ANOTHER SOLAR SYSTEM! (WE'VE GOT COMPANY)

Victor Bloom MD

The first page of Friday's (April 16) New York Times shows a grieving Kosovo woman in agonizing full color, and right next to it, a kind of transcendent message from the world of science. It was astronomical and amazing at the same time, tending to lure our attention away from earthly woes.

The astronomical discovery, which has been confirmed by several astronomers, is the first 'proof' that there are other solar systems around other suns. You would think this finding is not really news, but up until now, the idea of other planets around other stars such as ours, was only and theory and probability. Here is

an example where theory is confirmed, so that it can be categorized as 'fact' in the real sense of the word. I looked at the picture of the star, which looked quite serene and pristine, but failed Hermes Handbags Replica

to see any planets. Disappointed, I read on:

"Although Upsilon Andromedae is a nearby bright star visible to the unaided eye, the three planets cannot be seen even with the most powerful telescopes. Astronomers infer their existence, orbits and minimum masses from years of careful study of their gravitational effect, characterized as reflex motions, on the host star. In their orbital courses, the planets tug first one way and then the other on the star, causing ever-so-slight changes in the stars' velocity. This observational technique has been responsible for the detection of 18 Jupiter-class extra-solar planets since 1995, when Swiss astronomers found the first planet around another normal star, 51 Pegasi. Dr. Marcy and a colleague, Dr. R. Paul Butler, made the most of the subsequent discoveries."

Imagine, calculating the presence and size of planets light-years away! Amazing that earthling astronomers can determine variations in a star's velocity. Remember that we are all rushing outward, as if from a big-bang. And yet the stars look so steady in the sky, and are so much so that ancient mariners were guided by them, and our own axis, at a tilt from our orbit around the sun, continually points toward the North Star. Try to conceptualize the fact that as these planets revolve around its sun, they make the star wobble a bit, enough for us to detect. Since the variations are determined by mass and gravitational pull, the exact mechanism we are familiar with on earth is the moon's pull on the waters of Tag Heuer Carrera Replica

our oceans, causing the tide to ebb and flow.

Can you imagine intelligent beings, light-years away, measuring the gravitational pull and mass of our moon from the rise and fall of our ocean waters? Or the Patek Philippe Aquanaut Replica

wobble of the earth from the influence of not only our moon, but the other planets of our solar system?

It so happens that these three planets are called "Jupiter-class", because they are the size of our large Jupiter. Our Jupiter is far away from the sun, but their Jupiters are relatively close by, one revolving around its sun in Breitling Bentley Replica

only four hours. Science-fiction afficionados have already pictured in their minds' eye a sky much different from our own. Imagine three moons, much bigger than ours in the night sky. Imagine one visibly moving! From what we know, those large planets, close to their sun, would be baked and scorched, and not habitable to life as we know it.

However, we also find life on earth where we did not think it was possible, and micro-organisms which have survived centuries, maybe millennia, in dormant, spore forms. Theories abound that our own life came from other planets, maybe even from planets outside our solar system. These scientific theories seem to clash with much religious doctrine, and so it was that Galileo was forced to recant and Copernicus was deemed incredible. And yet the scientific observers were right, and the church had to adapt to established fact.

What is organized religion in the Western world going to make of the probability of other planetary systems and intelligent life? What is a better answer, than "God works His wonders in mysterious ways?" It is written that God gave humans free will, and with that will they have developed various religious sects and organized religion, while others have been led by urgent curiosity to learn more and more about the physical world. Scientists can also be religious, and the religious may have an active interest in science. The two need not be antagonistic to each other.

But science is intrinsically amoral; morality seems to be the province of religion. It is too bad, considering that grieving Kosovo woman, that science has been used to kill people, and religion has not prevented man from killing each other.

It is the saving grace of science, that it expands and enriches our consciousness of ourselves and the world, and hopefully the behavioral sciences, in concert with religious studies, will find ways to help people live together cooperately, instead of destructively.

Dr Bloom is Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Wayne State University and member of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis. He welcomes feedback by email to vbloom@comcast.net.