Audit of the Universe: The Explanation, #2

1.  Audit of Space

Nuclear Power and Waste

Nuclear power, a dilemma of the 21st century, has become one of the major controversies of the 21st century—clean, cheap power versus dangerous waste and possible accidents. The issues are many, and the stakes are high.

Imagine the unimaginable. Galacti intones the phrase.

We stand on the spot where we first touched down in Inventory of the Universe Chapter 2 when we journeyed through the atmosphere. The night is so black we see only the vague outlines of trees and perhaps a house or two nearby, with the faint glow of electric light in the windows. House lights cannot compete with the sight above our heads.

The starry sky beckons our gaze. There is no light pollution where we are so that we can see the star-filled pavilion in its entirety. There are no clouds—however, clouds of gas play a role in the formation of the star spectacle that entrances us.

No wonder Carl Sagan said that "... the total number of stars in the universe is greater than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth." The number of objects in the universe is mind-boggling—estimated at 10 trillion galaxies, each with 100 billion stars—that's one followed by 24 zeroes.

Observing the stars and planets and thinking about baby stars being born right now as we stand here leads us to ponder: what more is out there? Gazing up at the stars has led humankind to expand its knowledge outward as we explore the universe with the tools we create, and inward, as our minds think about the possibilities of life

By now, we are used to these moments of considering what was right under our noses. Or, above them in this case, and have learned to expect the unpredictable.

Before we can proceed with a plan to understand the why of the origin of Earth and humankind, we need to know where we are. What's going well? What's going wrong? What needs tweaking? What needs a makeover or total replacement?

We're going to do an audit, starting with the atom. We're starting another journey with Galacti filled with real-life examples to help us analyze and even decide whether the half-empty/half-full glass is getting emptier or fuller.

Atomic Power and Earthquakes

We have seen the atomic and subatomic level—but atomic and nuclear power forces are at work every day, in minute and large-scale ways. The following three stories presented by Galacti will invite us to explore this topic.

The idea of nuclear power evokes everything from awe to images of mushroom clouds as well as the atom bombs dropped on Hiroshima with the ensuing destruction of the Atomic Dome.

Galacti is quick to point out that Japan shut down 52 of its 54 nuclear reactors following the meltdowns at Fukushima-Daiichi.

Also, Russia has harnessed atomic power to transport liquefied natural gas from Norway to Japan via the Arctic/Northern Sea Route—through the ice. In this story, a Greek-operated carrier shipping the clean natural gas follows three Russian atomic icebreakers that embark from the Norwegian port of Hammerfest and cut swaths through the ice of the Bering Strait.

The route, shorter than the traditional southern shipping lanes through the Suez Canal, saves fuel and reduces pollution, all of this is possible thanks to atomic power, to the small reactors, 52 kilograms (114 pounds), the size of a female Japanese judo champion, that power the icebreakers.

Galacti and our tour group find both a negative and positive aspect to nuclear energy: the bombing of cities, meltdown, contamination and the powerful icebreakers which are helping to supply the natural gas Japan has been relying on ever since the nuclear power

Imagine a string of earthquakes 4.5 and above on the Richter triggering a nuclear meltdown in Rajasthan, India or Laguna Verde, Mexico, or Angra, Brazil. If you are in such earth-shattering events, you may not think to ask, By the way, is there a nuclear power plant in the neighboring country? How many? How many under construction?

We’ve heard of the Chernobyl disaster and the tsunami/earthquake (8.9 on the Richter) that triggered the meltdown at Fukushima-Daiichi. But seismic activity in the region's surrounding locations, with one or more active nuclear reactors as well as ones under construction, seems like a scene out of a James Bond movie. However, with North Korea's September 2016 nuclear test triggering a 5.3 earthquake, citizens around the globe have taken notice.

Nuclear Waste Buried

German protesters converge on a nuclear waste storage site in Gorleben, Germany. The atomic dump is notorious, with its tunnels closed off, as a sign in red German letters warns. This facility contains barrels of toxic radioactive waste such as irradiated nuclear reactor fuel, liquid, and solid waste byproducts, nuclei formed by the fission of heavy elements.

Protesters from all over the world, whose voices are amplified by news reports from CNN and the BBC, protested this train at its point of origin in France and the Gorleben facility. The train's nuclear containers, massive white hulks containing 123 tons of spent fuel, carry the dangerous waste to the abandoned mine in Gorleben. One Greenpeace scientist measures the radiation at about 4,000 counts per minute or the same level as Chernobyl. At the same time, trains will carry spent fuel for reprocessing from East Germany to a facility in Russia.

Hundreds of anti-nuclear protesters lie on the tracks in an attempt to stop the train from reaching the temporary dump. The abandoned mine facility is the closest solution to a high-level repository for nuclear waste. None of the 31 countries that have nuclear power plants, or the 45 countries considering atomic power, possesses an advanced nuclear waste storage facility.

The Gorleben mine site or the hotly contested Yucca Mountain site in the U.S. are the most advanced solutions humankind has yet proposed. Gorleben is only a temporary storage site, and as of this, writing still awaits its ultimate destiny.

International peace teams believe that the Gorleben radioactive waste is a threat to safety and liberty. Already international groups note that, inside a similarly converted salt mine now serving as a storage facility, radioactive brine has been leaking into the ground for two decades. And there are severe doubts about the viability of the long-term salt mine storage.

There are questions about preserving the metallic, off-white, or yellow silo-like containers of nuclear wastes. These CASTORS are casks for storage and transport of radioactive material that may be destroyed by salt since geological drillings have proved the salt, where they’re stored, is unstable, and cause leakage long-term. Already policymakers in India are pointing to Gorleben as a sign that India should not rush to expand its nuclear program.

We leave off this hot topic since there is much more to explore on the subject of atoms and in the realm of space.

Sun, Moon, Stars - Grandiose

From atoms to astral bodies: sun, moon, stars. They light up our sky, and both awe us and leave us quizzical with their grandeur and mysterious presence.

Navigation - Guiding the Way

Just as we’ve gently led our travelers on a journey to find all the puzzle pieces—with many more, before we have the complete picture—so the stars have directed humans to find their way.

We watch sailors using Ptolemy’s maps and then orienting themselves north or south by observing the positions of major navigational stars. The North Star or Polaris, which we find in the Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) constellation, itself a navigational point, and the Southern Cross that points towards the celestial South Pole.

The North Star never moves, in contrast to the stars around it, so that it is a fixed point for seafarers to determine their latitude; in fact, no matter what your position, you can view the North Star at the same angle in relation to the horizon. It’s our directional beacon.

Someone uses a GPS to read our latitude. In centuries past, he might have used an astrolabe, a spherical handheld analog calculator, that contains a moving disk to represent the position of the stars. Or a cross-staff, which uses several vanes or slats sliding on a central staff to measure the angles between stars, and the height of the Pole Star and the sun.

Galacti has produced replicas of these, as well as the back-staff, a device outfitted with mirrors so that when we look through the sight vane, with the top lens or vane reminding us of a submarine periscope, we can see Polaris. In the daytime, we can view the Sun without any harm to our eyes.

Look at the GPS, with its easy digital readout, and compare it with the ancient navigation tools. Both are obviously of human origin, but very different. The GPS doesn’t use the stars in any way to determine our latitude. So, you might think. But consider this: a satellite and this computer receiver have replaced the astrolabe and the back-staff.

We all agree this is something to consider. We’ve never really thought about this. Likewise, we give little thought to something else the sun, moon, and stars have provided us with: the calendar.

We have discussed the seasons which man could observe unaided without calculation. The calendar, however, is another matter. While we can’t watch the orbits of the Earth and Moon to count days, we now know that it takes 365 days for the Earth to complete its orbit around the sun.

However, imagine that we are ancient Chinese, Babylonians, Hebrews or Greeks. While we observe the change of the seasons, we watch the phases of the moon. The lunar phase cycle is 29.5 days or a month, and during our accelerated month, we observe two full moons. We soon discover, however, that there is no fixed number of days in a month, unlike the solar calendar.

Also, we learn that a lunar calendar year is thirteen months to match the seasons, in particular the harvests. Ancient farmers needed the moon, as well as the solar calendar, to tell them when to plant and when to harvest. Also, the phases of the moon are associated with specific festivals and celebrations of the passage of life. While this may sound complicated, the lunar months are still part of the Jewish calendar; each month begins on the New Moon.

Imagine living by the lunar calendar, and performing astronomical calculations to mark the passage of months (as the Egyptians did), and marking religious observances and agricultural cycles by the phases of the moon. Our observers talk about stories and beliefs they’ve heard about the moon, stars, and sun, dating back to ancient times.

Worship - Good and Bad Omens

You humans believe in good or bad omens, Galacti says, shaking his head, "I’ve been reading up on it, accessing the library of the universe. You’ve seen the composition of a star and the Big Bang. Who can honestly tell me you believe in omens or divine favors as you call them? Seeing a halo around the sun and believing it foretells rain? Wishing upon a shooting star, for example? Anyone here from Chile?" A woman who admired our South American plants in Inventory of the Universe raises her hand. It’s said that if you see a shooting star in Chile, you will have a year of good luck.

This lady from Chile has heard this tale but never given it much thought.

We all pause to consider the cultural omens and stories we learned. For example, the positions of stars and lunar eclipses often herald the birth of a major world figure. We ponder every belief, including the warning that a full moon on Christmas Day will bring bad luck.

The ancient Greeks worshipped meteorites, which they thought represented the stone Zeus’ father, Cronos, swallowed instead of Zeus, whom he thought would dethrone him. Many Greek temples enshrined meteorites as objects of worship. Meteorite veneration exists in many cultures on Earth. Why would a rock from the heavens become something people pray before?

Planets as well became signs of good luck and the gods. The Babylonians associated Jupiter, Venus, Mercury, Saturn, and Mars with their deities. If Babylonians could read and interpret the motion of the planets, they could understand and predict significant world events. Even the New Moon, which was not associated with any god, was a source of study—if it appeared earlier than expected, cattle or crops would fail and die.

The Earth revolves around the sun, which gives the sun a premier place in the universe. The sun is the source of life; it determines the seasons and is essential to life on Earth. That is why it is commonly associated with power, for example, as the Eye of Zeus in Greek mythology. The sun identifies with Egyptian gods, from sun-disks to the solar barge. Japan is called the Land of The Rising Sun, and King Louis XIV of France called himself The Sun King.

To see the sunrise at Stonehenge on the winter solstice signifies that the following year will be a favorable one. Galacti observes that even sun tanning acquires a bit of an exotic mystique, as sun-worshippers who deliberately tan are trying to project success, a tropical and desirable lifestyle. Exposure to the sun has many benefits in improving health and mood! In any case, sun signs populate the world, most notably in astrology.

Satellites, Eyes on Earth and Us

Thousands of satellites pepper space like eyes in the sky. They survey and scrutinize, some say, spy, on just about everything that takes place on Earth.

Space, both mysterious and hypnotic by its vastness and inaccessibility. Humans have barely penetrated a skinny layer beyond planet Earth. What are we making of this new frontier?

What about the four cardinal points, and how ancient monuments and megaliths seemingly mirror the position of the heavens? Galacti says as he transports the ancient Irish temple New Grange into the landscape, and next transports Stonehenge several feet away—along the ley lines.

In the new area of archaeological study known as geodesy, Ley Lines hypothetically link ancient monuments and megaliths. It fits with the tradition, in many societies, of building prominent structures and historic landmarks according to straight lines.

Think of the Ley Lines as train tracks or a city planned on a grid. The builders of ancient pyramids in Mexico appear to have designed their structures as if on an axis. For example: Suppose Stonehenge or La Grange or the Pyramid of Kulkulkan in Chichen Itza in Mexico are the nexus of electrical, magnetic, mystical or psychic energy—or landmarks for UFOs to steer by for navigation.

Skeptics and believers put equal faith in disproving or advancing this idea.

Just as you rarely think of ancient navigation aids, you probably don’t think of the role the stars still play in navigation today.

Eye on Satellites

Consider that a handful of countries can now blast powerful rockets loaded with satellites into space. A lot of them are in a geo-stationery orbit around Earth. At an altitude of 36,000 km, they revolve at the same speed as Earth, always staying in the same position. Three such satellites can have communications beamed up to and then between them, thus permitting round the world instantaneous verbal, TV, video, web exchanges. It’s brilliant, out of this world.

Just as if you go to the top of a 50-floor skyscraper, you can see further in the distance than if you were on the ground, so, too, with 120 satellites in the Earth’s orbit, every square inch of Earth can be seen and watched. It’s possible to capture the number on a car’s license plate as well as monitor military movements, missile launchings, and even self-defense.

Hundreds of other uses like weather forecasting, measuring the height of mountains, the size and topographical changes of the polar caps, and the search for precious elements like lithium for long-life batteries. Today, thousands of specialized satellites revolve incessantly around in this void, gathering and transmitting unimaginable amounts of data earthward. But what exactly is that data telling us?

We can view, with the naked eye, one of the global positioning satellites allowing us to pinpoint our location. There are 24 GPS satellites in orbit, creating a human-made GPS constellation.

Although we’ve been traveling using the Galacti Positioning System, we’re aware of GPS technology during our journey because