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'Distant' Outer Space in Driving Range

Posted on: Friday, 28 July 2006, 03:00 CDT

By John Goss ecoacres@rbnet.com

As we go about our earthly business, we scarcely pay any attention to what's going on above our heads. Outer space seems so very far away. Is it really?

Noted British astronomer Fred Hoyle, who first coined the term "The Big Bang" as a disparaging description of a theorized expansion of the universe, once was asked how far away space is. He reportedly said, "Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards."

Let's do just that and take a drive straight up at 65 mph on the imaginary Interstate 81 vertical spur, the Outer Spaceway. Keep this in mind: there are no rest stops and no gas stations along our route.

Nearly all life on Earth lives beneath an elevation of four miles. We quickly pass through this thin life zone in four minutes. In two more minutes, we poke above any remaining cloud layers and cut through airline flight paths.

One hour after leaving Roanoke below, we are in the realm of meteors at an altitude of 65 miles. These disintegrating fragments of cometary dust zip by us at an incredible speed of 30 miles per second -- 1,600 times faster than our perpendicular climb. Back home, when you see the Perseid meteors in the early morning hours of Aug. 13, this is where they'll be.

Here is also where Mr. Hoyle once thought space began. However, careful measurements now indicate that we have not yet completely left our atmosphere behind. For that, we have another eight hours of vertical driving ahead!

If we time our passage just right, some 3

sup>1/

sub>2 hours after leaving the Roanoke Valley we might see the International Space Station cruise by us at an altitude of 225 miles. This huge satellite actually passes directly over southwest Virginia fairly often on its 90 minute trip circling the Earth.

We go higher still. In another three hours, we reach the same distance above the Earth at which the Hubble Space Telescope orbits - - 325 miles. Even at this height, drag from the few remaining air molecules brings the big telescope continually closer to the Earth's surface. To avoid an untimely fiery death, every couple of years the space shuttle pushes it back up 25 miles. This hasn't happened in four years. The Hubble won't stay up there forever.

Nine hours after we began our ascent on the Outer Spaceway, we reach 600 miles and our destination -- the edge of space. At this point, the incomprehensible vastness of outer space begins and keeps going for another 100 sextillion miles -- that's 100 followed by 21 zeroes -- to the boundary of the observable universe!

It's now another nine hours straight down to Roanoke. Let's hope our brakes hold!

Once we're back on terra firma, consider these four marathon trips: 153 days to the moon, 193 years to Mercury, 263 years to Venus, and 3,000 years to Saturn. Think about that at 6 a.m. Aug. 20, 21, and 22 while you enjoy the east-northeast sky view.

During the third week of August, Venus shines prominently above the brightening horizon. If the sky is especially clear, two flickering objects, Saturn and Mercury, are just below it. Try binoculars to locate them and use the very thin crescent moon as a guide on the 22nd.

Although it's a little farther than Mr. Hoyle believed, outer space awaits us just a few hours straight up. Are you ready for a midsummer road trip on the Outer Spaceway?

Source: Roanoke Times & World News

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