reproduce.
Although this notion lends itself to some sort of visualization and so seems more intuitively pleasing, we still couldn't visualize any alternate Universes. It might not resemble its parent in any respect. Moreover, a black hole's tidal forces are so powerful that nobody could "enter" the passageway connecting the black hole to the other end. For instance, an intrepid astronaut would be reduced to her component subatomic particles before she came within 200 miles of the black hole's event horizon. Moreover, even if an object could reach the black hole, the attached conduit, known as the Einstein-Rosen Bridge, would likely collapse at once, thereby precluding any conveyance from the progenitor Universe to the one produced by it.
The true problem with threshold zero, apart from its wholly speculative nature, is that it doesn't yield any insight into first causes, the truly bedeviling aspect of physical reality. If universes are produced by black holes, how did the first Universe come about? If the Big Bang produced the Universe, what precipitated the Big Bang? Are these questions knowable or even askable? Perhaps asking "What came first?" is akin to asking, "What's the color of Friday?"
What we do know is that our Universe began about 13.8 billion years ago.
So, now that we've given a nod to the speculative realm of multiverses and the inconceivable hyper-spatial uber-reality that might have given rise to every Universe, including our own, we next proceed to what we do know about what has transpired from the Big Bang to the present moment.
So now we prepare to start the clock.
*Earlier this year we offered the same illustration with a bishop on a Monopoly board.
**Where, dear Uncle, you'll learn that making up words such as "xzqj," the sound produced by a yak striking its head on a bridge abutment, is not permitted.
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MYTHOLOGICAL EGG TO APPLE
PARIS: Not just a shepherd
It was toward the end of Trojan Queen Hecuba's latest pregnancy that she experienced a vivid dream so horrifying she woke up in a desperate panic. She had dreamt that she gave birth not to a child, but to a flaming brand, one that utterly destroyed the kingdom, leaving it little more than a pile of ashes. The distraught queen at once consulted the seer Aesacus, who, also having been one of her husband Priam's sons from a previous marriage, was beloved of the queen and fully trusted by her. Aesacus reluctantly informed Hecuba that the unborn child would, if allowed to mature to adulthood, cause Troy's complete ruin.
Although Priam and Hecuba harbored an abiding love for their children, they resolved to kill the baby just after his/her birth. They were united in the belief that Troy, the town that they built into a mighty kingdom, was more important even than the lives of their own infants. However, as soon as the baby boy was born neither of them had the heart to smother him. All the same, they knew the danger the child posed to their kingdom and so knew that they had to act swiftly.
They summoned their chief herdsman Agelaus to their chamber. On his arrival, Agelaus was shocked to see a baby with the royal couple. "Forgive me, sire, for I would have brought a gift had I known that there had been a birth." Hecuba looked grave. "Noone knew of this birth and nor will they ever." For the very first time, Priam laid a hand on Agelaus' shoulder. "We beseech you to take the baby home and kill him at once." Agelaus started and instinctively stepped back. "Sire?!" Although he didn't raise his voice, Priam's tone was stern, "At once," he repeated, handing the infant to Agelaus. He then turned to and embraced his trembling wife. "Go now, without another word and bring us proof of the deed." Clutching the infant, Agelaus bowed silently and left.
Once he returned home, Agelaus looked upon the beautiful baby and realized that, devoted to the king and queen as he had always been, he could not murder the child. Instead, he brought him out to the side of Mount Ida and exposed him. The miserable Agelaus knew that the elements would dispatch the infant straight away. However, soon after the shepherd left, a she-bear, who had just lost a cub to a wolf attack, saw the abandoned baby and suckled it.
A few days later, Agelaus returned and was both shocked and delighted to see the child happy and healthy under the she-bear's protection. He was also surprised to realize that he had grown to love the child. He quickly snatched the baby away , placed it in a satchel and dashed madly away with the furious she-bear in pursuit. After eluding the she-bear, Agelaus returned home and decided to raise the baby as his own child. Realizing that he needed to produce proof the child's murder, he killed one of his own dogs and cut out its tongue. He then presented this tongue to the King and hurried away.
Aeglaus named his adopted son Pera, which, in Greek means "little satchel." This name eventually became Paris. Paris matured into a tall, lean, beautiful young man who loved nothing more than to roam the countryside tending to his father's sheep. Actually, perhaps one could say that harbored a deeper love for his father's prized white bull. Admittedly, it was one of the most beautiful animals in the world. So fond was Paris of this creature and so convinced was he of its unsurpassed beauty, that he proclaimed, "If there is any bull more beautiful anywhere, I shall crown it with gold."
This boast immediately came to the attention of Hermes, the messenger god and Ares, the god of war. We all know that the gods deplored boastful mortals. "I think we should show that young man a thing or two," Hermes said. Ares nodded with assent and then transformed himself into the shape of the most beautiful white bull. Hermes, who then turned himself into the shape of a shepherd, brought the bull down to Troy and approached Paris, who had been dozing lightly in the heat of early afternoon.
"I hear that you promised a crown of gold to any bull more beautiful than your own," he said without any introduction. Paris awoke with a start and asked the stranger to repeat his words. When he did, Paris stood up. "Why, yes, I did make that promise, not that I ever expect to have to fulfil..." Paris broke off, for he then saw the white bull before him. After having gazed at it for a long moment, Paris walked around the animal many times. During these revolutions he often slapped the bull's hind, caressed its head and stoked its back. Ares bore these impertinences with uncharacteristic equanimity. Paris then regarded the stranger reverently, "Your bull is superior to mine," he said. Paris then gathered up an assortment of yellow flowers and adorned the bull's head with them. "I can only offer meadow gold," Paris explained apologetically. Hermes smiled. "Your honesty is reward enough."
Much time passed until he saw Hermes again. Paris had fallen in love and married Oenone, daughter of the river god Cebren. He remained a devoted shepherd who spent days happily roaming the countryside to tend to his flock. He intended to live a simple shepherd's life with his beloved wife. Yet, it was not to be. One day Hermes returned, this time in the form of Hermes, himself. The astonished Paris regarded him fearfully, for he assumed that he had incurred the wrath of the Olympians. "What have I done?" he asked. Hermes beamed. "You have done nothing that has put you out of our favor. On the contrary, your integrity and honesty has impressed Zeus, himself. He needs you to decide a certain matter that he doesn't wish to settle himself. "
"What is that?" Paris whispered incredulously.
Hermes sighed. "It's a long story. Allow me to explain."
Next time: the wedding of Peleus and Thetis and the judgement of Paris.
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