Musings on Time, and Space, and Tessering....

 

By Marilyn Moore

That first stunning photo from the James Webb telescope, known as Webb’s First Deep Field, brought it all back.  Tessering, I thought….my God (and I don’t say that lightly), Madeleine L’Engle knew it, got it, and told it.  I was right back in my Basic Studies classroom at Goodrich Middle School, beginning to teach A Wrinkle in Time to sixth and seventh graders, attempting to explain the concept of “tessering.”  A fifth-dimensional concept, wrinkling time so as to transcend space.  Which is what Meg and Charles Wallace and Calvin did as they traveled across space and time to find and rescue Meg’s and Charles Wallace’s father who was experimenting with tesseracts and who is stranded on the planet Comazoz. They are led and nudged by Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which, and comforted by Aunt Beast.  And in the end, love triumphs… As John, sixth-grader with deep insight, said as we finished reading the book, “What a good story.”  And that it is….

In some way, because of her deep and rich reading in science and because of the spiritual being that she was, Madeleine L’Engle imagined a least a fragment of what we see today in this image.  The deepest look into space ever, galaxies upon galaxies upon galaxies.  A galaxy cluster as it appeared 4.6 billion years ago, and light that had traveled from one far distant galaxy 13.1 billion years before the image was captured on the Webb mirrors.  Not only are we not alone, we are in the company of untold magnificence.

I remember a time in high school physics class making a strongly asserted opinion that the universe was not infinite, that there had to be an end to it somewhere.  My teacher wisely challenged that assertion, with the questioning skills that all good teachers have.  My argument was weak, which I knew as soon as I uttered the words, but I stuck with it.  Adolescents do foolish things at times, and taking an improbable position with absolutely no facts to back it up is one such foolish thing.  From that time on, I’ve searched for greater understanding of the infinity of the universe.  Here is the next chapter…and what a chapter it is.

I’m struck by one line from the NASA website…well, I’m struck by all of it.  (And thanks to NASA for making these stunning images available to star gazers everywhere.)  But this line…"Webb’s MIRI image offers a kaleidoscope of colors and highlights where the dust is – a major ingredient for star formation, and ultimately life itself.”  You’ve heard that we’re all created from star dust; here’s an image of our origin.

If you’re looking at the image, the red objects are the ones that are enshrouded in thick layers of dust. Points of light?  Points of life?  Way beyond me to speculate with any knowledge basis at all, but I know the scientists are doing just that, analyzing data, applying theory, asking questions.  Most importantly, asking questions, seeking answers to questions they don’t even know exist…what a time to be an astrophysicist!    

I love hearing the energy and the wonder in the voices of those who have imagined, built, and launched the James Webb telescope.  Decades in the making, many failures and do-overs along the way, then the persistence to try again, try another way.  Then the launch, and the long wait for the first images.  Then – dramatic, shattering, mind-blowing wonder!  And their language reveals the deep understanding they have and the deep regard in which they hold the infinite universe.  They speak of stars, and galaxies, being born, and dying.  They give life to what I have thought are inanimate objects…they cause me to re-think life itself.  Dust, a major ingredient in star formation, and ultimately in life itself…at the core of our being is star dust.  Of course we're star gazers, seeking to know, deeply and intensely, from where we came....

Back to A Wrinkle in Time.  I really worked at teaching the concept of “tessering.”  It was a challenging concept for me, so very abstract, so dependent on physics, which is my weak point in the sciences.  But I had words, I had drawings, I had three-dimensional objects, I had metaphors, all useful tools in teaching abstract concepts.  I quickly realized my students didn’t need any of those.  They thought it was cool, it made the story work, and they didn’t need to know the mechanics to appreciate the concept.  When I looked at Webb’s First Deep Field, and read the accompanying explanation, I brought the best of my conceptual understanding of time and space to the awe-filled images, light that is billions of years old, and galaxies and stars that are being born, and dying, right in front of us.  I realized I couldn’t quite wrap my brain around what I was seeing.  But my soul could get there, seeing and knowing truth and wonder.