A little thought after seeing the planetarium « Symphony of the Universe » at Katsushika City Museum of History and Astronomy, the power of imagination and theory education

10. Hobby Generalessay

It was the same day that I went to « Unagi Ohana ».

葛飾区郷土と天文の博物館|プラネタリウム

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I went to a place called

I went to see this kind of screening.

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It was so much fun! (Thanks a lot, Uni-chan, for organizing it!)

The planetarium itself was magnificent and powerful, and the images were very beautiful, using the latest digital technology, and the content was also very well done.

Although the location is a bit inconvenient, this is definitely a highly recommended place to visit.

I remember when I was a kid.

Well, I had many other thoughts while watching this « Symphony of Universes ».

First, my own memories.

I’ve loved astronomy and space since I was a child. I was fascinated by it. I read a lot of these books and illustrated books when I was young, and I attended a lot of astronomy classes in my hometown.

Therefore, the content of the film itself was fully applicable to the knowledge I had acquired as a child.

In fact, I majored in physics at university, in something called particle theory, and I was particularly interested in « quantum gravity, » so naturally I studied quantum mechanics, general relativity, and string theory (superstring theory), which is considered to be one of the candidates for a unified theory.

It’s no surprise that my choice of such a major was influenced by my astronomical education and knowledge, such as what I saw on this day as a child.

I thought I was going to fall asleep because I was getting over a cold and I was tired, but I was soaked in these memories and the fun of the film itself that I didn’t sleep at all and watched the whole thing.

You didn’t mention Einstein.

In a way, my memories are not important, but what I really want to say starts here. (Sorry for the long sentence…)

It’s about the « theoretical » aspect.

It’s not that the content of the screening was theoretically wrong or anything like that. I believe that the content was accurate and in line with our understanding of modern science.

一番気になったことは、この「シンフォニー・オブ・ユニバース」の中で「アインシュタイン」の名前が一度も登場しなかったことでした。

When we talk about the modern man’s view of the universe and his perception of the universe, « Galileo » is naturally indispensable, but « Einstein » must also be indispensable.

映像の中でハッブル」は紹介しているんです。であれば「アインシュタイン」だって紹介したっていいじゃないかなあ…。

I understand that it’s hard to touch because it’s kind of hard to explain the « theoretical » stuff…

Not much in the way of « how did we know all this? »

This facility is a museum, so there are other exhibits besides the planetarium. In the space next to the planetarium, there were exhibits about the history of the universe, the history of stars, and the history of the sun.

For example, there was a corner that explained the internal structure of the sun, and the explanation was based on a diagram like this.

※ Wikipedia「太陽」より引用

This is also a quote from Wikipedia, but this corner naturally had the following description along with the above diagram.

太陽はほぼ完全な球体であり、その扁平率は0.01%以下である。太陽には、地球型惑星や衛星などと異なり、はっきりした表面が存在しない。

The Sun is composed of a central core (solar core), radiative layer, convection layer, photosphere, chromosphere, corona, and corona. For the sake of convenience, the photosphere is considered to be the surface of the Sun because it corresponds roughly to the viewing angle when the Sun is observed from around the Earth in visible light. There is no way to optically observe the inner part of it. The solar radius is defined as the distance from the center of the Sun to the photosphere. The photosphere often contains sunspots, which are cooler than their surroundings, and plages, which are brighter areas around the sun [8]. The upper layer above the photosphere, which is more transparent to light, is called the solar atmosphere. The upper layers of the plasmasized solar atmosphere are less bound by solar gravity and therefore leak into interplanetary space. This is called the solar wind, which extends to Neptune’s orbit and is the cause of the aurora.

※ Wikipedia「太陽」より引用

These explanations are the same as the ones you saw in illustrated books when you were a child.

I think it’s great that the book is written in such a way that even children can understand it properly, with authentic content and an understanding based on modern science.

But still, there are times when it doesn’t feel right.

That is, « How did you find out about all this? » That is. That explanation is nowhere to be found.

No mention of the theory behind the « why. »

日本の教育ってどうしてもこの手のものが多いんです。「事実を正確に伝えること」に関しては素晴らしいのに、「なぜこの事実が判明したのか」ということがあまり伝わってこないんです。

Take the sun right now, for example.

« How is it that we know the inner workings of the sun as if we’d delved into its interior, when we haven’t even flown an observatory (and probably never will)? »

Can you answer this clearly?

You can find the answer on Wikipedia, so I’ll quote it right away without wasting time.

太陽は光球より内側が電磁波に対して不透明であるため、内部を電磁波によって直接垣間見ることができない。太陽内部についての知識は、太陽の大きさ、質量、総輻射量、表面組成・表面振動(5分振動)等の観測データを基にした理論解析(日震学)によって得られる。理論解析においては、太陽内部の不透明度と熱核融合反応を量子力学により推定し、観測データによる制限を境界条件とした数値解析を行う。太陽中心部の温度、密度等はこのような解析によって得られたものである。

※ Wikipedia「太陽」より引用

要するに「理論解析」より判明したということのようです。その理論解析の基礎となっているのはやはりというか量子力学、そしてもちろんその他基礎物理が用いられているようですね。

In order to understand this « theoretical analysis » itself, you need to have knowledge of physics at the university or graduate school level, so it is very difficult for the general public to understand it.

The source of the power to « imagine » and « foretell » is, somehow, okay to tell.

こうした「理論」があるからこそ、直接みなくても、直接太陽に穴を掘らなくても内部構造が理解できるということは、軽くでもいいから触れてほしいなあと思いました。

I also wanted to convey the greatness of our ancestors who have used these theories to « imagine » and « predict » things.

So I still wanted to mention « Einstein » in any way I could.

少なくとも「宇宙の年齢は137億年である」と映像内で伝えているのであればなおさらでしょう。

どうして宇宙の年齢がわかるんだろう、それに真摯に答えるためにはその背後にある理論を導いた「アインシュタイン」「一般相対性理論」への言及はゼッタイにあるべきだと思うんです。

It is true that this kind of theory is difficult to communicate, and some people may think that it is better not to mention it because it may confuse people depending on their way of thinking.

それでもやはり「なぜ」の背後にある事実、人類の偉大なる成果は何らかの形できちんと子供たちに伝えてほしい、これこそ今回のプラネタリウムや博物館鑑賞で一番感じたことでした。

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