Astronomy: Just as in the Bible story of the three wise men, there is today still much to ponder in the night sky – The Columbus Dispatch

Kenneth Hicks| Special to The Columbus Dispatch USA TODAY NETWORK

In the world of astronomy, all eyes are on the launch of the James Webb space telescope.If successful, the James Webbwillbringus into a new realm ofknowledge, much like the Hubble space telescope did back in 1990.

At the time of writing, that launchhasyet to happen.So,Ill turn to a different topic.

Soon, Christmas will have come and gone.Children will have looked up in the sky and wondered whether they couldsee Santas sleigh. But the night sky appears much different to children in the city and those in the country.

If youve ever seen the night sky out in the country, away from bright city lights, its a scene that you wont forget.In the city, you willsee only a few of the brightest stars, due to the glare of the city lights. In the country, you can see thousands of stars on a pitch-black sky. Itsa sight to behold.

Atthe time of the birth of Jesus, there were no city lights and the stars held a special place in the hearts and minds of people livingthen.There was no understanding of science, so those who studied stars werereallydoing astrology, which is, of course, very different from astronomy.

Many people believe that the three wise men, as described in the Bible,were astrologers. Theystudied the movements of the planets (called wandering stars back then, since the planets change position relative to the fixedbackgroundof the stars) and other changes to the night sky.

The Bethlehem star could have been a supernova oranother event, like the merging of two neutron stars, and the astrologers of the time would interpret this as heralding a momentous occasion.

Today, wenowknow that the night sky holds the secrets to many thingsthatwe scientists are still too ignorant to understand.It is humbling to think that we have the technology to send a telescope into space that will look back to the beginning of time, yet we still dont understand the nature of dark matter or the ephemeral dark energy.

Together,dark matter and dark energy make up about 95% of the mass of the universe.

If you couldhibernateand wake up 1,000 years from now, you would probably find that our current understanding of the universe is reallyveryprimitive.Just like the three wise men, who could not have foreseen our current knowledge of astronomy, it is hard to predict the future explanation of dark matter and dark energy.

But the key to future progress is bright young people who have a natural curiosity of what goes on in the night sky.

Kenneth Hicks is a professor of physics and astronomy at Ohio University in Athens.

hicks@ohio.edu