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THE FINAL FRONTIER FROM WONDER TO WEAPONS, SPACE REMAINS MAN'S LAST MYSTERY B

April 30, 2006 1:45 am

EFORE THERE WERE the modern distractions of computers, video games, the Internet, and television programs to entertain us after the sun sank below the horizon, there were the stars. The stars, moon, and planets were my constant companions when I was growing up in the suburbs of Northern Virginia during the 1970s and 1980s--which led to a lifelong passion for astronomy and nature.

I still revel in the majesty and beauty of the night sky after all these years as I realize each star I see is similar to our own sun, but so much farther away.

Because of modern distractions, I fear that our children will lose the connection with the heavens and nature that every one of us should have.

Our ancestors depended on the cycles of the sun, moon, and stars for their survival and to mark the passage of time--but this dependency diminished as technology grew and we sheltered ourselves in our homes after dark. With advanced technology came more outdoor lighting, which brightened the night sky with a murky glow and reduced the number of stars visible to the unaided eye.

Nowadays, from any metropolitan area, the stars visible can be counted on a hand or two--a far cry from my childhood days of seeing hundreds of them at a time.

It is very important for us to understand and appreciate our connection with the heavens as our ancient ancestors did. For example, our sun provides light and heat to drive Earth's weather, and gives life to the plants we eat. In this way, each and every human on Earth is really solar-powered.

Without the heat and light of the sun, most of the life on our planet would die in a matter of months. The sun is so close, yet so far away that it would take almost 177 years to get there if you were able to drive on an imaginary solar-system highway at 60 miles per hour with no bathroom breaks.

It makes me wonder whether our place in the solar system is a privileged spot where life developed, or is this a common place in the universe filled with billions of stars? I will leave that question to the scientists and theologians for now.

Take a walk outside under a clear, dark sky and in addition to the fixed points of light, you will occasionally see what are called "shooting stars." These are not really stars but pieces of cosmic debris called meteors burning up in our atmosphere. These meteors are fascinating to watch as they light up and quickly disintegrate in our atmosphere, but they can also have catastrophic consequences to life on our planet if they are large enough to survive the trip to Earth's surface.

The extinction of the dinosaurs is thought to have been caused by a large meteor or comet im- pact millions of years ago--and Hollywood took note of these cosmic collisions with movies like "Armageddon" and "Deep Impact" that brought the cataclysmic events from outer space to movie screens on Earth.

True events, similar to the ones depicted in those movies, were also brought to life in 1994 when several pieces of Comet Shoemaker-Levy smashed into the planet Jupiter. The event was so immense that large black spots were visible on Jupiter for weeks through my backyard telescope.

Had this comet smashed into our planet, humankind and most other life on Earth would have met a fate similar to that of the dinosaurs. Thanks to astronomical research, we humans were able to safely watch the events unfold from millions of miles away, proving that exploration of the universe is vital to our very survival.

Exploration of the universe is a natural part of human progress. Just as human curiosity and exploration led to the discovery of the Americas, exploration of the universe is yielding new and exciting findings which ancient civilizations could have never imagined. Modern spacecraft are being sent to the solar system's planets and beyond--reminiscent of great human explorers like Magellan and Columbus but on a far vaster scale.

Speaking of astronomical scales, the farthest manmade object from Earth is currently the Voyager I spacecraft at 8.8 billion miles. It was launched from Earth in 1977. The spacecraft carries with it a gold record album of sounds and pictures from Earth, along with the location of our planet just in case the craft is ever found by an extraterrestrial civilization.

Voyager I and its companion Voyager II toured the outer planets of the solar system from 1979 to 1989, and both spacecraft continue to send precious data back to Earth from where the sun's influence ends and outer space begins.

In addition to the Voyagers' discoveries, two spacecraft, the Mars Exploration Rovers, landed on Mars a few weeks apart in January 2004 and found evidence that the rocks at one landing site were once covered with liquid water. This discovery suggests that life could exist in other parts of the universe besides our own planet.

The Voyagers and the Mars Exploration Rovers are the modern emissaries from Earth. By acting as humankind's extended senses, they are trailblazing the way for future human exploration.

The future of humankind is written in the stars we see at night. One day, humans will outgrow Earth and venture elsewhere in the solar system. Perhaps in the future, technology and science will enable humans to settle on the planet Mars, making humans the first "Martians" on that planet.

As the beneficiaries of astronomical exploration, we humans may one day make a discovery analogous to the Rosetta Stone, solving questions involving both science and religion.

Perhaps the discovery will arrive as a radio transmission from an advanced civilization in the universe which encounters a human-built spacecraft such as Voyager I floating silently in interstellar space.

If intelligent life were discovered outside of Earth, the impacts to the scientific and religious communities of the world would be prodigious. Human destiny would forever be changed, as the underpinnings of both science and religion would be opened to re-examination.

That's a lot to contemplate under a starry night sky, but it sure beats modern distractions.