When it comes to space exploration, space shuttles and men in white jumpsuits come to mind, but what about the studies that go on behind the scenes?
At 7:30 p.m. on March 29 in Watkins Auditorium, Jennifer Wiseman, senior project scientist for NASA’s Hubble Telescope, said that when it comes to looking beyond the universe, people who do so not only gain knowledge as a human race, but meaning.
Wiseman spoke as part of the UTM Academic Speaker Series and enjoyed sharing her knowledge with college students.
“The college years are some of the most wonderful years in a person’s life, because you’re given permission to think and explore and sample things and be exposed to lots of different kinds of endeavors, so I really enjoy meeting and talking with college students,” Wiseman said.
Wiseman packed an abundance of content into an hour, covering scientific specifics of how to identify planets and stars and how technology continually pushes the space program forward.
A large part of her talk was dedicated to the idea of life beyond Earth, and how astronomy includes more than just looking for planets, but also seeing if they sustain life.
She also related this to what that means for humans on a philosophical level. In the last part of her presentation, she delved into ideas from theologians and philosophers, showing all different types of people and their thoughts on life beyond Earth.
She also presented a graph that showed where most people in the different religions stand.
To many people’s surprise, most religions were accepting of the idea of life beyond Earth, all the way from monotheistic faiths to atheistic ones.
According to Wiseman, space exploration is something important, because it enlightens people to think in broader terms than they’re accustomed to, creating a more “real” existence.
“I think it’s very important for us to have a sense of where we came from and where we fit in this larger universe. Otherwise, we become easily distracted by our own daily lives, and kind of forget that we’re part of this universe, which is real,” Wiseman said.
“This is not fiction; we actually are part of this amazing universe and we need to think about that. We may not know what it means but if we don’t even think about it, we’re not really living in reality.”
Not only does science raise awareness, but Wiseman says it also lifts people up, along with other sciences and arts.
“I think it lifts our spirits also, to get us from just thinking about survival to thinking about why we’re here and our particular presence in a huge universe, what that could mean. … I just think astronomy and space are very interesting. I also believe that it is good and uplifting,” Wiseman said.
“We have so much bad news all around us and much of our societal energies are focused on addressing bad things, and we need to, but we also need to lift our spirits to the positive, and in fact, sometimes when we focus on the positive, it also lifts up some of the negatives out of the negative. So, things like science and art and literature and music; these are things that lift the human spirit, and I like to be a part of that.”
