Dark Matter and Other Wonders of the Universe
Open Letter from Vera Rubin: Dark Matter and Other Wonders of the Universe (in which the poet imagines to be the astronomer Vera Rubin)* As a child, I wondered how the moon knew to follow us home. I wondered if bright burning comets visited other worlds like ours. There were nights, when I was certain The tolling of a distant galactic clock woke me— The stars outside my window had spun across the sky. In truth, everything: our planet, the window, and I had moved. Yet I perceived myself as still, and safe in bed. These thoughts made me dizzy with desire To see it all spinning, and spinning From a distant place outside our galaxy. To watch the heavens is to be an astronomer. Copernicus looked with naked eye, and Galileo proved with telescopic observations, The Earth orbits the Sun, not the other way around. Johannes Kepler observed the planets Farther from the sun orbit slower Than planets closer in, but why? Sir Isaac Newton late