Stellarium (Origins): A Space-Time Adventure to the Ends of our Universe
Read Stellarium (Origins): A Space-Time Adventure to the Ends of our Universe Online
Authors: Fabricio Simoes
STELLARIUM
A Space-Time Adventure
to the Ends of our Universe
Book 1:
Origins
FABRICIO
SIMOES
Copyright © 2016
Fabricio Simoes
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 1523901896
ISBN-13: 978-1523901890
Translated from the original
(Portuguese)
by
Sarah E. Green
Author's
note about Physics and Images in the book:
This is a work of fiction. The author tried to make the plot as
accurate a reflection as possible of the latest discoveries in Cosmology,
Astronomy and Astrophysics, only deviating from these findings when the narrative
structure called for it. Any resemblance to names, people, real-life facts or
situations described in other works is purely coincidental.
Throughout the book, photos of real situations were used, but placed in
a fictional context. The original descriptions and contexts, as well as the
credits, can be found at the end of the book.
To my family.
Many people have contributed,
directly or indirectly, to the creation of this project. However, I would like
to formally thank all those who dedicated their time to making this book the
best it could be.
Thus, I am grateful to my wife
Emilyn for her feedback, corrections, support and suggestions throughout the creation
of this text. To my kids for the inspiration they offered me. And to all of
them for their love and affection.
Thanks to my family and friends
for their invaluable encouragement during this project.
I want to thank my good friend
José Alberto for his thorough review and for giving me such significant input,
which was eventually incorporated into the plot of the story. Also, thank you
to Sarah, who made this English version of the book possible.
And I cannot forget to thank you,
reader. If you have decided to read this book, a work about space exploration,
it is because we share the same interest, and, thus, I sincerely hope that you
enjoy it.
Finally, I would like to thank
all of those who are enthusiastic and passionate about science, knowledge and
the human experience. Those who, with small gestures and without expecting anything
in return, make our world a better place.
worm·hole
/
ˈ
w
ə
rm
ˌ
hōl/
A wormhole, or Einstein-Rosen
bridge, is a hypothetical topological feature that would fundamentally be a
shortcut connecting two separate points in space and time.
Source: Wikipedia
It was two o’clock in the morning
at the McDonald Observatory of the University of Texas (UT), located
approximately 400 miles west of Austin. The sky, far away from artificial city
lights, was clearer than normal.
Inside, a young astronomer was
busy collecting data for one of her research projects with the graduate program
at UT Austin. Her name was Allison Scheffer. Upon receiving her degree in
Astronomy from USP (University of São Paulo) in 2013, she had become the first
woman to finish the program, which had been created only five years prior. And,
as a result of her impressive determination, commitment and all-encompassing
curiosity, she had been able to publish two scientific papers in important
American scientific journals.
Allison had been living in the
United States for a little over a year. She had been accepted into the graduate
program, and, over the last few months, she had managed to fulfill all of the
requirements to go directly for her Ph.D. at the UT Astronomy Department. Her
specialty and area of interest focused on dwarf galaxies.
As a requirement for her
doctorate, she had to fit her interests into the area of expertise of her
advisor, a renowned astrophysicist in the field of dark matter. Thus, she hadn’t
had to think twice about which galaxy to focus her studies on: the Draco Dwarf Galaxy.
Draco is a small system on the
outskirts of the Milky Way, and can be seen within this constellation. It is
located approximately 250,000 light years away from Earth. This galaxy has the
largest concentration of dark matter in the known universe.
Allison had already been
monitoring some of the stars in this system as part of her undergraduate work, as
well as out of plain curiosity. Nonetheless, she would need to specify her
focus and further define her research questions. The theoretical study that she
had carried out over recent months, as well as a few visits to a small, amateur
observatory in Burnet, TX, had allowed her to prepare for her big night at the
UT observatory.
After three months on the waiting
list, she would finally have the entire facility at her disposal for a full
night of observation. The intense stress, the weather forecast tracking, the
worrying about having to reschedule in case of rain—it was all over. It was a
perfect night! It was early autumn in Texas, in the year 2015. It was 70
degrees outside that night, with a slight breeze blowing in from the Southwest.
Allison had already seen several
objects of interest in the Draco Galaxy. She looked toward the sky searching
for inspiration, or somewhere to begin. Then, suddenly, one star in particular
caught her attention.
“That can’t be right,” she
thought. “That doesn’t make any sense! It can’t be right,” she repeated to
herself as she verified the coordinates, searched for information in the
literature, and checked to see when the telescope had last been calibrated.
“Yes... it’s there... but it
shouldn’t be. I’m not going to call my advisor at this hour, but I’m also not
going to have access to this observatory’s resources for at least another two
months... I need to figure out what’s going on,” she thought.
Allison spent the next hour
searching for any information she could find on the star. She discovered that
it had never been studied, but, after checking the International Star Registry
database (an unofficial record of star names, primarily maintained by amateur
astronomers), she discovered that the star had been named by someone in
Australia. This name was obviously not used or recognized by the scientific
community, but, since it was registered in the ISR, Allison had someone that she
could get in touch with, someone who had seen that star before, and who had
even given it a name.
Without thinking about it too
much, she jotted down the name and phone number of that stranger who lived in
Melbourne. It wasn’t even 7 o’clock at night in Australia, so, she concluded,
“better to call this guy than wake my advisor up in the middle of the night.”
“Good evening, my name is
Allison. I'm an astronomer and I’m calling from the United States. Could I
please speak with Mr.—”
“Stuart?” said the person on the
other end, interrupting.
“That’s it! Could I speak with
him, please? It’s about the star that he named ‘Valkiria’ in 1985.”
“Yes, my name is Valkiria. My dad
named a star after me the day I was born. Hold on just a second, I’ll go get
him.”
A few seconds later, a rough
voice got on the phone:
“Hello, this is Stuart. Who am I
speaking with?”
“Good evening, Mr. Stuart. My
name is Allison Scheffer, and I'm an astronomer doing my Ph.D. at the
University of Texas. I’m sorry for calling without having introduced myself or
sent you an e-mail, but I’m at the observatory right now with a 100-inch
reflector telescope and a spectral telescope big enough to see Valkiria—not
your daughter, but the star that you identified in 1985.”
“Hmm!” he exclaimed, “it must be
important, huh? So, how can I help you?”
“Well, really, it’s nothing too
pressing; it may not end up being anything important... I’d just like to
confirm one thing: when you saw the star in 1985, was it located at the
coordinates that you recorded? Did it ever move or deviate from that spot?”
Allison asked.
“What do you mean ‘move’?”
inquired the old Australian astronomer.
“If it ever moved away from the
point in space where it was when you recorded it,” she explained. “It’s clearly
on a different trajectory. For example, if I look at the coordinates that you
recorded for the star in 1985, when you identified it, there's nothing there.
However, if I shift the telescope a few tenths of a degree toward the
trajectory that the star seems to be traveling along, I can see it.”
“That’s quite strange... it would
mean... well, at least it shouldn’t be that way. I named that star in 1985 when
my daughter was born. That’s because I saw that star in that galaxy, on that
day, with a very unusual color, and it was really beautiful. After that, I kept
track of it until my daughter became a teenager. I used to always show her ‘her
little star’ whenever we would go to the observatory where my dad worked.
Unfortunately, he died several years ago, and we never went back there... but
during that time—for over 15 years—it was always in the same spot. So, I can
assure you: the star that shares a name with my daughter, at least until the
year 2000, was always at the same coordinates,” explained Stuart.
“Thank you, Mr. Stuart, that’s
what I was hoping to confirm,” said Allison. “Apparently, something happened
over the last 15 years which threw that system out of balance. Or, better yet,
something happened in a period of 15 years, 250,000 years ago, since that’s how
long light takes to get here, which caused this anomaly. Your daughter’s little
star is moving now, traveling along a trajectory. I’ve already compared it with
some previous photos of Draco, and it looks like there was a disturbance that
altered the system. I’m going to keep monitoring its coordinates over the next
few years; I’m really curious to figure out what happened there.”
“Thank you, Ms. Allison. I’m a
little rusty... it’s been a while since I’ve read up on the latest discoveries,
but the only thing I can think of is that a high gravity body entered the
system, maybe something strong enough to provoke that kind of chaos, but still
small enough not to cause a collapse. But I also know that gravitational
disturbances don’t come out of nowhere, much less in that little, tiny galaxy
with such low-energy stars, but anyway, I’d appreciate it if you would keep me
in the loop.”
“Of course,” she replied, “it
would be my pleasure. I’ll send you an e-mail with my information. We’ll be in
touch. Thank you so much for your time. It was a great talk.”
In that moment, the young
astronomer looked back at the sky and thought: “It’s definitely something to
explore. There’s potential for years of research here. If I manage to collect
enough data, I can develop something that not only can I use for my Ph.D., but
something that will open doors to a post-doc.”
It was time to wake up her boss.
Image 01
– McDonald Observatory, University of Texas.
(credits and details on the final page)