Q&A with Ryan Wyatt

We don’t know exactly, but we’ve got some good ideas. Dark matter shows up in the influence it has on the universe around us. It’s mysterious, but we’re quite certain it’s there. Its influence drove the formation of structure in the universe. So, because we have dark matter, we have regions that are dense enough to form stars, planets, and galaxies. If it weren’t for this weird, esoteric stuff that we don’t entirely understand, we wouldn’t be here. And I think that’s a pretty amazing thing.

No, it’s not something that drives me. Take 2001: A Space Odyssey—that’s a movie I’ve always enjoyed, but it’s perfectly fine to see a video stream of Jupiter rather than go there. The film Contact explores some powerful notions, too. And just to flip the idea, Buckminster Fuller once wrote that we’re all astronauts on Spaceship Earth. So we’re traveling through space right now!

Hmm ... that’s tough. I’d have to say Captain Jean-Luc Picard, but that’s because I’m a fan of the actor Patrick Stewart. Of course, there’s an interesting interplay between science fiction and science discovery. They do reinforce each other.

In 2013, Google Earth [in collaboration with NASA and the NOAA] released a sequence they called the “Black Marble”—very high-res images of Earth at night that they stitched together from multiple satellite images. There was an amazing variety of things you could see: nighttime light from cities, of course, but also from oil rigs in the Middle East and fishing boats in the China Seas, places where, like in western North Dakota, the excess natural gas from fracking was being burned off. There were many surprises when you zoomed into the details.

You can visit the website of the International Dark-Sky Association and learn more. I’m impressed that they’ve retooled their message; it’s not only about preserving the night sky, but also about preserving energy and ways to create safer and healthier environments for people who live in urban and suburban areas.

If the love of the night sky motivates you, join a local astronomy group. People who share that passion will welcome you with open arms. But if you want to be a practicing astronomer, you do have to be confident of your math skills.

Perseverance! You have to apply yourself to the mathematics, physics, and computer science at this point. No science happens without hard work and the investment of time and energy.

Yes, absolutely, I think there’s a good chance that there’s life elsewhere in the Solar System. Whether it shares a genetic heritage with us or not, I won’t hazard to guess. But if and when we find it, it will likely be microbial. Or, in the case of exploration on Mars, it might be dead.

Either way, there’s a very good chance that the fundamental process of life has at least started elsewhere in the galaxy. When you start to multiply that by the number of stars and planets that we know about, the idea that there’s some form of microbial life out there seems an almost certain bet.