ASTROLETTERS
Jeff Hester responds
I really enjoyed David Eicher’s November
2017 editor’s letter, “Making light of gal-
axies,” and the idea of viewing the real
thing through a telescope. I live where
there are fairly dark skies and sometimes
try to challenge myself by searching for
deep-sky objects, such as nebulae and
faint galaxies. It’s not always about how
bright and beautiful the object appears,
but rather knowing that you are looking
at a galaxy that could be 58 million light-
years away, although it only appears as a
faint smudge through the eyepiece. It can
sometimes be frustrating trying to locate
the fainter objects, but it’s so rewarding
when a deep-sky object is found.
With all the available technology and
access to online viewing, it’s refreshing to
read an article that embraces viewing the
night sky with your own telescope. I’m an Oklahoma boy who spent his teen-
age years sitting on a tractor. I’ve read
the Bible cover to cover. The reader and I
might know and respect some of the same
people. But I write for Astronomy as a
scientist, and think it’s important to do so
without dissimulation.
If only creationism were a straw man!
Many who “believe in” evolution and
the Big Bang accept the historical events
but insist on a Guiding Hand. The
thing is, adding teleology to the mix
rejects the very core of those theories.
Repackaging creationism as “intelligent
design” doesn’t change the leopard’s spots.
How did our universe give rise to tardi-
grades and Trump supporters and other
bizarre creatures? As I have discussed in
several columns, the Second Law of
Thermodynamics and Darwinian evolu-
tion get you there.
The reader raises related questions that
would make for fun conversation over a
beer. What caused the Big Bang? A coun-
terintuitive implication of quantum
mechanics is that events require no direct
cause. From eternal inflation to a collision
between string theory branes, most cred-
ible ideas describe the Big Bang as the
result of a quantum fluctuation. Why does
anything exist? Based on the general form
of field equations, theoretical physicists
argue that absolute nothingness is unsta-
ble. The reader also implicitly raises the
anthropic principle, but I’m out of space to
respond. Stay tuned.
— Tom Bryant, Danville, KY
An authentic solar experience
Stellar holiday décor
We saw the breathtaking totality in
McMinnville, Oregon, in 2017. The glass-
es made for great Christmas tree orna-
ments while we await the 2024 eclipse.
— Elliot Perlman, Providence, RI
Lone velocity
Astronomy often writes about the velocity
of various bodies traveling through space,
but without indication of what that veloc-
ity is relative to. An assumption is often
possible, such as the Sun for the Voyager
spacecraft or the Milky Way for the
Andromeda Galaxy, but in the Ask Astro
section of the December issue, I read
that the Milky Way is traveling through
space at 1.3 million mph (580 km/s). This
doesn’t make sense unless the reader
knows what the velocity is relative to. In
the future, please encourage your writ-
ers to include a point of reference when
discussing the velocity of bodies moving
through space.
— John Patterson, Hollywood, MD
Astronomy responds
Sorry for any confusion. The speed we
were quoting is relative to the cosmic
background radiation, which serves as a
standard reference frame when consider-
ing the universe as a whole.
We welcome your comments at
Astronomy Letters, P. O. Box 1612,
Waukesha, WI 53187; or email to letters@
astronomy.com. Please include your
name, city, state, and country. Letters
may be edited for space and clarity.
From nothing to everything?
Most Christians I know believe in evolu-
tion and in a universe created by the Big
Bang. Because of this, it was with amuse-
ment that I read Mr. Hester’s responses
to criticism of “intelligent design.” The
spectacle of him sallying forth with pen-
nants unfurled to do battle with the straw
man of creationism will stick with me for
a while.
I would have been much more
impressed had he addressed the idea that
in a void without even space, where there
was no place or space for time to elapse in,
amid the infinite timeless nothingness, for
no reason, and at no particular time, tons
of energy exploded (and maybe six to
eight times more dark stuff and maybe 15
times more dark energy) to create a huge
amount of space. Randomly. Out of abso-
lutely nothing. And in such a fashion that
13 some billion years later, here we are
amid black holes and aardvarks and uni-
cycles and liberals and all sorts of other
unlikely phenomena.
Now I’m just a dumb old Iowa farm boy
and retired Army first sergeant, but it
seems to me that although Mr. Hester may
be every bit as clever as he thinks he is, the
rest of us are not nearly as lunkheaded as
he dearly seems to believe.
— Steven Imerman, Springfield, MO
Astronomy’s musical impact
A quick note to say that I really enjoyed
the article in the January issue, “The real
music of the spheres,” about music and
the continual influence and pull that
the heavenly bodies have had on artists
through the centuries. It featured great
information about musical and astronom-
ical history. Thank you!
— Mallory Duff, Hampstead, MD
Correction
The “Wonders of the Big Dog” article on
p. 68 of the January 2018 issue states that
Sirius and its white dwarf companion star,
Sirius B, are separated by 4". However,
they have a maximum separation of 11.2",
which will occur in 2025.
W W W.ASTR ONOMY.COM
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