© Mark Ollig
It’s not unusual for folks to wake up extra early on some mornings.
This past Monday, I awoke to see 3:30 a.m. posted on the clock.
Out of habit, I checked my favored online social media and noted a video uploaded by astrophysicist Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, who hosts a popular program called “Star Talk.”
In this "Star Talk" episode, he sits down and chats with William Shatner – yes, the original Captain James T. Kirk of "Star Trek" folklore.
The program opens with a solemn look on Shatner’s face while asking Tyson, “What is space-time?”
Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson considers the question and slowly answers with, “You already know. You have never met someone at a place, unless it was also at a time. You have never met someone at a time unless it was …”
“Well, wait a minute!” Quickly interrupts Shatner.
“What happens to a photon from 13.8 billion years ago that comes this way and enters my eye so I can see it. Where is space involved in that?” Shatner anxiously exclaims.
“It entered your eye at a time and at a place; right here, that’s all that matters,” Tyson smartly responds.
Each of them exchanges their thoughts on universal theory, how space-time exists and is conjoined.
Shatner drifts off into discussing the analogy of people walking and meeting trains on time in the same space-time.
“What is all that about then?” Shatner quickly asks.
“That’s all the consequences of thinking about space and time as conjoined,” calmly answers Tyson.
Shatner stops to think about what Tyson said and then loudly exclaims, “But it’s confusing!”
Tyson laughs and humorously replied, “So? The universe is under no obligation to make sense to William Shatner!”
Shatner also laughs and counters with, “No, but William Shatner is under the obligation to make sense to the universe as you are doing! And why do I slow down as I approach the speed of light? It doesn’t apply to a photon?”
Even at age 90, William Shatner appears at times to maintain control of his mental faculties.
“You want to freak out?” Tyson challenges Shatner, whose attention has become absorbed into this space-time conversation.
“I’m ready, I’m ready,” Shatner excitedly replied.
“The faster you go, the slower time ticks for you as seen by others. As you approach the speed of light, time continues to slow down. At the speed of light, time stops. Which means; for a photon moving at the speed of light, when it is absorbed in your retina, it is the same instant it was emitted at the Big Bang, 14 billion years ago,” Tyson carefully explained to the very attentive William Shatner.
“That’s what I thought!” Exclaims Shatner. “Can we measure that photon, and observe the Big Bang?” He asked.
“Yes. I know that it came from the Big Bang, and I’m watching it and it’s taken 13.8 billion years to reach you, but if you are that photon, it does not experience that time delay,” Tyson explained.
Shatner paused and mused, “What a great science fiction story that is.”
“Instantaneous,” Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson knowingly added.
“When I look up at the night sky and I know that yes, we are part of this universe; we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts, is that the universe is in us,” Tyson said.
I looked at the clock and could not believe it was already 4:30 a.m. I thought about how fast the time went – it didn’t slow down for me at all.
It is still dark outside my bedroom window, and I can see stars in the early morning sky.
There is no traffic along the usually busy street; it is serene and quiet.
Instead of space being the final frontier, it may be that time is; or space-time. I guess it all depends on your perspective.
My being awake in the early morning hours hearing this space-time conversation began to nostalgically remind me of listening to Art Bell’s “Coast to Coast AM” radio broadcasts during the 1990s.
I recalled something my mom once told me about the passage of time and how it goes by faster as we get older.
She is right.
After pondering what Tyson and Shatner discussed, I thought of the Alan Parsons Project song “Time” from 1981.
“Time keeps flowing like a river ... To the sea. Till it’s gone forever, gone forevermore.”
As Dr. Seuss said, “How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before its afternoon. December is here before its June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon?”
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| The Hubble xTreme Deep Field was released in 2012, peering back in time approximately 13.2 billion years. It contains about 5,500 of the most distant galaxies ever imaged by an optical telescope. (Credit: NASA, European Space Agency, Hubble) |
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| "Space-Time" (Image credit Shutterstock) |