WHERE ALL'S ACCUSTOMED, CEREMONIOUS
"Despite the hour, the Kremlin shimmered with electric light from every window, as if its newest denizens were still too drunk with power to sleep. But if the lights of the Kremlin shimmered brightly, like all earthly lights before them they were diminished in their beauty by the majesty of the constellations overhead.
"Craning his neck, the count tried to identify the few that he had learned in his youth: Perseus, Orion, the Great Bear, each flawless and eternal. To what end, he wondered, had the Divine created the stars in heaven to fill a person with feelings of inspiration one day and insignificance the next?” (p.125, emphasis added)
From A Gentleman in Moscow
By American novelist Amor Towles (b 1964)
Four years ago, in February 2016, came the news that physicists had detected "ripples in the fabric of space and time called gravitational waves," the result of two massive black holes colliding, over a billion years ago.
by Seth Borenstein ~ February 11, 2016
from the article: "It was just a tiny, almost imperceptible 'chirp,' but it simultaneously opened humanity’s ears to the music of the cosmos and proved Einstein right again.
In what is being hailed as one of the biggest eureka moments in the history of physics, scientists . . . have finally detected gravitational waves, the ripples in the fabric of space and time that Einstein predicted a century ago.
. . . Because the evidence of gravitational waves is captured in audio form, the finding means astronomers will now be able to hear the soundtrack of the universe and listen as violent collisions reshape the cosmos.
It will be like going from silent movies to talkies, they said."
“It is by far the most powerful explosion humans
have ever detected except for the big bang."
~ Kip Thorne, gravitational theorist ~
Thorne said that when he heard about the wave
“it was just sort of a sigh of happiness.”
[emphasis added]
************************
Three years after the "chirp" of the gravitational wave, came another historic moment. In April 2019, scientists around the world were rewarded, after two years of collaborative research, with direct pictures of two black holes.
by Nsikan Akpan ~ April 10, 2019
from the article: "Black holes are the architects of stars. Black holes 'are sinkholes in spacetime,' said Sera Markoff, a member of the Event Horizon Telescope science council. 'They’re helping mold the shape of galaxies and clusters of galaxies.'
". . . Black holes have captivated scientists for two centuries. Despite decades of indirect evidence supporting their existence, black holes have never been captured by camera — until now. Aside from helping to resolve Einstein’s theories, this first image of black hole may reveal how the universe started and how it might end."
Another way of perceiving gravitational waves:
In this time-exposure shot of one of
LIGO’s interferometer arms in Livingston, Louisiana,
the red lights symbolize gravitational waves,
producing "a tiny, almost imperceptible 'chirp'"
The combination of red and blue light in the gravitation wave brings to mind my favorite feature at the Indianapolis Airport: the ceiling light installation on the covered pedestrian walkway that joins the parking garage to the main terminal:
Artists: Cameron McNall and Damon Seeley
From: Electroland ~ Los Angeles, California
Installation: 2008 ~ Category: Permanent
Materials: Interactive lights with sound; 140 feet by 28 feet
Location: Pedestrian Bridge ~ Indianapolis Airport
As described on the IND website, in the light installation entitled Connections, "Cameron McNall and Damon Seeley have composed orchestrated patterns of color punctuated with blips, dings and other digital sounds actively 'responding' to human movement . . .
"The artistic duo leading the L.A. based firm Electroland, was enticed by the human dynamics and traffic moving throughout the walking bridge at all times. McNall and Seeley set out to create what they call animated art – a combination of light, sound and proprietary movement-tracking technology. When someone enters the pedestrian bridge at Indianapolis International Airport (IND), a path of lights overhead follows that person's steps; once another person enters from the opposite end, the lights form a pattern spanning the distance between the two, serving as a visual cue of their 'connection' by virtue of inhabiting the same space at the same time." [emphasis added]
In conjunction -- coincidence and connection! -- with the gravitational audio and the black hole visuals, I came across a couple of other posts concerning our aural perception of the universe and the music of the spheres. Coincidentally, despite their celestial nature, these narratives seem connected to our daily worries and methods for managing anxiety and sensory overload.
by Eckhart Tolle ~ April 8, 2019
"How can we define ourselves
beyond our continuous mental noise?"
************************
Kundalini Yoga: The God Syllable "AUM"
by Joseph Campbell ~ April 12, 2019
also available on amazon
"What is the sound that is not made
by any two things striking together?
It is AUM.
It is the sound of the energy of the universe
of which all things are manifestations."
The three letters of AUM represent the three vibrations inherent in creation:
the energy to create, the energy to preserve, the energy to dissolve.
************************
Echoing the words of Count Rostov above -- "inspiration one day and insignificance the next" -- one dear reader has observed that this chain of connections, from gravitational waves to black holes, from Eckhart Tolle to Joseph Campbell, is a great reminder of "both how small we are (as personalities) and also how big we are as an expression of this infinite symphony of existence."
Pachelbel Canon in D Major ~ Fantastic Version
The Voyager Golden Records
May the Fourth Be With You! ~ 2013
Next Fortnightly Post
Friday, February 14th
Between now and then, read
THE QUOTIDIAN KIT ~ "Chirps, Blips, Dings"
my shorter, almost daily blog posts
www.dailykitticarriker.blogspot.com
Looking for a good book? Try
KITTI'S LIST
my running list of recent reading
www.kittislist.blogspot.com
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