Where are all the Astronomers?
This 1888 engraving – Empedocles Breaks through the Crystal Spheres – is reminiscent of the revolution in thought brought about by Nicolaus Copernicus, who was born 552 years ago. The engraving first appeared in a book by Camille Flammarion with the caption: “A missionary of the Middle Ages tells that he had found the point where the sky and the Earth touch.” Image via Wikimedia Commons.
Author’s note: this article first appeared on our Substack and is reproduced here as a courtesy to our supporters and patrons.
“Where are the Astronomers?” was the question that crossed my mind over 2 years ago when I first searched Substack for like-minded individuals such as myself.
Born in 1473, Nicolas Copernicus would have been 552 years old last Wednesday, February 19th and this same question occurred to me now.
So I ask again: where are all the astronomers? With the current war on science and scientific research raging, coupled with the wholesale dismantling of our Federal Government by unelected, unvetted and unqualified buffoons in full swing, any professional astronomer is probably trying to “fly under the radar”. NASA hires them but with just about everyone in the federal government now a potential target for a pink slip, they’re probably clutching their pearls or waiting for that dreaded email or knock on the door.
Very little research is going on. You see, astronomers are those people who warn us about killer asteroids or a possible lethal supernova that could produce the equivalent of a gamma-ray pulse laser aimed directly at the earth.
Are they here, on Substack? No, not really or very sparse at best. At least it was that way on October 1, 2023 when I first published my query. Back then, I searched all of Substack for the word “Astronomy” in the hopes of networking with others. So why did the search return a 10-1-ratio result, heavily weighted to “Astrology”, not “Astronomy” when I never searched for “Astrology”?
There was even a Substack entitled “Flat Earth Astronomy” with no posts. There were some substack accounts with one post or those that were empty, promising that you’ll receive their first post if you subscribe, so please do so and while you’re at it, recommend them.
My search result is quite telling. There exists a 10-1 ratio of Astrologers to Astronomers on Substack and sadly, this ratio is probably representative of the general population. Astronomy is a real science, the oldest of the sciences, Astrology is nonsense. So why is this ratio so lopsided? We’re not producing them, astronomers or any other scientists, in any meaningful numbers.
Their education is being stunted in primary or secondary school and, if they choose to go on to college, some don’t even make it through to the first or second year. If they graduate, they’ll be saddled with what amounts to a small mortgage to pay off their student loans. So why bother? They go out and get a gig or temp job after they graduate high school or drop out of college just to survive without ever making it to Maslow’s third or fourth tier. The vast majority of them have been disenfranchised.
And now, add to the mix, the buffoons running our federal government, starting with the White House, want to eliminate the US Department of Education. You see, in Trump’s cabinet or anyone else who has a meaningful role to play in government, they have to agree with him or they’re gone. Independent thought or function is a thing of the past.
The ones who do make it through to the end and graduate college very rarely choose any of the natural sciences as a major. Some go on to study medicine, a noble calling, but very few study Physics or Astronomy. Many graduate, never having taken a single Astronomy course. These college graduates have no idea how many planets there are in the solar system or that the sun is an actual star. This is truly sad because Astronomy is inspirational, as Plato so eloquently said long ago:
Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.
Since the dawn of history, the beauty of the night sky was, and will forever remain, unparalleled. There is no man-made object, no artificial light, no work of art, no structure, nothing made on this earth by the hands of man that can compare with the night sky on a clear, dark, moonless night.
Many have attempted to put into words what the nighttime sky looks like, its objective beauty, but have fallen short. To reiterate the sentiment of a previous post: “I have seen the universe but darkly.”
And now we have AI that’s going to teach them or write their books and text books? I shudder to think what the world will be like in 100 years when so many have no idea just how far from home we all are. Where are the teachers? Where are the teachers of the teachers?
The featured image above celebrates the anniversary of Nicolas Copernicus’ birth on February 19th, 552 years ago in 1473. Copernicus resurrected the idea of a heliocentric solar system, a concept that had remained moribund for over 1800 years from the time of Aristarchus of Samos who first proposed it in 270 BC, complete with elliptical orbits.
Copernicus published his book “De revolutionibus orbium coelestium” (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres), just before his death in 1543 and is recognized today as a major event in the history of science. It triggered the Copernican Revolution and made a pioneering contribution to the Scientific Revolution.
The timing of its publication is interesting as well. Copernicus was a priest and doctor of the church and it has been speculated that he asked Georg Joachim Rheticus, one of his confidants and only student, someone he trusted, to publish the book on the occasion of his death. He did so to avoid the likely furor and fallout from the pope or the church hierarchy. Rheticus did so and thus began the Copernican Revolution.
Copernicus never knew of the Revolution in Science he had started.
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Call Donald Trump what you will, but the last thing I would call Elon Musk and his crew of young nerds is buffoons. What’s happening in Washington is that for the first time, federal employees are experiencing the same need for evaluation and performance review as we in the commercial world have for our whole working lives. Think of it as an audit, that experience that the federosaurus loves to put the rest of us through but hate to experience themselves.