From The BBC – World renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has died at the age of 76. He died peacefully at his home in Cambridge in the early hours of Wednesday, his family said. The British scientist was famed for his work with black holes and relativity, and wrote several popular science books including A Brief History of Time.
Stephen Hawking was a brilliant human being who devoted his life to physics and making the world a more informed and enlightened place. His work has influenced not only science but culture as well. He appeared in pop culture in the TV shows The Big Bang Theory, Red Dwarf and The Simpsons. Both Eddie Redmayne and Benedict Cumberbatch portrayed him in movies based on his life. He leaves behind three children. Thank you Stephen for what you did to make our world better and to expand our understanding of the universe that surrounds each of us. Rest in power.
We are all a buzz about the eclipse that is coming today. People are taking off and some schools have closed to observe this rare event. Above is a map of how the eclipse is going to cover Tennessee. Here in Chattanooga we should see a good portion of it while folks north and east of us will get totality. It’s going to be a interesting sight to see and that is just the people who will be gathering to observe skyward.
This morning while walking the dog I looked up and saw the stars in the sky shining brightly. The big dipper, the little dipper and other constellations were still visible in the dawn sky. Somehow this morning it put some things in perspective. Once you get out of Earth’s atmosphere things seem a little less complicated.
The drama of the planet seems to disappear. It’s just you and the celestial heaven that is all around you. Maybe we need to look to the stars of creation to reset and renew our soul. Yeah stargazing can help you think about things in a new way or at least remind you things aren’t as bad as they might seem.
July 1969. It’s a little over eight years since the flights of Gagarin and Shepard, followed quickly by President Kennedy’s challenge to put a man on the moon before the decade is out.
It’s 47 years ago since man landed on the moon. It was a dream that became reality. It took smart, dedicated, courageous people to make this happen. These brave souls are heroes in my mind. I am glad they did this so our future in space would be realized for generations.
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