Cosmic Thinking

By John Reed

It all started with a bang -- a cosmic slap on the behind that marked the birth of our universe.  From this unimaginable explosion came space, time and matter, flying out in every direction.  After millions of years this matter began to clump as it expanded from that initial point.  Space itself got larger,  things got cooler.  The universe gradually became something we would recognize.  Galaxies formed from these clumps.  Stars formed from clumps within these clumps.  The galaxies evolved, swirling like cream in black coffee. Stars matured, grew old and became gorged with heavy elements.  Some of these stars exploded in their own small version of the Big Bang.  The heavy elements they expelled mixed with hydrogen that then became scattered across space and eventually coalesced into new stars and even a few planets.

The atoms in our bodies were created in the hearts of stars that went nova untold ages ago.  Those stars were born from a new universe that was just forming eons before that.

The wonder of all this is not that it happened the way it did.  It is not because it took so long or that it took place on such a grand scale.  The wonder is that all of this and much more can fit in the human mind and can even be understood after a fashion.  When the eye looks through the telescope, the mind knows that the image is much more than a blur of light dancing in the field of view.  An animal could see that blur, but Man sees a galaxy.

The wonder of science is in the knowing and needing to know more.  It is something that keeps us going and makes us alive.  As we peer deeper into the universe, we also peer deeper within ourselves and come to some basic understanding about what we are.  The universe would be nothing but a pointless mechanism if we were not there to observe it.  It seems that almost every amateur astronomer realizes this.  Astronomy is not about telescopes, or even observing.  It is about wonder and a wishing to know more.  It is about the magic of holding the entire cosmos in a single thought and being able to enjoy the knowing of it.