The Dawn of a Mindful Universe by Marcelo Gleiser

Author:Marcelo Gleiser
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2023-06-17T00:00:00+00:00

Technique 2: Transit Method

Naming the first space telescope designed to find exoplanets using the transit method after the extraordinary seventeenth-century German astronomer Johannes Kepler couldn’t have been more appropriate. Using his brand-new laws of planetary motion, Kepler was the first in history to predict the 1631 transits of Mercury and Venus. As we have seen, a planetary transit denotes the periodic passing of a planet in front of its host star. A well-positioned observer will see a tiny black dot moving slowly in front of the star. I felt a lump in my throat when I witnessed the transit of Venus in 2012. There, for everyone to see (with proper eye-protecting filters), was an indisputable demonstration of the power of human thought to decipher, even if incompletely, the wonders of the natural world. It’s hard to witness such an event, or a solar eclipse, and not feel a deep connection to the Cosmos, to what Einstein called “the mysterious.” The event is a concrete astronomical phenomenon, and many may be content considering it just as such. But why push away the emotive power of the experience? Witnessing an alien world passing in front of our host star moves us in tangible and intangible ways. We see both with our eyes and with our hearts, a combination so unique to our species. There is an expansive power to the experience, if only we open ourselves to it. When we look at the Universe, the Universe looks back at us. We, alone, are aware of this. When awe colors what we see, reality becomes more magical.

Almost four centuries before my experience, Kepler predicted that Mercury would pass in front of the Sun on November 7, 1631, followed by Venus on December 6. Kepler’s calculations were truly remarkable, proving once again that the motions of the planets around their host star follow simple yet precise mathematical laws. The Cosmos, at least at the level of planetary motions, is indeed a giant clockwork. If you know the laws that make the clock tick, as Kepler did, you can predict planetary transits, solar and lunar eclipses, and even the return of comets, as Newton did a few decades later.

Tragically, Kepler died in 1630, one year before he could witness the triumph of his visionary new science of the skies. In his turbulent life, tragedy followed him like his shadow, never abating for very long. On a cold morning in early November, frail and destitute, one of the greatest minds ever to walk this world went off alone on a mangy horse after patrons who owed him money. Caught in a frigid snowstorm, Kepler persisted on his quest, despite the wind and cold. He died on November 15, delirious with high fever, frantically pointing to his head and to the sky. Scattered during the Thirty Years’ War, his remains were lost forever. His epitaph, which he had composed years before, is a moving expression of his love for astronomy, in particular an astronomy based on measurement:

I measured the skies, now I measure the earth’s shadows.

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