ASTRONOMY AND THE UNSOLVED QUESTIONS OF LIFE
Seth Shostak, a writer for the SETI Institute, writes an interesting perspective on the philosophical side of astronomy. In an article at the website of SPACE he says that astronomy is all about the biggest question mankind has: "What's it all about?" This asks what the point of our existence is, including the point of the Earth, the stars, you, me, and everything. He states that "in the interests of mental equanimity" most often this question is in the back of our minds rather than something we consider daily. He asserts that astronomy could help humans to discover the meaning and the point of it all, not by directly answering the question but rather by providing a context in which to consider ourselves.
Shostak asks what astronomy actually says. Up to the dawn of the twentieth century people believed the universe had been around for eternity and always would be. Individuals are infinitely small particles in an endlessly flowing river, or so we believed.
But in the recent past, the answers have been proven. Recently Edwin Hubble proved that the entire universe is expanding, and that recent measurements of the universe show that this expansion is speeding up. The universe is getting larger and larger so that every year there are 20 billion more miles between us and the nearest Virgo cluster of galaxies.
The point to notice with this fact, asserts Shostak, is that an expanding universe must have had a beginning. This is similar to many religious beliefs.
The most important thing to realize, asserts Shostak, is about the Sun. In five billion years it will swell up, eclipse the inner planets, and boil away our world. Our descendants must relocate to a new home in space. Humans will last awhile if they can accomplish this, but they will eventually have nowhere to go. The population boom of stars is definitely over, and the stars are going out. In 100 billion years there will be no stars left in the galaxy and only remnants, black holes, and neutron stars- a hundred billion of them.
Shostak states, "The fun will be over, but the decay will go on. Chaotic encounters will eventually strip planets from the corpses of their erstwhile suns, and galaxies will slowly evaporate- spewing their dark and lifeless contents into the ever-expanding void. Even massive black holes will someday melt away, adding their mass to the inert and keenly cold fog that the universe will become. The cosmos will be a deathly silent graveyard, cloaked in perpetual night."
Shostak goes on to describe how this scenario will occur endlessly, with no reversal. It will continue to expand forever and become forever thinner.
In conclusion, after 100 billion years of activity the universe will fall apart forever. Our brief history of a species is infinitely short in the lifespan of the universe.
Shostak muses that given our apparent insignificance and the doom of all things, it is tempting to try to live in the moment. Also he muses that considering why we're here is pointless and a "temptation to madness." There is only the hope of our discovering something that will brighten the bleak prospects. Shostak closes with the quote by Sigmeund Freud that "anatomy is destiny."