PETER T ELLIOTT
  • Home
  • Meet the Author
  • Mustard Seeds
  • Contact
  • Purchase
  • Recipe

 The Journey series

Mustard Seeds               

Cycles

7/12/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
I continue my examination of relationships with a pattern as obvious as night and day: cycles. Each day the sun rises in the east, traverses the sky, and sets in the west; each month the moon waxes and then wanes; and each year cycles through its four seasons. Water evaporates; condenses in the sky; falls back to Earth; collects in streams, lakes, and rivers; and finally flows to the seas and oceans to begin the cycle anew. And plants and animals pass through various stages in their life-cycles.
    Scientists have also identified a seven-stage life-cycle for stars. The life of a star, they calculate, ranges from forty thousand years to tens of billions of years depending on the star’s size. Obviously, no one ever has, or ever will, observe the entire life of a star. How could scientists have even thought of stars having life cycles? That takes us back to the sets and subsets I mentioned two weeks ago.
    To us, stars began as the spots of light shining in the night sky. As people studied them and developed tools to see them more clearly, they realized there were different types, or subsets, of stars. They then recognized similarities to things that are not stars, things that live and grow. Scientist began to theorize that, just as plants and animals pass through various stages, so, too, do stars. Stars are not living beings, but because of their similarity in passing through stages , scientists identified a life-cycle of stars. They are born when a vast field of space particles collect together until they are dense enough to trigger fusion of hydrogen atoms into helium atoms. They live like this until the Hydrogen is expended and then they die. What can we learn from this?
    Firstly, we won’t begin to examine anything until we first notice it and then observe it closely enough to notice differences. Secondly, we understand things better by comparing them to things with which we are more familiar, noting similarities and differences. We don’t understand anything in isolation, without relating it to other things. Thirdly, being similar to something is not being that thing. Having a life-cycle is a useful analogy for studying stars, but we do not believe that stars truly live.

Click here for Prague Astronomical Clock 600th Anniversary video
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Peter T Elliott

    Archives

    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Meet the Author
  • Mustard Seeds
  • Contact
  • Purchase
  • Recipe