origin, from the macro to the micro
Janet Kuypers
12/7/16
The thought of it has always gone through our heads.
Where did we come from.
How did this all begin.
When we think of when our mom held us we were little
we wonder, there has to be
something more.
Something bigger, something more, this was ingrained
into our American heads.
We look up to the stars —
and yes, some did that, to understand the greatness
of not only our world,
but of the entire cosmos.
Scientists figured out the laws of physics on the macro.
This is their heaven. And
that is where everything works.
I look at the gold wedding band and engagement ring
on my hand, and think
of the gold, the titanium —
elements we value so much here on planet earth
because they are so rare.
But thanks to astronomy
we know that when the Universe was formed, the only
elements around were small,
hydrogen, maybe helium.
It was only when these energetic atoms gained mass
that they clumped together
and formed the first stars.
Elements from carbon to iron are produced in the cores
of stars, in high temp
fusion reactions there.
But what about those heavy rare elements we ascribe
so much value to?
Well, the scientists
researched (that’s what they do), until they discovered
that collisions of neutron
stars in our cosmos
have the energy to produce elements heavier than iron.
An astronomer named
Berger even said that
“they do it efficiently enough that they can account
for all the gold that’s been
produced in the universe.”
You might think that the death of a star is a nasty thing —
and it is — but that science
makes what we love.
Wow, I love quoting astronomers when it works out
so beautifully like that.
But this is micro —
I’m only thinking locally here, with the metal on my hands,
the hematite I wear, like
what Mars rovers found.
I can look at mountains and canyons from ice age melts
hear a babbling brook
or see a flower in bloom...
And when I look around, I think that these work too —
but now put it all
on a celestial scale,
to observe a close encounter between a small galaxy
and the outer edge
of a larger galaxy,
sending it spinning, to form arms of a new spiral galazy,
not much unlike
our own Milky Way.
The elements in our bodies are formed by the stars.
So make the macro micro,
since we’re made of stardust.
Remember the static on your television is not unlike
the cosmic radiation
scientists found
when studying the universe, when they accidentally
discovered the noise
from the Big Bang.
Wow, it almost makes me starry-eyed to think
of what astronomical
theoreticians may
come up with next, since a scientist’s job is to
postulate theories,
then work to prove
or disprove. And really, how beautiful is that?
Because once you get
the right equations,
micro or macro, that is when everything truly works.
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