full moon, showing the Northern lights aurora in 2015.Universal Images Group via Getty Images
I awoke from my slumber full of energy and ready hit the gym. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of browsing social media only to find this headline, “Texas Tech’s Tyler Owens Doesn’t Believe In Space,” on the ESPN College Football Instagram page. At first, I thought it was a joke. I decided to dig a bit deeper. After watching the young man’s interview at the NFL Combine, I realized that he was serious. Yahoo Sports reports that Owens said, “I don’t believe in space…. I’m real religious, so I think we’re alone right now. I don’t think there’s other planets and other stuff like that.” As a scientist of faith, it felt right to use the situation as a teachable moment of science literacy. Here are four ways that we know space is real.
mountains of Waterton Lakes National Park, Alberta, Canada, with the Space Station rising at right, then fading into sunset, in a trail from the series of long exposures.VWPics/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
The Sun….
My friend George Harris cuts to the point in a comment on my social media page. He writes, “I have one question for him: Do you see the sun during the day and stars at night?” NASA’s website says“Our Sun is a 4.5 billion-year-old yellow dwarf star – a hot glowing ball of hydrogen and helium – at the center of our solar system…. 93 million miles (150 million kilometers) from Earth.” Our daily patterns, weather, ocean processes, food production, plant growth, and so much more depends on energy from sun. For example, no trees or vegetables would grow without the process of photosynthesis.
on August 8, 2020 during the heatwave.NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Moon….
I look up most nights and see the moon. Revisiting NASA’s website, the space agency says, “Earth’s Moon is the brightest and largest object in our night sky…. makes Earth a more livable planet by moderating our home planet’s wobble on its axis, leading to a relatively stable climate.” If you vacation or live near a beach, you are likely familiar with tides. Tides are caused by the gravitational forces of the moon and even a little bit from the sun. NASA’s website goes on to note that Earth’s only natural satellite was likely formed, “…. After a Mars-sized body collided with Earth several billion years ago.” By the way, you may be surprised to learn that the Odysseus spacecraft landed on the moon last month. Humans first landed on the moon in 1969. Ironically, there are conspiracy theories about that too. Space.com has a nice article debunking them.
Spacecraft Odysseus lands on the moon from Scorpius Space Launch Company in Torrance, California, on February 22, 2024.AFP via Getty Images
The Stars….
Like many of you, I remember as a child learning about the Big Dipper and Little Dipper. Raise your hand if you spend time staring at the night sky to try to find them. As I write this, I am flashing back to many library visits to find books about the stars and planets. This was before the era of Internet searches. It was also fun to search for the North Star or shooting stars and on some nights even see planets like Venus or Mars. If these things do not exist, what are we looking at every night?
Telescope, which created the highest-resolution images of the infrared universe ever captured.NASA via Getty Images
The Pictures
We have so much evidence that planets and other space phenomena exists that it is silly for me to list only four things. We have images of Mars rovers scurrying around on the planet. Massive telescopes like Hubble and James Webb are revealing things about space that are simply stunning and humbling. Views of Earth from spacecraft and the moon are constant reminders of our place in the solar system. They are also reminders that there is no “Plan B” Earth so we must be good stewards of the planet.
I understand, perhaps, what the young man was likely trying to say, and he will likely clarify his perspective in time. There is often a false narrative that faith and scientific understanding cannot exist together. I have spoken to people who do not believe dinosaurs existed or question geologic records based on certain faith perspectives.
My colleague Dr. Amanda Townley is a noted scholar and the new head of the National Center for Science Education. She has navigated the faith and science tightrope most of her career. Like me, Townley is a scientist of faith. She recently told Jeffrey Mervis of Science magazine“The challenges of having those conversations with people in my own community—family members, teachers, ministers, and the like—sparked my desire to not only become a scientist, but also sent me on a path toward evolutionary biology and science education.”
Even major scriptures from various religions mention creation of the sun and other celestial entities. Many of the major religions of the world also use calendars based on lunar cycles. My speculation is that the young man likely conflated the debate about life elsewhere in the universe with comments about scientifically defensible things.
Spectrometer (APXS) to analyse the Yogi Rock on the surface of Mars, during the Mars Pathfinder exploratory mission, July 1997. The rock was thought to be composed of basalt. (Photo by Space Frontiers/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)Getty Images
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Dr. J. Marshall Shepherd, a leading international expert in weather and climate, was the 2013 President of American Meteorological Society (AMS) and is Director of the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Atmospheric Sciences Program. Dr. Shepherd is the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor and hosts The Weather Channel’s Weather Geeks Podcast, which can be found at all podcast outlets. In 2021, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Prior to UGA, Dr. Shepherd spent 12 years as a Research Meteorologist at NASA-Goddard Space Flight Center and was Deputy Project Scientist for the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission. In 2004, he was honored at the White House with a prestigious PECASE award. He also has received major honors from the American Meteorological Society, American Association of Geographers, and the Captain Planet Foundation. Shepherd is frequently sought as an expert on weather and climate by major media outlets, the White House, and Congress. He has over 100 peer-reviewed scholarly publications and numerous editorials. Dr. Shepherd received his B.S., M.S. and PhD in physical meteorology from Florida State University.
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2024-03-02 14:09:59
#NFL #Prospect #Space #Real #Reasons
