Our little research into astronomy now carries us into the eighth letter of the alphabet, ‘H’. We’ll see what promises it holds for us.

For hundreds of years man has been blig­hted by the questions: what are we? Where did we come from? Are we alone in the universe? What is the universe after all?

Not that the Early Man did not ask these questions. He did. But answers came in accordance with his understanding of his surroundings, intellect, varying religious beliefs, etc,. It took him untold thousands of years, and various human forms before the answers acceptable to average human perceptions were found. The struggle for the right answers continues to this day albeit on scientific lines.

It is essential for us to appreciate our station in life, which originates from the unique position we enjoy on this planet. It has been well known for good two centuries that there is no life rivalling us in the Solar System, and far, far beyond. Planet Mars came close to being perceived as having one when wrong translations of a few Italian words were construed to mean something related to life. This was soon refuted, and planet Earth continued to have the monopoly, as it does to this day. And it will in the foreseeable future.

Every planet has its own unique features. The Earth harbours life and appears blue and green from space. For the billions of years it took to assume different forms and shapes, planet Earth remains the only place in our Solar System for life to proliferate to the present extent.

We will end up where we are going if we do not change direction. — Chinese Proverb, circa 6BC

Whether there is life elsewhere or not, it is astronomy’s prime responsibility to resolve. If we probe deeper into this issue we note that developed human life came to the planet fairly late in the day as compared to other forms of life. The branch of science that deals with the origins of life, and its gradual but irrevocable spread all over the planet falls under the purview of astronomy.

Proceeding on letter H of the alphabet we come across the creme de la creme:

Homo sapiens sapiens: Latin words meaning, “Man the wise, wise”. It is astronomy’s hallmark, crowning achievement to confirm the position of the Earth as the only place in the Solar System to have human life. Let us take a close look at the star of astronomy, Homo sapiens sapiens, or ‘modern man’.

Modern man has been competing with the animal kingdom for centuries, and continues to do so to this day. He has also been competing with the forces of nature, subjugating many of them to his advantage. We note that compared to his predecessors such as Neanderthal, Cro-Magnon, habilis, erectus and many others, he is decidedly superior.

Homo sapiens sapiens showed promise early on: they were hunters, cooked their meals, wore clothes of animal hides and made wooden tools. They migrated when the need required of them to do so. They communicated verbally, though the spoken language was still distant, and written one still a long way into the future. The most important was his brain size. With a capacity of 1200-1600cc, he easily led the pack. Thus the thinking being was bound to succeed where others fell by the wayside and he quickly overtook the other creatures.

The slow but sure graduation of this human-like form (hominid: man-like) appears to have evolved into the now-famous Neanderthal Man, a sub-species of man who evolved separately from the rest of them. He resembled modern man very much, except for his shorter height. I have seen a few Neanderthal persons in Sweden and Italy. But Neanderthals suddenly disappeared about 40,000 years ago, leaving no trace. One wonders why, how and where such a formidable being could have vanished without leaving a trace. It is assumed that the Cro-Magnon replaced him. This fellow left many paintings in the caves of Spain, France, Morroco and the Sahara.

The interesting point is that these ‘men’ would not have developed through evolution, again lasting millions of years had it not been for the benign aspects of astronomy — the Sun is at just the right distance from the Earth, which is tilted, a permitting change of seasons and a protective layer of benign gases shielding us from the lethal ultra-violet rays of the sun. Changing seasons are very helpful too: no other star lies nearby to disturb its pattern (Proxima/Alpha Centaurii notwithstanding, they are too far away to hurt us).

Some other lesser factors cumulatively have made the birth, and proliferation of life, and foods it inevitably needs, easy. As it has over the past billions of years — right from the time when the first single cell developed into a multi-cellular life form.

Published in Dawn, Young World, November 5th, 2016