I attended an astronomy lecture the other night, and had a piece of awareness drop in a very unexpected way while listening to the speaker.
She was discussing results from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope that were possible due to the use of infrared sensors. She gave a short primer on the discovery of infrared light before hurrying on to her more pertinent data... and while I was interested throughout her lecture, I confess that I was taken with the idea of infrared and began drawing parallels to our relationships with the departed.
First, I will share an abbreviated history of infrared.
Sir Frederick William Herschel (1738-1822) discovered infrared by accident.
He had noticed that when he held his prism to the light that the rainbow spectrum seemed to have
different heat related to color. He devised a clever experiment to
investigate his hypothesis.
Herschel's experiment led to the
discovery of infrared light, AND it was the first time that
someone showed that there were forms of light that we cannot see with
our eyes. We now know that there are diverse types of light that we cannot see
and that the visible colors are only a very small part of the entire range of
light which we call the electromagnetic spectrum.
It makes it possible to see things like this:
The picture on the left is a normal telescope's image. On the right is what infrared can divulge.
It made me think a lot about our beloved departed and their apparent absence in our lives. Perhaps, they could present in ways not detectable to us. Perhaps it merely takes a altered viewpoint to become aware of them.
I wish I had a telescope that revealed what lies beyond the veil...
I wish I had a telescope that revealed what lies beyond the veil...
Love,
Kim