Earthsky Interviews
Private: Astronomer finds sense of place in universe
09-05-2007 - Space
Photo:
NASA
Keivan Stassun: _The questions that we ask, go far beyond our everyday experience and touch on the grandest and oldest and at some sense most deeply philosophical questions that human beings have ever asked. Where do we come from, what is the origin of all things, will the universe be as it is forever, will it change?_
It was astronomer Carl Sagan who first described Earth as a “pale blue dot”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot in a picture taken by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from the outskirts of our solar system.
Keivan Stassun: _How incredibly amazing it is that in that vastness of space and time, here we are with the conciousness and the mental faculties to be able to look up, ask the questions, try to answer them. And how important it is to protect not only our planetary home, but also to protect the human longing to know, the sense of curiosity – how important it is to develop and inculcate and nurture that sense of curiosity in our next generation. It is what we contribute to the universe that is unique so far as we know._
Thanks to “Research Corporation”:http://www.rescorp.org, America’s first foundation for science advancement.
Keivan Stassum added, “How then does that come back and impact my day-to-day perspective? It comes down to developing a sense of place. And I mean that in two opposite ways. One way is that because we now understand the universe to be so vast, and so old, and within it our own planetary home – tiny, seemingly insignificant – that there is a deep sense of perspective and humility that comes from understanding what a tiny, tiny insignificant little place we hold. We have such a little toe-hold in the universe. Perhaps one indvidual’s problems, our day-to-day concerns, fade away in all of that vastness of space and time.”
More with Keivan Stassun from Earth & Sky:
“Astronomer eyes eclipsing brown dwarfs”:http://earthsky.org/radioshows/49444/astronomer-eyes-eclipsing-brown-dwarfs
“Somewhere between a planet and a star”:http://earthsky.org/article/kevian-stassun-interview
*Our thanks to:*
Keivan Stassun
Assistant Professor
Department of Physics and Astronomy
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, TN