The USA now has an operational space surveillance radar site on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. According to a report by Sandra Erwin, the U.S. Space Force located in Huntsville, Alabama, can use the $1.5 billion facility to track 26,000 objects in low orbits. Called the Space Fence, the Space Surveillance Network “is revolutionizing the way we view space by providing timely, precise orbital data…[on threatening objects].”* Erwin says the system can track an object the size of a marble. Now, no big deal if a marble-size object falls out of orbit to head at high speed toward you. It will burn up in the atmosphere, and even if it doesn’t, chances are it would land in the ocean. I guess the only reason to keep track of a space marble is to protect rockets, satellites, and the International Space Station. Those objects and astronauts would be jeopardized by a collision with a marble.
Stream of consciousness: “How big’s a marble?” I asked myself, “I mean how big is it actually. I remember having them and playing marbles with cousins and friends in my childhood, but I don’t think I ever pulled out a caliper to measure one’s diameter.” So, I looked up marbles on the ever-ready Web that we all use to fill in the gaps in our knowledge. Seems that marbles come in different sizes, but there’s a standard used in official marble championships. And then I thought, “What would it take to track a marble a little larger than the standard game piece, say a full inch in diameter, from a point on Earth’s surface. What does it take to see a marble far away?”
Then I got to thinking, “What’s that formula for determining the seconds, minutes, or degrees of arc for an astronomical object?” And that led me to some trig, and that made me think, “I don’t want to do this because a marble-size object 100 miles away would look like a marble-size object 100 miles away, really very tiny, too tiny for me to see. I don’t think I could see one on the other end of a football field, even if it were suspended on a string from the goal post’s crossbar.” Guess what next occurred to me? Yeah. Viruses.
The Hubble Space Telescope can magnify at 5,760 power. So, conceivably, if I aimed the Hubble from the ground at a space marble, I could make it appear 5,760 larger; that would make the one-inch marble seem to be 5,760 inches, or 480 feet, in diameter if it were against the telescope lens [too large to take in without panning]. Consider that my math is suspect at best, but the Hubble has a focal length of 57.6 meters and a collecting area of 4.525 square meters. Anyway, and probably wrongly, if you divide the collecting area by the focal length, it should equal the diameter of the marble divided by the distance to the marble. Or conversely, if you saw a marble in orbit through the Hubble, you could guess its diameter by multiplying the distance to the object times its apparent height and dividing by the focal length.
As I was saying without all that unnecessary math stuff, a faraway marble would be visible through the Hubble, and a closeup marble would seem huge. And, if I consider how small viruses are, I might need that kind of magnification to see them. In fact, images of viruses in journals and biology books and on websites show viruses usually magnified 1,000 or more times by scanning electron microscopes. Some images run up to Hubble-like magnifications. **
Wondering, I thought further, “What does it take to magnify a story of danger significantly enough so that people pay attention to their level of jeopardy? I mean, look, back in January we were getting word that a virus was wreaking havoc on the people of Wuhan, China. Then it began to spread. Soon it was devastating South Korea, Italy, and Iran. And yet, the danger itself appeared to be too small for college students or the mayor of New Orleans to cancel celebrations like spring break or the Mardi Gras—even after the virus had entered the country. Golly! [not the word I actually thought] How big does something have to become before people pay attention?”
And then memory of Hurricane Katrina came to mind. I guess the people in New Orleans, hearing that a potential category V storm was bearing down on them, its images revealed on TV weather forecasts, thought, ‘No, not big enough in my view.’ And then in the aftermath of the tragic storm that damaged so much and took so many lives, those who survived looked back under the magnification of their own foolhardy and inept actions, and started to seek scapegoats. Under Katrina and under Covid-19, the scapegoats were presidents. Magnification in hindsight is a magnificent process for thwarting responsibility. So, even though there were warnings about limiting gatherings, neither the college students nor the mayor of New Orleans took decisive action to limit crowds. And now, at the time of this writing, Louisiana has a rapidly spreading Covid-19.
Not that not heeding warnings, even magnified ones, seems to be uncommon: The young are especially adept at ignoring the wisdom of their elders, thus the not too infrequent tales of college students succumbing to alcohol poisoning at fraternity parties or falling from a hotel balcony during spring break.
“Ironic,” I continued to think. “How is it that in an age of news magnification that so few take the news of a threat like a hurricane or a pandemic so lightly? Could 80,000 sick Wuhanese with a 4% death rate not be big news? Could a significant number of deaths in a Seattle care home not be magnification enough for everyone to see? I guess it doesn’t matter how much anyone magnifies a danger, it will pass unnoticed. If Mars were as close as Hubble makes it look, it would appear to be no farther away than the distance between London and Los Angeles. But, I’m guessing that even if some saw red Mars hanging just about 6 or 7 thousand miles above them, they wouldn’t pay attention.”
The network of communication in the twenty-first century is the equivalent of the Space Surveillance Network, but what good is it if, in identifying and magnifying, no one bothers to look? If that space marble heads toward the ISS, NASA will move it to avoid the collision. Makes sense to do so, right? But when the virus-marble headed toward the spring break beaches and Bourbon Street, no one thought to move. Amazing the damage a small object like a marble or a virus can do. Even more amazing is that some in their hubris would stand in place as either approached. Oh! Well. Perspective is everything, I suppose. When he looked at a kid named David holding a pebble, Goliath perceived the threat to be both small and distant, but I guess it took only a pebble to bring down the mighty giant.
*Erwin, Sandra. Space Fence surveillance radar site declared operational. 28 Mar 2020. SpaceNews. Online at https://spacenews.com/space-fence-surveillance-radar-site-declared-operational/ Accessed March 28, 2020.
**https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=sz&hsimp=yhs-001&type=type7094303-sv7 dGFnVTExMjgyNTgtc2VhcmNoc2VjdXJl-c019059c6b2431d574b15685d1d3c3e0¶m1=20674¶m3=145&p=images%20of%20viruses¶m2=eyJzZXJwR2VvUmVkIjoieWVzIiwiZXh0VGFncyI6W10sImJyb3dzZXJOYW1lIjoiQ2hyb21lIiwiYnJvd3NlclZlcnNpb24iOiI4MC4wLjM5ODcuMTIyIiwiZXh0VmVyc2lvbiI6Imhvc3RlZCIsImV4dE5hbWUiOiJTZWFyY2ggU2VjdXJlIFByaW1lIiwiY2xpY2tTcmMiOiJ5aHNfc3luIiwiY2hyb21lU3RvcmVJZCI6ImdpaG9mZ2xubnBpZGdhbWpva2FhZWtwamhpZGVkaGVkIiwiRGlzdHJpYnV0aW9uX0RhdGUiOiIyMDE5LTA2LTAzVDAxOjU0OjQ4LjAwMDAwMFoiLCJkb21haW4iOiJ3d3cuc2VhcmNoc2VjdXJlcHJpbWUuY28iLCJvclNyYyI6Im9tbmlib3giLCJoZmV3IjpudWxsLCJyZXZfc3JjIjoiMSIsImlzUmVsZWFzZSI6IjAiLCJ3cmtyIjoxfQ&fromworker=1
Stream of consciousness: “How big’s a marble?” I asked myself, “I mean how big is it actually. I remember having them and playing marbles with cousins and friends in my childhood, but I don’t think I ever pulled out a caliper to measure one’s diameter.” So, I looked up marbles on the ever-ready Web that we all use to fill in the gaps in our knowledge. Seems that marbles come in different sizes, but there’s a standard used in official marble championships. And then I thought, “What would it take to track a marble a little larger than the standard game piece, say a full inch in diameter, from a point on Earth’s surface. What does it take to see a marble far away?”
Then I got to thinking, “What’s that formula for determining the seconds, minutes, or degrees of arc for an astronomical object?” And that led me to some trig, and that made me think, “I don’t want to do this because a marble-size object 100 miles away would look like a marble-size object 100 miles away, really very tiny, too tiny for me to see. I don’t think I could see one on the other end of a football field, even if it were suspended on a string from the goal post’s crossbar.” Guess what next occurred to me? Yeah. Viruses.
The Hubble Space Telescope can magnify at 5,760 power. So, conceivably, if I aimed the Hubble from the ground at a space marble, I could make it appear 5,760 larger; that would make the one-inch marble seem to be 5,760 inches, or 480 feet, in diameter if it were against the telescope lens [too large to take in without panning]. Consider that my math is suspect at best, but the Hubble has a focal length of 57.6 meters and a collecting area of 4.525 square meters. Anyway, and probably wrongly, if you divide the collecting area by the focal length, it should equal the diameter of the marble divided by the distance to the marble. Or conversely, if you saw a marble in orbit through the Hubble, you could guess its diameter by multiplying the distance to the object times its apparent height and dividing by the focal length.
As I was saying without all that unnecessary math stuff, a faraway marble would be visible through the Hubble, and a closeup marble would seem huge. And, if I consider how small viruses are, I might need that kind of magnification to see them. In fact, images of viruses in journals and biology books and on websites show viruses usually magnified 1,000 or more times by scanning electron microscopes. Some images run up to Hubble-like magnifications. **
Wondering, I thought further, “What does it take to magnify a story of danger significantly enough so that people pay attention to their level of jeopardy? I mean, look, back in January we were getting word that a virus was wreaking havoc on the people of Wuhan, China. Then it began to spread. Soon it was devastating South Korea, Italy, and Iran. And yet, the danger itself appeared to be too small for college students or the mayor of New Orleans to cancel celebrations like spring break or the Mardi Gras—even after the virus had entered the country. Golly! [not the word I actually thought] How big does something have to become before people pay attention?”
And then memory of Hurricane Katrina came to mind. I guess the people in New Orleans, hearing that a potential category V storm was bearing down on them, its images revealed on TV weather forecasts, thought, ‘No, not big enough in my view.’ And then in the aftermath of the tragic storm that damaged so much and took so many lives, those who survived looked back under the magnification of their own foolhardy and inept actions, and started to seek scapegoats. Under Katrina and under Covid-19, the scapegoats were presidents. Magnification in hindsight is a magnificent process for thwarting responsibility. So, even though there were warnings about limiting gatherings, neither the college students nor the mayor of New Orleans took decisive action to limit crowds. And now, at the time of this writing, Louisiana has a rapidly spreading Covid-19.
Not that not heeding warnings, even magnified ones, seems to be uncommon: The young are especially adept at ignoring the wisdom of their elders, thus the not too infrequent tales of college students succumbing to alcohol poisoning at fraternity parties or falling from a hotel balcony during spring break.
“Ironic,” I continued to think. “How is it that in an age of news magnification that so few take the news of a threat like a hurricane or a pandemic so lightly? Could 80,000 sick Wuhanese with a 4% death rate not be big news? Could a significant number of deaths in a Seattle care home not be magnification enough for everyone to see? I guess it doesn’t matter how much anyone magnifies a danger, it will pass unnoticed. If Mars were as close as Hubble makes it look, it would appear to be no farther away than the distance between London and Los Angeles. But, I’m guessing that even if some saw red Mars hanging just about 6 or 7 thousand miles above them, they wouldn’t pay attention.”
The network of communication in the twenty-first century is the equivalent of the Space Surveillance Network, but what good is it if, in identifying and magnifying, no one bothers to look? If that space marble heads toward the ISS, NASA will move it to avoid the collision. Makes sense to do so, right? But when the virus-marble headed toward the spring break beaches and Bourbon Street, no one thought to move. Amazing the damage a small object like a marble or a virus can do. Even more amazing is that some in their hubris would stand in place as either approached. Oh! Well. Perspective is everything, I suppose. When he looked at a kid named David holding a pebble, Goliath perceived the threat to be both small and distant, but I guess it took only a pebble to bring down the mighty giant.
*Erwin, Sandra. Space Fence surveillance radar site declared operational. 28 Mar 2020. SpaceNews. Online at https://spacenews.com/space-fence-surveillance-radar-site-declared-operational/ Accessed March 28, 2020.
**https://search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=sz&hsimp=yhs-001&type=type7094303-sv7 dGFnVTExMjgyNTgtc2VhcmNoc2VjdXJl-c019059c6b2431d574b15685d1d3c3e0¶m1=20674¶m3=145&p=images%20of%20viruses¶m2=eyJzZXJwR2VvUmVkIjoieWVzIiwiZXh0VGFncyI6W10sImJyb3dzZXJOYW1lIjoiQ2hyb21lIiwiYnJvd3NlclZlcnNpb24iOiI4MC4wLjM5ODcuMTIyIiwiZXh0VmVyc2lvbiI6Imhvc3RlZCIsImV4dE5hbWUiOiJTZWFyY2ggU2VjdXJlIFByaW1lIiwiY2xpY2tTcmMiOiJ5aHNfc3luIiwiY2hyb21lU3RvcmVJZCI6ImdpaG9mZ2xubnBpZGdhbWpva2FhZWtwamhpZGVkaGVkIiwiRGlzdHJpYnV0aW9uX0RhdGUiOiIyMDE5LTA2LTAzVDAxOjU0OjQ4LjAwMDAwMFoiLCJkb21haW4iOiJ3d3cuc2VhcmNoc2VjdXJlcHJpbWUuY28iLCJvclNyYyI6Im9tbmlib3giLCJoZmV3IjpudWxsLCJyZXZfc3JjIjoiMSIsImlzUmVsZWFzZSI6IjAiLCJ3cmtyIjoxfQ&fromworker=1
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