As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of America’s moon landing this summer, it’s important to remember the contributions of all it took to get us there. And I’m talking waaay back, like the late 19th century and early 20th century, when early astronomers ended up shaking up preconceived notions as telescopes grew bigger and more powerful.
Marcia Bartusiak’s THE DAY WE FOUND THE UNIVERSE is a perfect way to get schooled. The title comes from Edwin Hubble’s controversial 1925 assertion that the Milky Way wasn’t the only galaxy around, and that the overall universe was infinitely greater than previously thought. Those stars they saw that shimmered strangely? They weren’t stars at all, but entire galaxies.
Hubble’s story serves as the crux for UNIVERSE, but his isn’t the only one. In fact, what makes Bartusiak’s book more interesting is that it begins as sort of a mini-biography for several other notables, like the wealthy and obstinate James Lick; Mars-maniacal Percival Lowell; and James Keeler, who disproved the idea that Saturn’s rings were solid.
These are real people, interesting and flawed. For example, Vesto Slipher seemed to be more interested in the garden growth of his squash than astronomical matters, while George Ellery Hale had nervous breakdowns and hallucinated that an elf instructed him how to live. Harlow Shapley studied ants around the observatory and even set up “speed traps” to see how fast they traveled, and no less a unique personality than Albert Einstein plays a role in these proceedings.
That’s a lot of men, but that only scratches the surface of the players Bartusiak profiles. Most times, it verges on impossible to keep them all straight, probably because none (Einstein excepted) enjoy the name recognition that Hubble does today. Ultimately, who’s who doesn’t matter so much, as their individual contributions aren’t as important as to the eventual puzzle they pieced together.
As more of a space nut than an astronomy scholar — a huge difference there — UNIVERSE worked well as a true-life narrative digging deep into the worlds far beyond our own. —Rod Lott
