The Visible Universe

The NGST - Next Generation Space Telescope will be an infrared telescope, scheduled for launch by about 2010. Note: [On 10 September 2002, the Next Generation Space Telescope (NGST) was named in honor of James E. Webb, NASA's second administrator.] It will assume a position at L2 - one of 4 spots where the Earth's and Sun's gravity tend to cancel themselves out. L2 is beyond the Moon's orbit, and as such, the now named JWST will be beyond NASA's reach, if repairs are needed. It's task: Step 1) to replace the HST (Hubble) as the Earth's primary orbital telescope and; Step 2) to look beyond the visible universe. Now that is cool! On this cold and rather rainy day in late April, Saturday the 26th, I experienced a sustained brain cramp when contemplating the second of these two tasks. The visible universe? What's beyond it? In order to satisfy the “Big Bang” theory, it would have to be nothing. But contemplating nothingness is about as easy as understanding that there was (or might have been) nothing prior to the “Big Bang.” This is true even if you subscribe to the ever expanding and collapsing (pulse-like ebb and flow) concept of the universe's shape and movement. This is presently explained by “Red Shift” (first noticed by Edwin Hubble, btw) which suggests that due to most stellar objects' reddish glow, they must be traveling away from each other (and us) very fast for the past 12-15 billion years. In a collapsing phase, they would demonstrate a “Blue Shift”. ***Which begs the question, are there any stellar objects between us and the center of our galaxy where a “Blue Shift” exists?*** While this might be a slim probability due to the need for it to be traveling toward us faster than we are moving away from the very same center, it should be more likely and easier to prove than finding the presence of life on other worlds. In this case, we at least know the direction to look - in, not out. I feel that like periods before (say, when the Earth at the center of the universe theory was challenged), we are on the verge of completely rewriting the theory of the universe once again - and in doing so, rewriting the origins of life. It is going to stir things up so overwhelmingly, you might as well suggest that we - life, the universe & everything - doesn't exist at all; that we are simply a complex (or passing) thought, but of whom? God(s), H.A.L., me, you?