Sky & Telescope - May 2019 - 6

FROM OUR READERS
ing striking words. There was no way
in which I coined the phrase to be
derogatory; I coined it to be striking, so
that people would know the difference
between the steady-state model and the
Big Bang model."
The term has endured ever since, and
so has Hoyle's insight into the vital role
that stars play in creating the chemical
elements. Indeed, Hoyle's 1957 nucleosynthesis paper with E. Margaret Burbidge, Geoffrey Burbidge, and William
Fowler is one of the great achievements
of 20th-century science.

It's a Bird! It's a Plane!

Bill Dellinges * Apache Junction, Arizona

Before the Big Bang
I've often wondered why cosmologists
believe that the universe as we know
it sprang from nothing. This theory
always seemed a bit short-sighted to me.
Although there was no one around to
witness time before the Big Bang, it has
long been my belief that time did exist
and that the universe must have sprung
from something.
Thus, I was glad to see your article
"What Came Before the Big Bang?"
(S&T: Feb. 2019, p. 16). Knowing there
are some scientists giving consideration
to alternate theories as to the beginning of the observable universe gives me
hope that perhaps in the future we will
see more interest in this area and more
coverage of this line of cosmology.
Will Ouellette
Rapid City, South Dakota

While certainly there is value to
identifying events, energies, and the
physics in place before the Big Bang, the
consequence of sorting out these facts
leads to even greater questions: What
happened before that? And before that?
And before that (ad inﬁnitum)? If we
are part of a greater multiverse, then
6

M AY 2 0 1 9 * S K Y & T E L E S C O P E

Ken Croswell
Berkeley, California

A Signal Accomplishment
p Owl, alien, or airplane: What do you see
when you look at NGC 457?

clearly time itself must have properties
that we do not yet understand, i.e., what
is time before it exists in this universe?
Clearly cosmology is still a science in
a rather interesting infancy.
Richard Molitor
Bothell, Washington

According to Hoyle
British astronomer Fred Hoyle was
one of the creators of the steady-state
model, which held that the universe was
eternal, but he never intended the term
"Big Bang" to be pejorative or sarcastic
when he christened the rival cosmology
(S&T: Mar. 2019, p. 7). Hoyle had long
advocated the once radical idea that
the chemical elements on Earth - the
oxygen we breathe, the calcium in our
bones, the iron in our blood - arose in
stars. So for my book The Alchemy of the
Heavens, which describes the Milky Way
and the origin of the elements, I interviewed Hoyle about his work. He said he
coined "Big Bang" because he was doing
a radio show on the BBC.
"On radio, you have no visual aids,"
Hoyle said, "so it's essential to arrest
the attention of the listener and to
hold his comprehension by choos-

In David Grinspoon's article "NASA
Sends a Signal" (S&T: Jan. 2019, p. 14),
he mentions NASA's Technosignatures
Workshop, which took place on September 26-28, 2018.
However, he doesn't mention the
workshop's report, which would be useful for those wishing to read up on the
subject. Here's the link: https://arxiv.
org/abs/1812.08681.
John Fairweather
Woking, United Kingdom

Problems at Home
I am in awe of the magniﬁcence of
our universe shown by our various
telescopes, probes, etc. However, I'm
disturbed by what I see as a waste of
money on projects that have little value
or relevance to Earth and its inhabitants, particularly money being approved
for SETI research.
We are in crisis on this planet:
Extreme weather events, pollution,
drought, famine, poverty, and homelessness are increasing worldwide.
Here in the "richest" country in the
world much of our infrastructure is
in urgent need of repair or replacement. Too many scientists have given
people the idea that when we've used up
this planet, we'll be able to go on and
ﬁnd another - nonsense. We need to
spend our money on the problems that
threaten this, our only planet.
Diana Guadagnino
Irvine, California

POSS-II / STSCI / CA LTECH / PA LO M A R OBSERVATORY

I really enjoyed Tony Flanders's "The
Wintry North" article (S&T: Jan. 2019,
p. 62). In addition to NGC 457's nicknames of the E.T. Cluster and the Owl
Cluster, I use another moniker for it:
Many years ago a fellow observer and I
dubbed it the Airplane Cluster.
I never forgot it and still see it as
an airplane (possibly because I worked
for the airlines for 35 years). The two
bright stars (E.T.'s eyes) are two tail
lights, E.T.'s body is the fuselage (with
lighted windows), and E.T.'s arms are
the swept-back wings coming off the
fuselage. This also works better for me
because most often E.T. and the owl are
upside-down in my eyepiece, whereas
the airplane is always oriented correctly,
whether ﬂying up, down, right, or left.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.08681 https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.08681

Sky & Telescope - May 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - May 2019