The universe. An ever-expanding
space filled with a hundred billion galaxies, most of which are significantly
larger than our own. A place filled with everything there is and everything
there ever was. A place that holds so many questions, it can make even the
smartest people on earth feel ignorant. For example, how did the vast amount of
energy and matter in the universe originate from a point only a trillionth the
size of this period . ? Or, what is dark
matter, the invisible stuff that makes up 85% of the mass in the universe? And is
there anything out there, in the deep reaches of space, that may resemble life
on earth?
Questions like these naturally
intrigue us all, and works of science fiction provide us with awesome explanation
to these questions. Sadly, many of these works do not accurately depict our
universe, although I also wish I could travel through hyperspace one day. The
real science behind space can be just as intriguing though (and I’m not only
saying that because its my job). For example phenomena such as time dilation,
which due to the relativeness of time, would allow us to slow time down. Or the
collisions of galaxies, that give us a look at some of the coolest crashes and biggest
explosions of all time.
With its unmeasurable size and infinite number of unanswered
questions, the universe can often make us feel insignificant in the scheme of
things. To really let it sink in, we can take a look at the cosmic calendar. If
we put the history of the universe into scale on a calendar, with the big bang on
12:00 AM January 1st, and the present at 11:59 PM, December 31st,
humans have only been around for 8 minutes. While we may feel that all of
history started with humans, that is simply not the case. We are new arrivals
to the universe, and if we could accomplish all of this in 8 minutes, imagine
what has been accomplished elsewhere in hours, days, weeks or even months. Regardless
of how intimidating it may be, the universe is our home, and through the work
of astrophysics and other branches of scientist, we seek to better understand
it every day.
In this short novel, I hope to do my
best to answer some of these questions for you. In no way will I be able to
describe everything about the universe. It would take thousands upon thousands of
these novels to even really get started. And in no way are you going to completely
understand all the information contained in this book. That is alright though. Even the
brightest minds on the planet struggle to wrap their minds around some of this
information. My only wish is that you pick up some knowledge that you can carry
with you. Some knowledge that will make you want to talk about the universe,
and enlighten others. Creating dialogue about space is one of the best ways to
answer its question. And even if this knowledge doesn’t inspire you to become
the next great astrophysicist, I hope that it can make the universe feel a
little less mysterious. So, when you look up into the night sky, at all the
different worlds littering the black canvas of space, you can feel a little
more at home.
Hey Jake,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your preface. The idea that the universe is this grand thing that we really have no understanding but still our home is really interesting. There really is an immense amount of questions we have about the future, and I would want to see how this short novel can attempt to answer these questions to help readers better understand astrophysics.
Michael Om