Around and Around
Stories
For as the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he perceives from far away. (v. 6)
Ten years ago, I probably couldn’t have used long playing records as an image in a sermon, but as it turns out vinyl is back! There are plenty of people who are placing an LP on a turntable and settling in to hear some music, so let me ask you, next time, to watch the outer edge and the inner ring of the record and note that they both make 33 1/3 revolutions every minute. Maybe you never thought about it, but they have to travel different speeds to both travel 33 1/3 revolutions every minute. The outside of the record goes a lot faster to travel around the turntable in the same time as the inside ring which travels a much shorter distance. But since they’re connected, the outer rim and the hole in the middle, they travel at the same speed.
By contrast, all the objects in our solar system go round and round like a record, but since they’re not physically connected like a record, things work a little differently.
As for galaxies, some of which spin round and round like a record – well, that’s where Vera Rubin (1928-2016), whose deserved recognition has been late in coming, mostly because she was a woman in what was then an almost exclusively male – and male chauvinist – field.
When Rubin was a young girl, the family moved to Washington D.C. At night, her northern facing window revealed nearly a stationary star called Polaris, otherwise known as the North Star. Vera was fascinated by the way the other stars circled Polaris, round and round like a record.
That view from her window sparked a life-long interest in astronomy. Along the way she ran into many barriers. She was eight-months pregnant when she delivered her first scientific paper, and the men in attendance reacted with hostility. Eventually her theories were proven right.
While working at Palomar Observatory in the San Diego area, she discovered there were no restrooms for women. She cut out the silhouette of a figure wearing a skirt out of a sheet of paper and slapped it on a door, announcing “There you go; now you have a ladies’ room.”
Working with fellow astronomer Kent Ford she began to examine the Andromeda Galaxy, a disk-like galaxy that spins around and around like a record. Unlike a record, the conventional wisdom was that when it came to the distribution of stars in a galaxy, the outside edge would spin much more slowly than the inside. But Vera discovered the outside spun around much, much faster than seemed possible, judging by the amount of matter astronomers observed.
It took a while for Rubin to have an “Aha!” moment, but she finally recalled that a couple of astronomers, Jan Oort in 1932 and Fritz Swicky in 1933, had theorized that perhaps there was some sort of matter that was invisible that might explain certain discrepancies in predictions about the universe. Their theories had been dismissed because there was no proof that something like “dark matter” existed.
But the outer reaches of the Andromeda Galaxy were spinning at a far faster rate than seemed possible. The best explanation, she decided, as that there were huge amounts of this dark matter than matter in the Andromeda Galaxy.
As with most breakthroughs, it took a while for the astronomy community to move from general dismissal of Rubin’s theories to total acceptance that her theory best explained what everyone was now observing.
Despite the groundbreaking nature of her work, Rubin was never awarded a Nobel Prize. Throughout her life she continued to fight against barriers placed against the advancement of women in the sciences. Rather than becoming bitter, she channeled any disappointment into encouragement for other scientists encountering various obstacles. She continued to observe other galaxies, clarifying the presence of dark matter throughout the universe.
Following her death on December 25, 2016, both an asteroid and a feature in a crater on Mars were named in her honor. All four of her children earned PhDs in science as well. And her discoveries in the field of dark matter are now accepted as fact.
Of course, it’s not easy to theorize and study dark matter, because you can’t see it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. I think the psalmist, in Psalm 138, is astounded at God’s ability to see people who, in the minds of those focused on those who are visibly rich and powerful, aren’t there either: the lowly, the poor, the oppressed, and the persecuted. When we read: For as the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he perceives from far away. (Psalm 138:6) we’re seeing the human universe through God’s perceptive eyes, a theme consistent with both the Old and New Testament, and especially the ministry of Jesus.
*****************************************
StoryShare, February 6, 2022 issue.
Copyright 2022 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Ten years ago, I probably couldn’t have used long playing records as an image in a sermon, but as it turns out vinyl is back! There are plenty of people who are placing an LP on a turntable and settling in to hear some music, so let me ask you, next time, to watch the outer edge and the inner ring of the record and note that they both make 33 1/3 revolutions every minute. Maybe you never thought about it, but they have to travel different speeds to both travel 33 1/3 revolutions every minute. The outside of the record goes a lot faster to travel around the turntable in the same time as the inside ring which travels a much shorter distance. But since they’re connected, the outer rim and the hole in the middle, they travel at the same speed.
By contrast, all the objects in our solar system go round and round like a record, but since they’re not physically connected like a record, things work a little differently.
As for galaxies, some of which spin round and round like a record – well, that’s where Vera Rubin (1928-2016), whose deserved recognition has been late in coming, mostly because she was a woman in what was then an almost exclusively male – and male chauvinist – field.
When Rubin was a young girl, the family moved to Washington D.C. At night, her northern facing window revealed nearly a stationary star called Polaris, otherwise known as the North Star. Vera was fascinated by the way the other stars circled Polaris, round and round like a record.
That view from her window sparked a life-long interest in astronomy. Along the way she ran into many barriers. She was eight-months pregnant when she delivered her first scientific paper, and the men in attendance reacted with hostility. Eventually her theories were proven right.
While working at Palomar Observatory in the San Diego area, she discovered there were no restrooms for women. She cut out the silhouette of a figure wearing a skirt out of a sheet of paper and slapped it on a door, announcing “There you go; now you have a ladies’ room.”
Working with fellow astronomer Kent Ford she began to examine the Andromeda Galaxy, a disk-like galaxy that spins around and around like a record. Unlike a record, the conventional wisdom was that when it came to the distribution of stars in a galaxy, the outside edge would spin much more slowly than the inside. But Vera discovered the outside spun around much, much faster than seemed possible, judging by the amount of matter astronomers observed.
It took a while for Rubin to have an “Aha!” moment, but she finally recalled that a couple of astronomers, Jan Oort in 1932 and Fritz Swicky in 1933, had theorized that perhaps there was some sort of matter that was invisible that might explain certain discrepancies in predictions about the universe. Their theories had been dismissed because there was no proof that something like “dark matter” existed.
But the outer reaches of the Andromeda Galaxy were spinning at a far faster rate than seemed possible. The best explanation, she decided, as that there were huge amounts of this dark matter than matter in the Andromeda Galaxy.
As with most breakthroughs, it took a while for the astronomy community to move from general dismissal of Rubin’s theories to total acceptance that her theory best explained what everyone was now observing.
Despite the groundbreaking nature of her work, Rubin was never awarded a Nobel Prize. Throughout her life she continued to fight against barriers placed against the advancement of women in the sciences. Rather than becoming bitter, she channeled any disappointment into encouragement for other scientists encountering various obstacles. She continued to observe other galaxies, clarifying the presence of dark matter throughout the universe.
Following her death on December 25, 2016, both an asteroid and a feature in a crater on Mars were named in her honor. All four of her children earned PhDs in science as well. And her discoveries in the field of dark matter are now accepted as fact.
Of course, it’s not easy to theorize and study dark matter, because you can’t see it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. I think the psalmist, in Psalm 138, is astounded at God’s ability to see people who, in the minds of those focused on those who are visibly rich and powerful, aren’t there either: the lowly, the poor, the oppressed, and the persecuted. When we read: For as the Lord is high, he regards the lowly, but the haughty he perceives from far away. (Psalm 138:6) we’re seeing the human universe through God’s perceptive eyes, a theme consistent with both the Old and New Testament, and especially the ministry of Jesus.
*****************************************
StoryShare, February 6, 2022 issue.
Copyright 2022 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
