The field of science has a long history of being incredibly fascinated with up. Ranging from bird flight, to understanding the conditions of the atmosphere, to exploring what is beyond Earth, science examines up in many different ways. Focusing on NASA and space exploration, there are new discoveries constantly being made in space. Just last week, scientists detected gravitational waves when they recorded the sound of two black holes colliding (Overbye, Corum & Drakeford 2016). You can hear the sound of it on the podcast (below), despite the fact that the collision occurred a billion light years away (Overbye, Corum, & Drakeford 2016). This discovery not only validates claims made by Einstein, but it also completes his “...vision of a universe in which space and time are interwoven and dynamic, able to stretch, shrink, and jiggle” (Overbye, Corum, & Drakeford 2016). This is also important because it was detected via sound/vibration, rather than sight. The fact that scientists are still pondering and interested in claims made by Einstein from 1915 (Overbye, Corum, & Drakeford 2016), shows that this discipline is fascinated with up, and always will be. The huge accomplishment of detecting gravitational waves has been something scientists have examined and questioned since Einstein’s first theories. The mere nature of space is up, even if we don’t know exactly which direction up is. Looking at photographs, as we did in class, of astronauts in the international space station, brings up many questions about what determines up. Is up over one’s head? Is it the direction opposite to the ground? What if you are an astronaut in space and there is no ground? Is up away from the Earth? Is there more than one up? These questions and inquiries show that while we have made great strides in understanding up in terms of outer space, there is so much that is mysterious and unknown about up.
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