Sky & Telescope April 1989 [antikvár]

FOCAL POINTCosmic CorrespondenceI seek to contact the scientific community to make a presentation. . . . This letter is the only form of communication I have, because I am in prison.English teachers and romantic neo-Vic-torians both bemoan the decline of personal correspondence. The telephone, jet travel, fax machines, and maybe even night baseball, they say, have all contributed to the demise of old-fashioned letter writing.You wouldn't know it by looking in our mailbag at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.The Blue Arc of Outer Space is energized dust and vaporized matter held within a Spiral Orbit of Light frozen by the absence of Universal Gravity.They come crayon-scrawled on old wrapping paper, laboriously hand-lettered on foolscap, or lithographed in bound volumes complete with color illustrations. Written in magic-marker capitals, spidery antique copperplate, and dot-matrix printout, they arrive in scented envelopes, overnight-delivery packs, greasy paper bags, and even wrapped around rocks.I am interested in getting information on the solar system and the charts given by you are exactly what I need.Each year the Center for Astrophysics receives several thousand letters from the public. Granted, most are the generic "send-me-all-you've-got-on-astronomy" letters from elementary schoolchildren doing science assignments. These receive appropriately generic replies.Global abstinence from March 15 through April 15, combined with curative measures, as needed, can virtually eradicate gonorrhea and much more. How many months have II days?A certain percentage of letters are from certifiable egomaniacs basement inventors, retired engineers, and freelance philosophers with explanations (and improvements) for the universe. Thankfully, few require response.My observation is that everything is in orbit around something else. I was wondering if you knew of any theory about this.But other letters both demand and deserve answers. Every year hundreds of students and teachers, backyard observers, and budding cosmologists write seek-ing information and insight, advice and assurance, recognition and reward. These are our "serious inquiries," the legitimate queries from the center's varied and widespread constituency.I have never touched a meteorite in my life. Could you send me a chip or a whole meteorite?An amateur astronomer seeks the besttelescope for observing the planets. An aspiring astronaut is studying the effects of prolonged weightlessness. A ninth grader needs data on the "absorption and scattering of light." An Italian student wants "notices relative to geological aspects of the Mars Planet." A Malaysian satellite tracker reports an inexplicable sky brightening. A woman from Ohio sends a "meteorite" for analysis and an estimate of its dollar value.In my science project I intend to burst round balloons in transparent spherical containers. The balloons will be coated with a moist material. 1 hope to show that the Big Bang was not a symmetrical explosion. . . .Other observatories get letters, of course. So do magazines like Sky <$Telescope, newspaper science editors, and university physics departments. But why does the center get so many? Visibility is part of it. If you have both "Harvard" and "Smithsonian" in your name, people expect you to know something even if you don't.Dear Sir; 1 owe you an apology. I had seen your name in the papers and assumed you were some flunky or other. Now I find you are an important functionary in one of our great institutions. . . .The diversity and complexity of the queries is astonishing. Even after two decades at the center, I am still surprised (and stumped) by questions about phenomena I have never heard of and could never imagine. The demographics are amazing, too. Letters come from every state, every continent, and every racial, ethnic, and age group.It is generally believed by scientists that the earth is a giant magnet, but this is not quite true. Rather, the earth is, in reality, a GIANT Photoelectric Cell.Obviously," answering letters is time-consuming and taxing. So why bother? First, the Smithsonian Institution, one parent of the center, officially recognizes that "an important personalized aspect of [public education] is answering questions received through the mail."But even if there were no institutional mandate, we would still answer our mail.When I went to college in the 1930s, all we knew about stars was that they were there. . . . How did we end up knowing so much more now?In an age of mass-marketed information and impersonal computer messages, letter writing remains one of the few forms of direct communication between scientific institutions and the people who support them. Our astro-mail represents a tangible link with individuals who share a love of astronomy, a curiosity about the physical world, and a commitment to education.In short, keep those cards and letters coming!JAMES CORNELLThe author is publications manager at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. His most recent popular book is Bubbles, Voids, and Bumps in Time (Cambridge, 1989), a collection of astronomers' essays on cosmo-logical theory.348 Sky Telescope, April, 1989